by Scott Yohe
It’s been seven years since indie-rock band Battle Ave. have released an album. In these long seven years a lot has changed, and yet Battle Ave. remains consistent in their sound on I Saw The Egg. They are still the mature band they have always been, still making the soothing yet exciting music they are known for. There is a lot subtlety found in this album but if you listen closely and attentively you will be amazed by what can be found on I Saw The Egg. Battle Ave. create an unmatched welcoming atmosphere of delicacy with the perfect album to relax and brood or think introspectively with.
The album opens with “Ring,” which itself opens with Jesse Dohetry’s newborn child crying while attempting to be calmed by him and his wife. It is these small details that you might miss if you aren’t paying attention but they perfectly set the tone of the album. The song is sparse and leaves room for the listener to nuzzle in close, to prepare to be totally engulfed in things to come. Transitioning into “Temple,” we see where the band are headed with this album via a slow burning indie rock song with lyrics that tug right on the heartstrings. Lyrics like “bird, don't cry / my kid's gonna be alright / put it back into the light” create such vivid imagery that one can ruminate endlessly on. The song closes with the central question of “are you a temple?” and the answer sadly being “no”. The honesty and vulnerability needed to admit that is hard, but it is something that needs to be appreciated.
“Fool” offers the same honesty because it opens, funnily enough, with the lyric, “I wouldn’t say I was the honest one.” It takes a lot to admit that you are a fool and that you can be dishonest but Battle Ave. realizes the importance of being able to admit your faults. “Core,” a short song with very few lyrics gets right to the point creating beautiful imagery with so few words, while “Nite Lite,” which was released as a different version in 2017 on the compilation S.F.R. 101, has been reimagined to become a completely new beast. This is a better produced version, with a central theme of not being a “night light,” or any sort of beacon of hope, with allusions to the poem The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope.
On the title track, we get a dream-like vision of seeing “the egg crack” and it being you. We all break sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with that but you have to be emotionally honest to admit it. All the songs in between “I Saw The Egg” and the final song “Tower” offer something magical themselves. With callbacks to the title song, the closer ends every verse with “I saw the egg crack/ it was you” before asking this person “how do you keep towering?” which brings the idea of someone being an ever present thing in your life always standing above you.
All of the instrumentals on the album fit perfectly with lyrics. There is never a wasted moment. For an album that offers a lot of room for the listener, there is always something interesting going on. The guitars delve into a mix of indie rock and post-rock, the bass thumps along the entire time, and the percussion takes the feeling of a “marching band,” per the band. There are saxophones and piano all over the album. There is plenty for the listener to focus on besides the lyrics, and always something new to pay attention to. Its easy to get lost in the music if you just listen and let it become part of you. The fact that all the groundwork for the album was recorded in only three days is an achievement in its own right.
The reason I Saw The Egg is an important and worthwhile album to spend your time with is its honesty. It isn't trying to be something it's not, it knows what it is and presents itself as straightforwardly as possible. In a sea of releases everyday it can be hard to stop and pay attention to the things that matter. This isn’t an album to just listen to and move on, it’s an album that invites you to come and sit down with it, to get vulnerable with it. I Saw The Egg is a triumph because it shows a band that is willing to be 100% emotionally honest and wants the listener to do the same.