I'm quite surprised about lots of the reactions about EGG. It has always been one of my favourite NO songs, perhaps because I bought it when it came out and I was still "forming" my musical tastes. My mates all took the piss out of it and out of me for listening to it. But I stuck to my guns and 26 years later most of them still agree it's a good track. I actually played it at my 40th birthday party to great reactions.
We used to have lots chin scratching discussions about whether Procession or EGG was better. For me it was EGG (I love Procession equally, though) because I was just always fascinated by synthesizers and sequencers and tight programmed rythmns. In fact I still like to mess about with my old arpeggiators- pity I don't have an ARP Quadra though!
Agree with all the comments about early live versions where the lyrics, melody and structure were developing (I really love it that NewOrder were happy to let a song evolve live over a period of time) And I really love to hear sequed versions of EGG and Temptation on bootlegs
EGG is just pure class really. Preferable to Temptation IMHO 