Brian Eno - C or D?

Yeah, it's a good one. Eno is easy to talk to. Very engaged.

only "the ship" is available on spotify but it's awesome

It's lovely, one of Lou's best songs.

Eno has amassed an awful lot of cultural credibility and "I'm Set Free" is a nice song, and the line "I'm set free to find a new illusion" is vaguely profound, but this is about as exciting as Jad Fair doing a Shaggs cover or whatever. So Eno won't sing for like a billion years, and then he decides that VU karaoke is the best way to channel his talents?

I thought he recorded it 12 years ago?

Sorry, one billion - 12 years.

That's better.

So Eno won't sing for like a billion years, and then he decides that VU karaoke is the best way to channel his talents?
i know what you're saying, but still -- this cover is really nice.

i thought there were vocals all over the album. he can't throw in a cover of a song from his favorite album?

I've been listening to covers of "I'm Set Free" and am pretty sure that none of them are bad. Like, if you can't successfully cover I'm Set Free there should be an agency that takes away your hands and vocal chords, because you aren't qualified to perform music. Failure to adequately perform I'm Set Free is up there with inability to sing Happy Birthday.

So?

I've never heard a cover of "I'm Set Free" tbh.

only other one i can think of off hand is yo la tengo's ... which is also good! it's a great song, true.

I mean, I'm not saying I don't like the Eno version. Don't want to be Scrooge about a perfectly decent song...

There is singing all over the new album almost in the most literal sense, but rarely conventional singing a la "I'm Set Free," which was indeed recorded eons ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9IL_bOwjZU

I mean, anyone who wants to argue that Eno's version is better than the above is welcome to have a go.

what if i told you that i know of a song (not I'm Set Free) that is even better than that children's chorus video? that would obliterate the quality of their singing right? THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE GOOD SONG

we're moving toward a world where there is only one good song. the good song prompts millions of cover versions, all of which vie to be the only good song. but every once in a while a new, different good song appears and disrupts the entire asymptotic system. the maps are redrawn and the old good song is thrown back into the gigantic heap of mediocrity that provides balance and order

It used to be Hallelujah.

if lou has a "hallelujah" it's "perfect day."

anyhoo, checking out the ship finally, and yessss this is great.

the one good song is still L'Homme Arme, fuck all these tryhard comelatelys.

Nah, it's Everywhere With Helicopter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igvtCo4KoIg

Actually, fuck Brian Eno. I'm off to buy the new Shine Children's Chorus album.

just finished this one and yeah, I've never quite heard anything like this. it's really good.

Eno has amassed an awful lot of cultural credibility and "I'm Set Free" is a nice song, and the line "I'm set free to find a new illusion" is vaguely profound, but this is about as exciting as Jad Fair doing a Shaggs cover or whatever. So Eno won't sing for like a billion years, and then he decides that VU karaoke is the best way to channel his talents?

eno stopped not singing in like 1990, this is his third vocal album in 3 years

https://www.discogs.com/artist/634-Brian-Eno?sort=year%2Cdesc&limit=25&filter_anv=0&subtype=Vocals&type=Credits

can't believe a guy who sings all the time recorded a cover

RIght, doesn't he sing in a church choir?

Context from the RS interview:

I went to see a performance by Hofesh Shechter, the Israeli choreographer. And it was an amazing, amazing piece of frantic choreographic activity. And then suddenly, at the end, it all stopped, and a Joni Mitchell song, "Both Sides Now," but the orchestral version, started up. And it was such an incredible mood shock, to go from that franticness of the dancing to this amazing-sounding huge orchestra and smoky, big warm sound. So I remembered that. I thought, “What a great idea, to just have a change of that kind into that sort of warmth.” And I think the reason I loved that song was because of the, well I think it's a beautiful song musically, but the key line is, "I'm set free to find a new illusion." And that's what I really like. The idea that you don't go from illusion to reality, but you go from one illusion to another one, or one story to another one. That seemed to me to be a nice way to seal that record.

bonus context:

“The first time I ever heard [The Velvet Underground] was on a John Peel radio show… it was when their first album came out and I thought “This I like! This I want to know about!”. I was having a huge crisis at the time. Am I going to be a painter or am I somehow going to get into music. And I couldn’t play anything so music was the less obvious choice. Then, when I heard The Velvet Underground I thought, “you can do both actually”. It was a big moment for me.

“That particular song always resonated with me but it took about 25 years before I thought about the lyrics. “I’m set free, to find a new illusion”. Wow. That’s saying we don’t go from an illusion to reality (the western idea of “Finding The Truth”) but rather we go from one workable solution to another more workable solution.

Subsequently I think we aren’t able and actually don’t particularly care about the truth, whatever that might be. What we care about is having intellectual tools and inventions that work. [Yuval Noah Harari in his book “Sapiens”] discusses that what makes large-scale human societies capable of cohering and co-operating is the stories they share together. Democracy is a story, religion is a story, money is a story. This chimed well with “I’m set free to find a new illusion”. It seems to me what we don’t need now is people that come out waving their hands and claiming they know the Right Way.”

it's kinda corny but 'the big ship' sounds really good as a coda to 'the ship'

the last five minutes of 'the ship' is amazing

laughter. wave.

but what kind of wave
* head explodes*

'The big ship' is a particular track that makes me heart swell fit to bursting it's so fuckin beautiful.

ya i'm p certain the big ship is my favorite song ever. i want it played at my funeral

i want it played at my funeral
Been telling my wife this for years.

As long as she hasn't been telling you she wants it played at your funeral, that's fine.

Just got the special "collectors edition" in the mail ... it's a nice package, with some Chilvers prints and what appear to be some notes for the recording and lyrics. The more I listen to the title track on headphones, the more I'm struck by the found sound aspect of this -- in paretic., how much he is using it in a very different way than he did on, say, On Land. There are things here that made me actually take off my headphones and pause to make sure I wasn't hearing some ad playing in the bgd on my browser. To my knowledge, he's never done that before. In places this reminds me of David Sylvian's work with Holger Czukay, but with a bit more of a nod to "song," whatever that means.

And holy shit, as if The Ship wasn't strange enough, Fickle Sun (i) sounds like absolutely nothing in his catalogue. Or anyone's, really.

YES, it's finally on spotify! can't wait to listen later tonight

Love the whole 'Fickle Sun' suite.

Fickle Sun (I) sounds like Dead Can Dance, actually.

good call

love this album

I ordered it this morning on iTunes, will listen soon!

eno has so many different kinds of albums that it's tough to pick one as a favorite, it's more like choosing which one is your favorite for a particular situation or mood. the ship is definitely going to be a go to for many situations for me. also i am really embarrassed that i thought the lyrics were looping "wave. laughter" at the end of the title track. it's clearly "wave. after." which makes a lot more sense.

bonus japanese edition track "away" is worth tracking down

omg karl how embarrassing :/

xp AARGH

i am so embarrassed that i will play the entire thing on a loop for the rest of the morning/afternoon to atone. i am sorry eno!

question on the 2LP version:

how are the tracks divided up across the sides? i assumed it would be the title track on side 1 and the other three songs on side 2, but if there are 4 LP sides to spread them across...? the two longer songs deserve to be heard without interruption, so i don't really get it.