Before and After Science

Atmospheric synth heavy studio creations.

Meh

This album was better than his airport one. But wasn't anything groundbreaking or even memorable tbh. Can't even remember what I just listened to so that I can write this review

It wasn't offensive though so I guess it was ok

3 ⭐️

I was excited to see what I would get to hear. I liked many of Brian Eno's pieces. Recently, however, more and more pieces have been added that I couldn't do much with. Unfortunately, this album belongs to the latter category. 3/5

This album is very much two sided. It begins with Talking Heads-esque pop songs and transitions into super mellow ambiance that felt like I was floating in water. I really liked it. Favorite songs were Backwater, King’s Lead Hat, Here He Comes, and By This River.

Next time I get a Brian Eno album I'm murdering somebody.

That being said it wasn't half bad.

This is interesting, because I hated Here Come The Warm Jets, but I adored Music for Airports. I’m not excited to check this out, but I’m curious.

So, I think this album is smack in the middle of the other two. I think there was a lot to like, but I also think there were songs that just sounded out of date. I kind of liked it, so three stars it is.

I generally love Eno's contributions to others work maybe more than his own solo works. This one is interesting and varied.

pretty nice

It is wild how much Brian Eno’s albums differ from one another. This one also has a good bit of variety within it, but all high quality tracks. From dance music to meditative. I prefer the first , more upbeat half, with Backwater being my highlight track. It gets into ambient style in the second half, which knocked it down from what was going to be a five star album for me. But still a really good listen. Fantastic new discovery.

Pretty interesting musical choices overall, and fun to listen to. I actually enjoyed this, but I feel that I wouldn't have liked it if i didn't have a good vibe.

I can see why he ended up working with Talking Heads - besides maybe naming a song after them (in anagram form), there’s definitely a shared vision here. That’s a compliment by the way - this has more tunes than I was expecting.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

God I love Brian Eno

While I'm admittedly lacking the knowledge currently on the scope of Eno's ambient works between Another Green World and this album, but a return to pop music form seems like a solid move from the musician in context. It proves to his audience that he hadn't run out of ideas, rather, he was following his true calling of ruling a genre, and returned to his A-B-A song structure roots to prove he is not only a creative powerhouse, but handles variety in strides. Not every song here is some great art rock song, in fact, I'd say a lot of the rockier stuff pales in comparison to his works on Here Come the Warm Jets, but those slower pieces are on equal grounds with the vocal tracks from Another Green World, and just because Eno doesn't quite have that glam appeal anymore doesn't mean he can't pull off other fresh and new genres quite well. King's Lead Hat is not only a great love letter to the emerging Talking Heads, but a great new wave track to boot. A showcase of range and scope to the mysterious Brian Eno, this album may be best in its quieter moments similar to his most recent works, but it still is a solidly odd yet catchy release that is sure to show off its influence to anyone who hears it. It's a darn shame Eno mostly abandoned vocal albums post this work because this new wave of Brian Eno rock tunes could've really altered the 80s. Oh well, he left his influence via Bowie and Byrne, surely.

The first half is fun in the way of other acts of the time, some of whom Eno worked with: Bowie, Talking Heads, King Crimson, etc. but it lacks the distinct character of any of them. I can see why he elected to focus on the more atmospheric stuff, which feels much more his own!

Unspektakulär

I thought this was pretty good. I actually liked it a lot and would listen to it again.

I'm a fan of a lot of Eno's work, but for some reason I've never listened to this one until recently. It's great but still growing on me. I don't like it quite as much as Taking Tiger Mountain or Another Green World, but it covers a lot of ground, and is a clear precursor to his later ambient work. It also really sounds like it had a big influence on Talking Heads! It's an 8/10 now but could see it becoming a 9 in future.

Brian Eno is a master of subtlety, though I think this was a slight step back from the progress he made on Another Green World. The atmospheric/ambient elements of this album weren't as well balanced as the tracks on the album, and both the instrumental and lyrical songs have a bit less sticking power. However, this is still a great album in it's own right. I would have just chosen to omit it on such a list to leave breathing room for Here Come the Warm Jets, Another Green World and Ambient 1. 3.7/5 -> 4/5

Typically great Eno stuff. The first half of the album is perhaps a little stronger than the second, but the whole thing is enjoyable. Strong four, close to a five.