pip install gives "Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1"

Upgrade setuptools using pip

The version of python-setuptools in the package repository of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is out-of-date / unmaintained. Upgrade it with pip instead of relying on the package manager:

$ sudo pip install --upgrade setuptools

Updating setuptools did not resolve my issue. However, telling pip to upgrade itself did.

The following command resolved my issue (from this answer)

pip install --upgrade pip

Solution I took for my own question: the answers proposed did not solve the issue, so I ended up using conda, creating a specific environment for the package I needed, and this worked! This is not the best solution, especially as it requires to install a parallel version (thou one can use miniconda for space) but is a practical one!