Brian Eno

Here Comes the Warm Jets (1973)


Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy) (1973)


Another Green World (1975)


Before and After Science (1977)

I almost feel like I bit off more than I can chew here. Reviewing these three albums all at once requires something of a literary light, some flash from on high, to even minutely grab the scope of this music. These may be three of the best albums ever written in the pop music format, and by "format" i dont mean that there is a format. Hardly that. Eno essentially took the previous format of pop and art rock (laid forth in part by his previous band, Roxy Music) and pissed all over it. Danced on it, and did a jig and then composed a symphony on its dead and ragged form.

Eno is a genius. Every sound he has ever come across has been given intense scrutinization and intense "Treatments", as it were... I really dont even feel comfortable describing these discs...

Suffice it to say, Here Comes the Warm Jets is the most straightforward, in terms of Pop Sensibility and linear though, if you can even call it that. His stream of conciousness lyrics are something of a quandary, and while I am sure there is intended meaning behind them, it seems as if they can form numerous images and outcomes.

Taking Tiger Mountain adds a good deal of trickery and electronics to an already spaced out formula. Some of his best songs are on here (Burning Airlines, Third Uncle, True Wheel etc etc.) and it is clear here where almost every quirky indie-pop band has taken a page from his book. Yet no one, regardless of 30 years time, has ever one-upped Enos sound, in style and execution.

Another Green World is the most somber of the bunch, and it is a clear indicator of his upcoming journey into ambient soundscapes. It still retains some very good pop melody and that what tethers this album , but also gives it that uniquess that has yet to be only scraped by Boards of Canada in their most subdued. A good deal of the songs are simply analong synth washes, backed with some simple keyboard and a light rhythm here and there. The few actual songs (St Elmos Fire, I'll Come Running and Golden Hours) are some of his best as well and, patched together with the alien soundscapes of Sky Saw, The Big Ship and Sombre Reptile, it makes for an extremely other worldly tapestry of sounds that is at once sensible, dense, breezy and abstract.

If you like experimental music, I suggest you try all three of these. With any luck you will be completely blow away now and for years to come...