Like most fans, I’ve been looking forward to the next Brian Eno “vocal” album for quite a while. “Another Day on Earth” is his first proper vocal album since “Nerve Net” from 1992 and it kicks off with the sublime “This”. Now I love this kind of Eno treatment, a good percussion track, a thoughtful lyric and a guitar solo that comes from the Heavens. The only problem is that “This” could have easily come from “Wrong Way Up” and sounds so much like the co-writes he’s done for U2 and James. I still like the track loads, but it sounds dated and, frankly, old. And that’s the problem with the rest of the album.
Whereas “Nerve Net” had me asked “What was that?” when I first heard it, this CD leaves me asking “Why?”. It is an exercise in familiarity and nostalgia, with dancing percussion, ethereal vocals and those ambient keyboard sounds that are synonymous with Eno. “And Then So Clear” features a throbbing, pulse-like bass drum and Eno burbling along with a distorted vocal. It’s pleasant enough. And that’s the problem…it’s all too pleasant. After this track, “A Long Way Down” sounds like an off-cut from the U2/Eno cross-over record “Passengers” but isn’t as nearly as creative or interesting.
More old ground is visited with “Going Unconcious” which sounds like it could have been lifted directly from the “Drawn from Life” album. It’s suitably ambient and transporting, but it evaporates just before you get to your destination. The rest of the tracks plod along, going at the same pace, it’s like one giant vanilla ice-cream of sound. Thick, comforting, but ultimately unrewarding. Where are the sprinkles? Where’s the flake? Where’s the nuts and juice?
“Just Another Day” manages to lift the pace somewhat and is probably the second best song from the album. It’s got a beat. Yes, it actually has a noticeable drum loop. Hurrah! You could call it the title track of the album because the lyric is “It’s just another day on Earth”. More Eno recycling happens with “Under”, a song that was meant to be on the “My Squelchy Life” album that got transmogrified into “Nerve Net”. This track has been around since 1992 and appears on the Eno Vocal Box Set from that time. I find it’s inclusion here a bit strange. Yes, it is a great song, but surely this is a bonus track, not a fully-fledged album track that every Eno fan is familiar with? Oh well, that’s Eno’s decision, not mine. The last track “Bone Bomb” is probably the most interesting track of the album in terms of texture, but it relies on sampled vocals that instantly remind you of Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” – but that makes it sound dated. If you can get over the 1980s sound, it is an intereting little number and owes a lot to the experimental, cut-up vocal sound Eno used on “Nerve Net”.
“Another Day on Earth” is a curate’s egg. Parts of it feel right, but much of it feels wrong for me. In parts, it is too slow, too familiar, too repetitive. Most of the album sounds incredibly dated and this album proves that Eno works best when he has other musicians to spark off from. There’s nothing like that here. There are no moments of jaw-dropping beauty or heart-stopping excitement. It’s almost like Eno tried to make an ambient album with vocals. It’s certainly good listening to it in the bath, but standing it against his other releases it is an empty shell compared to “Nerve Net” which really made me question modern music when it came out or “Another Green World” which is a work of genius.
I guess the problem is that I expected too much. But saying that, at least it got me listening to “Drawn From Life”, which is a much more fulfilling work in my opinion. Nice try, Brian, but this CD lacks the quirky imagination of your previous works. Must do better…
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In the post: Another Day on Earth – Brian Eno
I was very excited when i heard this drop through the letterbox this morning, so much so that I leapt out of bed and immediately played it. After 46 minutes, it was all over. The jury is out. I am not convinced. Review to follow…
I’m with Damon on this one. I’ve been thinking about the Live 8 concerts taking place next month and I still can’t get behind them. When I was young, Band Aid and Live Aid was exciting. We all felt we were doing something, but this time around it all feels wrong. When you look at the usual parade of stars lining up for these concerts, if they all had a whipround, they could probably buy Africa. But this time it’s about the G8 conference. Hmmm…
I don’t get it. Even if we drop the debt and pump in the money, nothing will change. Why? Because of power and corruption, that’s why. It’s the same reason why all the millions that were raised from Live Aid and Comic Relief have left some areas untouched. If Bob said he wanted me to lend him a tenner so that he could raise a guerilla army and depose these despots that are killing and holding back these African countries, I would happily hand over my cash. Instead, we have that grinning Irish gimp, Bono, pontificating again…remember, this is the guy that spent £5,000 to get his beloved hat flown to him to a concert in Italy.
Live 8 makes Africa sound a lot worse than it actually is. Many African states are doing very well from themselves and this media marginalisation by the bleeding hearts actually upsets some African people. I saw one pundit from Africa on the news complaining that he is tired of being portrayed that he’s from a backwards, third world country. Granted, some areas are still impoverished, but this is mainly down to corrupt regimes, not famine or natural disasters. There’s a bigger humanitarian problem posed by AIDs in Africa and Bob and his pals should be concentrating on this and getting those stupid Catholics to stop preaching their dogma…oh wait a minute, Bob and Bono are good, god-fearing, Oirish boys…
Meanwhile, I am sure that all the stars involved in this will all get a big payrise on the back of the media frenzy. Cynical, moi? You betcha cotton socks I am…
The throat is still sore, but not as sore as it was the other day. Hurrah! Maybe the illness is subsiding.
In the post: more crap from eBay. This time it’s a promo only CD which features a remix of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s “Telephone & Rubber Band”. The accompanying PR blurb says the tune was used for a Mercury One-to-One advertising campaign in 2000. The remix itself is utter toss, but it only cost me 30p on eBay and it makes me happy to moan about such crimes against music. And now you must suffer…here it is: Telephone & Rubber Band [Pop-Tastic Remix]
Still got a sore throat. If I open my mouth wide enough and get the right about of light behind me, I can use the mirror to see yellow pustules on the back of my throat. YUCK! The funny thing is that apart from the sore throat, I am feeling OK. Normally, there’s some kind of cold symptoms or running nose, right? I keep popping pills and gargling with soluble disprin, but nothing is shifting it. I was thinking that maybe a trip to the pub might kill off the bugs!
In the post: junk mail…boring!
Being a bit of an anal retentive, I like to check out whose been coming to my site. Recently, there’s been loads of people searching Google Images for Nookie Bear. And I mean loads…at least a dozen. What’s the fascinating with Nookie Bear all of a sudden? Maybe he’s staging a revival that I don’t know about. (For those who don’t know, Nookie Bear is a ventriloquist’s dummy who was popular in the late 1970s/early 1980s with his controller Roger de Courcey).
Another popular search term that brings people here is “ashbory”. For those who don’t know, these people are looking for sound samples/information about the Ashbory bass guitar. The unique thing about the Ashbory is that it is about half the size of a regular bass guitar, is fretless and uses silicon rubber strings. I bought one in LA for my 30th birthday and it is information buried on the site somewhere that is cropping up in Google. I am putting together a dedicated page to my Ashbory bass and it will be here: https://www.darrenlock.com/ashborybass.htm. I’ve taken some pictures and put some sound samples together and so hopefully it will answer some questions for those who want to know more.
And why-o-why have over 35 people from the www.scissorsisters.com website been coming to this address? What’s that all about? If someone could tell me, I would be grateful. The internet is a funny old place, innit?
Yesterday, I pre-ordered the new Brian Eno album “Another Day on Earth” and purchased the internet single “This” for £1. I am really looking forward to this record and I am going to share “This” with you now on the condition that you go and pre-order a copy from www.enoshop.co.uk
So far, 2005 has been quite a year for music. 🙂
I was going through some of the folders on my PC and I discovered a folder full of unfinished tracks that were languishing all alone. The great thing about not being a professional musician is that you can publish your mistakes and people will say: “Aaaah, at least he’s trying!”.
https://www.darrenlock.com/media/acoustidoodle.mp3
This is an acoustic doodle for my abandoned CD of acoustic tracks that never happened. It ended up sounding too much like Hotel California for my liking!
https://www.darrenlock.com/media/acoustirumble.mp3
This is another acoustic track for my abandoned CD of acoustic tracks that never happened. It’s quite loud and intense and I quite like it. Unfortunately, where would you put this on a CD?
https://www.darrenlock.com/media/bassdoodle.mp3
Ex-recording chum Andrew challenged me to produce an instrumental track that was all bass. This is it. Sounds a bit too much like Tony Levin for my liking. No use for it anywhere else.
https://www.darrenlock.com/media/cave.mp3
Not sure what this was all about.
https://www.darrenlock.com/media/delaydoodle.mp3
And then it all went like U2 trapped in a drum machine. What the f*ck was I thinking?
https://www.darrenlock.com/media/irondoodle.mp3
Quite like the atmosphere on this one, but what to do with it? So it never got used or finished.
The sky is grey and I am wearing my jumper…so it must be June! Fear, pain, suffering…I have a sore throat and I am feeling sorry for myself. Too bad…that’s what I get for kissing the wrong girls, eh?
In the post: nothing.
At the weekend, The Missus bought me a pedometer for £2. It can tell me just how far I’ve walked and how many calories I’ve burnt off. The only problem with it is a design flaw that means the battery cover can open with little user interaction and reset the stats. This isn’t good, especially if you’ve been wearing it all day!
In my attempt to do things I wouldn’t normally do, we’ve been talking about buying a bike. Now I cannot actually ride a bike. I know, it is shameful, but when I was a kid I mangled many a friend’s bicycle with my lop-sided riding and so therefore never actually managed to learn properly. When they saw me coming, they would hide their bikes! I don’t particularly want to learn to drive, so learning to ride a bike is another way of being more active. Buying a dog was meant to be a path to extra activity, but I ended up getting a four-legged friend whose idea of a good time is snoring his way through the day on the sofa. So yeah, a bike = a fit and active Darren. But which one to buy and will I be able to remain upright?