The 1970's

#100

Brian Eno

Before and After Science (1977)

I'm not going to come at these albums as discrete objects, because music is not, um, objective.  This is also the final sentence in which I will mention the individuality of personal experience.  There. That wasn't so bad.

What I will be doing is giving each album a series of thorough heavy petting sessions,  telling you what it felt like, and then listing what songs might go good on a mix, if you are into that sort of thing.

Brian Eno is an artist I came to via David Bowie, and only began listening to him because the holy musical taste arbiter declared him a patron saint.  And I like him.  I do.  But does anyone truly love Brian Eno? 

That was a just a test.  I love Brian Eno, and if you don't, that means your tastes differ from mine in ways that are probably trivial.  Yes, I love him, but I love him in a way like I love air conditioning, or shooting around a tightly banked curve at 45 mph on an interstate exit and knowing I will not die.  I love all these things, and it is hard to imagine a pleasant existence without them, but when someone asks me what I enjoy, I don't say "competent civic engineering."

And that is basically Eno's bag, developing the very infrastructure of what we understand pop music to be.  I don't need to defend this assertion, because I am right.  

(OK, so, sometimes these posts are going to give someone a blow job.)

The thing is, though, I really can't get too excited about this album for exactly this reason.  I'm sure back in '77, people who were paying attention to this kind of thing were like "Man, Post-it notes!  These are convenient as shit, thanks Mr. Eno!" but it isn't anything he hasn't done before, and with greater impact.  Listening to it in our crazy futuristic future, I can't help but think that it sounds like a Brian Eno album, nice and peppy and Britishly absurd at parts (side A), and then ambient and evocative at others (side B).  

As a whole package it's worth a listen or two, but the music that Eno has inspired and informed is the music I go back to over and over again.  Good work though!  Keep 'em coming, late 70's Brian Eno!

Mix Singles

(I will get some listenable copies of the songs going here, as soon as I figure out how.)

Here He Comes 

Perfect for driving by yourself, or sitting around playing video games.  Puts you in a nice groove without forcing you to pay too much attention.

Backwater

Great for that British Absurdity mix you are making along with early Pink Floyd, 10cc, and any Beatles songs that had an animal or food in the title.

King's Lead Hat

An anagram for Talking Heads that effectively mimics their style circa 1977, sassing along at fun-thousand beats per minute.

Next:

#99 - Neil Young

After the Gold Rush