Zack: Brian Eno is the invisible hand behind a huge portion of this list. Not only does he have five albums by himself, but he also played in all three of the Roxy Music albums on the list and has produced for U2, Coldplay, Devo, Paul Simon, David Bowie, the Talking Heads, and countless other list-worthy musicians. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve clicked on to Wikipedia for one of these albums and seen Producer: Brian Eno. He’s just all over the place. So, first off, thank you Mr. Eno for making so much of the music I’ve enjoyed over these past months possible. Here Come the Warm Jets had a weird Bowie-before-Bowie feel to it. Like Brian Eno is the Oscar Robertson to David Bowie’s Michael Jordan. Now some of you may be pointing out that Bowie was around before 1974, and you’re right. But while Here Come the Warm Jets may technically be after Bowie’s debut time-wise, it just sounds like a predecessor. Maybe that means that Eno is the Kobe to Bowie’s Jordan then. For those of you still following me after the basketball references, let me explain by saying that I can’t explain any of that at all. It isn’t necessarily similar sounding to any of the Bowie I’ve listened to (although when you consider all of Bowie’s reinventions there is probably something out there that sounds exactly like this), but it just has the same sort of artistically experimental vibe going on. He primarily uses a guitar-bass-drum-keyboard set-up but then extenuates it with horns and organs and just about everything else. He masterly manipulates distortion effects in a way that both sounds cool and doesn’t make you want to cover your ears and curse the cruel God that must be punishing you. That’s a rarer feat than you might know. It’s not a super fantastic album or anything but it’s definitely a cool listen that is easy to appreciate, but hard to worship.
Favorite Tracks: Here Come the Warm Jets; The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch; Dead Finks Don't Talk
Emily: As we progress through the list, a few names keep recurring over and over again. These people - musicians, writers, producers - are the masterminds behind modern music. They're the ones who are constantly innovating and doing new things, progressing their sound and the sound of the era. One of those people is Brian Eno. We encountered Eno not so long ago with U2's The Joshua Tree, a little while back with Roxy Music and David Bowie, and months ago with Talking Heads. That's a lot of era jumping, and he's there for all of it. Now, we jump back to the Roxy Music era with Eno's solo work. Here Come the Warm Jets begins to bridge the gap between the glam of Roxy Music and the more experimental work of his later years. This album is kind of weird and arty, but is still enjoyable to listen to. I can see it being great music for a hipster/art school party - it is definitely rock music, but with layers of experimentation and distortion that are impossible to ignore.
Favorite Tracks: Baby's On Fire; Needles in the Camel's Eye; Here Come the Warm Jets
No comments:
Post a Comment