Brian Eno "Another Day on Earth"

pm me, my sn is Frankie_Teardrop

Listening to the aforementioned string section (poorly--and thus wonderfully--arranged as always) on "How Many Worlds", I'm tempted to wonder what an Acoustic Eno record might sound like.

After Drawn From Life (not to mention The Drop or fucking Passengers), I was just not going to buy this or anything else, I heard 'This' and it left me alone, but most of the reviews I saw seemed so clueless or casual in their dismissal, they pushed me, and I'm glad they did...

I like it much more than anything since Wrong Way Up. Some tracks stumble, but even in casual digital auto-production mode it's nice to hear his melodies again. Perhaps there's no one perfect track like "Spinning Away" but there's a consistent melancholy theme on this record that makes it hold together in a way that is kind of keeping me company.

Playing again now, definitely more than a handful of nice songs. I like "Under" a lot more this time than I did on the box, too.

The strings are still Nell Catchpole, same violinist from Wrong Way Up & Cobalt Blue, and it's good to hear her. (Also cool to hear one of Brad Laner's minimal pulses used on one track).

there was an interview disc that came out with Wrong Way Up where he answers the question 'why return to writing an album of songs' by talking about the birth of his daughter and seeing her just made all the intellectual games he enjoyed constructing around the making of music seem irrelevant and silly to him. At the time, I thought 'damn, another soldier lost to the reproductive cycle' or something... Eno had always made a point of writing about anything but love or his 'feelings', when he turned that corner into the 90's I couldn't find the point of those albums... I can hear the center of this one though.

"Bone Bomb" is pretty creepy, though. Anyone know what it's supposed to be about/influenced by?

I hear you, but I'm more inclined to think that he's never really figured out how to use that time well in a digital environment. Part of me wonders whether his talents are better served by equipment that's more unpredictable — whether digital gear sort of undermines his more aleatory insticts, forcing him to rely more exclusively on craftsmanship, which was never really his strength.

"These articles were on the same page, and I thought what a combination of tragedies these represent, so I wrote the song with words from the articles," Eno said.

http://www.sptimesrussia.com/archive/times/1075/features/a_15894.htm

also, as long as I'm linking, I appreciated this one: http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2003/0120/cover/view_eno.html

moley linked a great Eno grouse against digital gear here, but I wouldn't blame the equipment too much, he'd figure out how to make it break if he wanted to.

I suppose -- or maybe he'd just rather beat on the thing until he got the results he wanted out of it. Regardless, and for whatever reason, the evidence strongly suggests that there's some disconnect between what's going on in his head (plenty, it would seem) and what's coming out of his fingers (at best, less). The result is that his work since around Thursday Afternoon has lacked warmth and character.

I wonder what he'd say about it.

Alfred, how can you leave out "And Then So Clear"? The melody, esp. as delivered by the vocoder, is really aching — and the arrangment so wiltingly melancholy.

I guess I'm starting to be won over by the kind of overwhelming sadness of the record, despite everybody's poo-pooing of it (even my own! — initially, anyway). On the records and in the press, he really sounds like a beaten man. In contrast to his raised political and charitable profile and all, it seems like he's feeling increasingly powerless these days — that he's suddenly found himself, this big successful musician, detached from all the terrible things going on in the world. And at the same time, all of his brave ideas in the 70's have been swallowed up whole and spit out by the purposeless likes of Coldplay. You just figure the guy is exactly where he always wanted to be, yet somehow things didn't turn out the way he imagined.

I dunno — I'm not prepared to rank it up there with Before and After Science or anything, but all this does lend a resonance to the thing. The lyrics in particular.

I've been listening to quite a bit this week, it's resonating for me too, for many of the same reasons you're mentioning. he was never the world's humblest man, and it hits you to hear him making something modest, world weary, home cooked.

I think it's kind of interesting that the first vocals record in 15 years by an artist of his magnitude has garnered so little discussion on ILM.

Don't get me wrong, he has worked well with Cale (on "Hobo Sapiens") and on Robert Wyatt's last few records, but there doesn't seem to be much worth getting excited about in the man's own material, whereas as is so rightly argued, he was a titan in the 1970s...

either that or naive teen idol is on to something - it may be more that he has been absorbed or rendered invisible by the very pop culture that is so indebted to him. it's like a reverse warhol or something. i personally wish the guy would write another book. i haven't heard this album yet, but i'm certainly intrigued by the commentary on this thread. last thing i like by eno was the bell studies album. the graphic design of the cover art was brilliant, too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/mixingit/pip/58m0d/

This new album is amazing. It took me a couple listens to get over the critical reception and realize to my surprise I like it better than his first two vocal albums, if not as much as Another Green World and Before and After Science. It's kind of inspirational somehow when an artist releases one of his best albums 25 years plus into his career.

Real Eno bias on the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/anyquestions.shtml

I also agree that Eno has transformed projects he's worked on into solo records ("Achtung Baby," "Laid," etc. - certainly "Zooropa," "Passengers," "Wah Wah"). Wasn't the famously the start of the rift between he and Byrne, over songwriting credits and the feeling that Eno was just using the Talking Heads as his backing band? Anyway, to hear a great example of Eno is the song he co-wrote with Bryan Ferry that closes the latter's last record.

Anyway, the new album is indeed very homecooked, and I suspect much of it is drawn from his vast archives of unreleased material - the previously (though not widely) released "Under" certainly is, and I read an interview with Eno where he said it was writing lyrics that proved the hold-up. But most of it is very pretty, even if it's ultimately pretty unexceptional. Which is to say, every time I've heard it I've found it very moving, but I never put it on. It is on my iPod, though. Intriguing contradictions it imposes on my listening habits.

how so? a few people on here seem to really dislike Drawn From Life, but its definitely one of my favorites. I'd be interested to hear what you think is better about the new one - maybe it will help me appreciate it better ^_^

And then, suddenly the rug of comfort is pulled out from under one's feet with track eleven - "Bonebomb" - a stunning slap in the face to bring us back to the unutterable "nowness" of life in 2005. In the current climate it is too shocking to listen to repeatedly, but must be heard once. Perhaps all the more startling as the backing track could well be Mike Oldfield.

someday, we'll put it all behind
we'll say, it was just another time
we'll say, it was just another day on earth

eno's reputation for absurdity and tactful understatement suggests that regarding 9/11 as some epochal day we should base everything on isn't his MESSAGE, but you never know, he's in his 50s now and has seen some things

Replace the pejorative "recycles" with "uses" and I'll agree with you. So what if it sounds similar to other stuff he's done, though? The overall impact is very different, unsettling in a more subtle way. Everything sounds more fragile, and more definitely situated in relation to a big uncertain world outside the album itself.

It's engaging but just in a different way. Haven't decided whether this or Drawn from Life is better. I do have some quibbles though - 'This' sounds like a Wrong Way Up outtake and doesn't really fit with the rest of the record. And he should really stop designing his own packaging.

Final verdict: I'm just grateful it wasn't another Drop.

seconding naive teen idol about how nobody is mentioning the beauty of "and then so clear." sounds so great when you turn it up... really warm bass and then the double-tracking of the vocals... one with vocoder, the other plain, is simply amazing.

i also keep listening to "bone bomb" over and over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFAH2cnNlMk

so many people shrugged their shoulders at this but i love it almost as much as the first four "vocal" albums

Me too!