Egyptology by World Party

Egyptology, World Party's fourth studio album, arrived in 1997, and as ever the band was mostly one man: Karl Wallinger, the songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist who had started the project in London in 1985 after leaving the Waterboys. Following Bang!, it's a record of big-hearted, warmly crafted pop-rock with Wallinger's hand on every dial.

It gave him a Top 40 single in Britain with "Beautiful Dream", and "She's The One" won an Ivor Novello Award; Robbie Williams later took his own version to number one in the UK in 1999. That cover mattered more than any trophy. After Wallinger's aneurysm in 2000, he said the money from it kept him going for years. The album itself sold less than its predecessors, and a falling-out with his label meant the next World Party record, Dumbing Up, came out on Wallinger's own Seaview label. Egyptology was reissued on CD in 2006 and on double vinyl in 2022, with a side of unreleased live recordings from New York in 1997.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.