The man, the enigma, the legend: Brian Eno

[LemonMelon]

It's a really creepy album. It doesn't sound so much like you're floating on the sea as it sounds like you're being stalked by a serial killer and hiding out in a closet, waiting for the inevitable. Maybe Eno is lactose interolant, I dunno.

Another Green World is great to listen to on a warm, clear summer night. Grab a chair, sit outside and take in your surroundings for a few minutes, then slip on some headphones and really perceive the songs in a new way. So many wonderful memories from a couple of years ago, sitting outside and being extremely grateful to be alive and where I was at in my life, while AGW enhanced the experience. That album gives a new level of depth to rural nightlife, as it does a wonderful job of approximating the gentle buzz of insects and the sound of the world going to sleep through its subtle electronics and mellifluous lyricism.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

(though their follow-up everything that happens will happen today is good too).

I really like that album a lot . "Life Is Long", "Everything That Happens", "One Fine Day"-fantastic songs. Absolutely lovely.

I need to hear more solo Eno stuff. I pretty much just know his work with other people, I've not heard any of his solo albums. *Starts making list from this thread*

 

[LemonMelon]

I can recommend Here Come The Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), Another Green World, Discreet Music and Before And After Science very, very highly.

 

[cobl04]

Another Green World is slowly but surely becoming one of my favourite records. Quirky instrumentals, relaxing instrumentals better than anything ever put to tape on a "relaxation cd", gorgeous vocal tracks, great guitar, abstract lyrics... the whole thing is just brilliant.

 

[iron yuppie]

It's a really creepy album. It doesn't sound so much like you're floating on the sea as it sounds like you're being stalked by a serial killer and hiding out in a closet, waiting for the inevitable. Maybe Eno is lactose interolant, I dunno.

I totally forgot that I had requested to talk about Small Craft. What really struck me about it, which probably should not be a surprise considering its author, is the flow. I wouldn't call it smooth as much as I would molten, almost like disparate elements being fused together under extremely high heat. Then, at the end of the process, you are left with an icy, crystalline whole. How's that for a pretentious description?

 

[u2popmofo]

Spoiler

I've never listened to a Brian Eno album.

 

[The Panther]

I'm not sure if I'm a Brian Eno fan. Basically, I like listening to more accomplished musicians (which he isn't), not people making ambient soundscapes. But then again, if the ambient soundscape is really cool, then it's good. One of these days, I'll have to force myself to listen to an Eno album, so thanks for the recommendations above.

As a producer, I'm mainly aware of his U2 stuff, but he's worked occasionally with several other artists I like (the most surprising of which was probably Paul Simon). He's obviously doing something right as major artists seem to line up to work with him... but I don't really know what he does.

I guess in general, I'm kind of turned off by (a) people who try to intellectualize the making of rock music, and (b) the whole concept of the "star producer" that sort-of started back in the late 70s or something (well, except maybe for Phil Spector and George Martin). Eno seems well associated with both of these things, so maybe that turns me off him a bit. In interviews, he comes off as rather pretentious, to put it mildly, but he'd probably take that as a compliment.

I don't hate him or anything, but James Dean Bradfield (of Manic Street Preachers) does. Last year, Bradfield was going on in interviews about how Eno was basically the antiChrist.

 

[cobl04]

But he's clearly intelligent... and as far as I'm concerned anyone who can make albums as good as he has using the methods he has can be considered a genius.

 

[cobl04]

He has a new one out November 13 thru Warp. The cover immediately reminded me of Another Green World. 76 minutes split into 12 sections across four tracks.

What an awful thread title this was.

 

[djerdap]

What an awful thread title this was.

This was exactly on my mind right now.

 

[lazarus]

Par for the course...

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Obviously I like a lot of his work as a producer, but most of his work as an artist makes me want to vomit

 

[IWasBored]

Obviously I like a lot of his work as a producer, but most of his work as an artist makes me want to vomit

I don't know if vomit is right, I have to be awake to achieve that level of nausea from music.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I don't know if vomit is right, I have to be awake to achieve that level of nausea from music.

Zing!

 

[iron yuppie]

Obviously I like a lot of his work as a producer, but most of his work as an artist makes me want to vomit

What is this, EYKIW? More of the ridiculous mentality that music has to be in the form of a four-minute, guitar-driven track with an obvious verse-chorus-verse structure in order to be legitimate?

 

[lazarus]

Yeah, not even Here Come The Warm Jets?

 

[LemonMelon]

What is this, EYKIW? More of the ridiculous mentality that music has to be in the form of a four-minute, guitar-driven track with an obvious verse-chorus-verse structure in order to be legitimate?

Are you surprised? Headache only posts about The Who, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Pearl Jam. He probably hasn't changed radio stations in years.

 

[iron yuppie]

Are you surprised? Headache only posts about The Who, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Pearl Jam. He probably hasn't changed radio stations in years.

Not surprised, but certainly irritated that he would make such a ludicrously hyperbolic claim without a shred of irony.

 

[OpenG180]

I like Nerve Net too. Fractal Zoom is certainly a close relative to One Minute Warning. Here Come The Warm Jets and Before and After Science are my faves.

 

[jay canseco]

These different levels of irony are getting to be a bit much.

 

[IWasBored]

Not surprised, but certainly irritated that he would make such a ludicrously hyperbolic claim without a shred of irony.

So it's only okay to hate something if your hatred is ironic? Would it be better if he adopted a painfully pretentious and unnecessarily verbose posting style to comment on everything? If you want to call headache a hypocrite on his tendency to offer his negative opinion on bands/ artists he doesn't like when he's just as likely to flip out on people who say they dislike something he likes, that's fine.

 

[LemonMelon]

The LEGEND!

 

[iron yuppie]

So it's only okay to hate something if your hatred is ironic? Would it be better if he adopted a painfully pretentious and unnecessarily verbose posting style to comment on everything? If you want to call headache a hypocrite on his tendency to offer his negative opinion on bands/ artists he doesn't like when he's just as likely to flip out on people who say they dislike something he likes, that's fine.

It's fine to "hate" whatever you want. Coming into an appreciation thread and summarily and casually dismissing the work of the artist with absolutely no explanation is just asinine.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Okay... I find Brian Eno's solo work, and a large majority of prog rock, to be pretentious bullshit. Does that work for you?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Are you surprised? Headache only posts about The Who, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Pearl Jam. He probably hasn't changed radio stations in years.

Yea. That's all. I don't even own a radio.

You forgot Nickleback, Creed and Train.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

So it's only okay to hate something if your hatred is ironic? Would it be better if he adopted a painfully pretentious and unnecessarily verbose posting style to comment on everything? If you want to call headache a hypocrite on his tendency to offer his negative opinion on bands/ artists he doesn't like when he's just as likely to flip out on people who say they dislike something he likes, that's fine.

Umm... thanks?

I'd love to see examples of "flipping out" when people mock bands I like. Really. I would.

 

[lazarus]

I don't find Here Come The Warm Jets to be especially proggy.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Okay

 

[LemonMelon]

The closest Eno ever got to prog was allowing Robert Fripp to play on some tunes.

Tunes that were by no means prog rock, like St. Elmo's Fire and Golden Hours.

 

[lazarus]

I can certainly see people finding the ambient or later material to be too artsy, but Warm Jets and Tiger Mountain have more energy and humor than what I would generalize with prog rock.

I mean, this is essentially doo-wop, no?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlCxDw0qmdw