Before and After Science

Not my thing at all. Yet?
The soundstage is insane on it. It's incredible that this is stereo mixing. For the sound quality alone, this was a worthwhile listen

'Uncelebrated masterpiece' could be code for "it's alright, not every hit an artist puts out is going to be the next best thing since sliced bread."

It was alright

Some OK, but more noise than I really enjoy.

That's two Eno-involved projects in a row, three and it's a hat trick. But I'm not exactly complaining, Eno is kind of a musical genius, and there's something *incredibly* special about this period in his career (really from Here Come The Warm Jets through this album). I love his later ambient work, but there's really something about the albums which are basically just ultra art-damaged pop music. Before And After Science is a great representation of this sound, but is definitely looking forwards to Music For Airports, which pretty much immediately follows it. One Of Eno's very favorite tricks is also in full display here; starting the album with kind of odd, but still energetic art pop/art rock songs, then slowly dissolving into ultra-expressive ambient soliloquies. Here, No One's Receiving, Backwater, and Kurt's Rejoinder gleefully throw together Eno's signature futuristic sound with rock energy, pop catchiness, funk influence, and a little theatricality. But by Julie With, the quiet sadness and lurking mystery slowly creeping up on this album has fully immersed it, and until the end, it just sinks deeper into shadowed motifs, gorgeous melodies, and lush arrangements. The sensation is as though the listener is slowly enveloped, but remaining calm. It's like slowly gliding to the bottom of the sea. And when you get there it isn't dark, or menacing per se, but it is unfamiliar, and bizarre, and weirdly gorgeous. By This River is particularly spellbinding, if I had to single out just one song. But this is very much an album that needs to be listened to as a single piece of art. There's a really powerful cumulative effect here. I don't know if this is as perfect as Eno's best, but it is still pretty magnificent. I genuinely think this will eventually be a 5, but I don't really want to jump the gun.

For some reason I thought this would be weirder but overall it was just fine!

"By this river" stands out here. Lots of the other songs are not my cup of tea

This is my favourite of the Brian Eno art rock albums I’ve heard. There is a perfect harmony and balance between the hyped up pop tracks and the more zen, drawn out offerings. The calmer songs have more of a pop flare to them than their equivalents on Another Green World; and the energetic ones are beautifully silly and bouncy. I particularly love Eno’s childlike, wide-eyed approach to the lyrics. The thoughtful, sombre piano led By This River is my favourite Eno song I’ve heard - I’d love to hear him in this mode again.

Maybe a bit too arty for me, but may need to try it again

3

Extremely Talking Heads coded. But I guess it's the other way around. Talking Heads is coded to this.

3.5/5. Not my personal favorite Eno record but there’s still quite a few great cuts on here. It’s actually an example of an album that I would say is back-loaded in that most of the songs I really love are in the second half such as the beautiful sounding “Julie With…” or “by this river.” I mostly preferred the slower, more spacey and ambient cuts on this one. The more art-rocky cuts mostly came off as slightly weaker than those found on Brian Eno’s “Another Green World.” Still worth the full listen though IMO.

Before and After Science by Brian Eno is a bit of an odd one. It’s the kind of album that’s very easy to have on in the background, and while it’s undeniably well put together, I came away feeling like there’s nothing particularly wrong with it… but also not much that really stands out or pulls you back in for another listen.

It has that typical Eno feel, drifting between art rock and more ambient, atmospheric moments. You can appreciate the textures and the production, and there’s clearly a lot of thought behind it, but it never quite clicks into something memorable. It feels more like a mood piece than an album full of songs you’d actively go back to.

Given how many Brian Eno records appear on this list, I’m not convinced this one was essential. It’s fine for what it is, but it doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression compared to some of his other work.

Favourite tracks: “Spider and I” is a decent closer and probably the one that stood out the most

Least favourite tracks: There are quite a few long, slow instrumentals that drift by without really going anywhere and make parts of the album feel a bit dull

Album artwork: Fairly standard cover, nothing particularly striking

no scale for brian eno

This is a really good album. Lots of variety and every song is well done, even if not every song is to my taste.

4.0/5.0: Great

loved the first half, was a bit bored by the second half

Ah. Structured songs. Notes that follow each other in a logical and pleasing order. Melody. Rhythm.

A great improvement on his 'ambient' stuff. - possibly because it's 1977 and he hasn't gone down that road yet.

This is actually quite pleasant in comparison.

Brian Eno is a real pistol. This record starts off with disco, then turns into a banger of a Talking Heads song by the end of side 1. What a disservice that his music isn't talked about more in mainstream discourse.

So Apple has two essential albums they did write-ups for, plus almost 10 other Eno albums available, but this one is missing.

must be shit. Typical for this list. "Screw all the good albums this artist did and critics wrote about, Listen to this pile of shit because I'm somehow a better critic who doesn't totally just jam my list full of Elvis Costello and British garbage!"

I quite enjoyed Before And After Science. This one definitely feels like a really weird one even coming from Brian Eno who is a very experimental artist. This one seems to combine the glam rock style that was prevalent on Here Come The Warm Jets (and possibly the Roxy Music albums he worked on too but i have yet to hear those so i'm not completely sure). This one certainly did have some real funky moments and that was what i enjoyed most when it came to this album. However, the vocals here did not feel very well produced with them being simply far too quiet and i had trouble deciphering them at points. Still, i enjoyed this one and it's definitely not Eno's worst work.
Best Song: Kurt's Rejoinder
Worst Song: Here He Comes

Don't really got a ton to say about this one other than I'm not liking the silliness of the majority of the tracklist. It does pick up quite a bit towards the end starting with Julie With (Hilarious because those are slower ballads), but not enough to really get me into the record.
Honestly enjoyed Another Green World more. My liking the back end of Before and After Science makes sense as it's more in the ambient/post-rock world compared to the first half of the tracklist.