Best Eno solo album from 70s/80s

http://klfm.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Brian_Eno_Discreet_Music_Diagram_1975.jpg

i could probably predict the top 4, but not the order

my first thought is Another Green World, but I've been wanting to listen to them all again

Music for Airports, Music for Films, and On Land are all pretty great

Very tempted to vote for Warm Jets tbh, despite the monstrous geniality of Green World.

P sure LJ will vote for Tiger Moutain so that one's covered (as it should be) ;)

I love many of these but come on, Mother Whale Eyeless and The True Wheel on the same album.

feel pressing need to vote for both an ambient one and a song-based one (which would probably be on land and another green world)

having said that music for films is fucking great, probably underrated? and the one i have the deepest emotional connection with

in short, how good was brian eno's 70s/80s

Either Another Green World or On Land.

Tigah 4EVA!!

JoeStork otm

Front to back it’s gotta be here come the warm Jets

Some of them are old is goat

a fucking crazy poll.

I love many of these for different reasons.

A word on my favorite of the ambient recordings: Apollo has been my before-bedtime album for almost twenty years: I love how it's never quite unobtrusive enough, coughing up sounds and textures that dare you to dismiss them, especially in the second half.

Apollo is the one I've spent the least time with, I need to get one of those remastered CDs - only had it on a homemade tape of an LP

All of these are incredible in their own way except Music For Films 2 imo

For me, the regular bedtime fix was/is Music For Airports

Tiger Mountain, no question

At a book-plugging do the other week, Brett Anderson (of Suede fame) said his most-listened to song of all time is 1/1 from ..Airports and he wants it played at his funeral.

Thursday Afternoon not on the list?

There was a senator from Ecuador
Who talked about a meteor
That crashed on a hill in the south of Peru
And was found by a conquistador
Who took it to the emperor
And he passed it on to a Turkish guru

I love that song!

Not to dismiss any of the other albums, but I've listened to Ambient 4 more than any of them.

But if the Harold Budd collabs were included, Ambient 2 and The Pearl would be #1 and #2.

ambient 1 is so good agh

At a book-plugging do the other week, Brett Anderson (of Suede fame) said his most-listened to song of all time is 1/1 from ..Airports and he wants it played at his funeral.

― piscesx, Thursday, April 19, 2018 2:33 AM (fifty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's unreal
like nothing i've ever heard

i love apollo, it was my first Eno, but it downright scares me sometimes. like some of harold's stuff when it's not pretty. just scares me stiff.

Another Green World is desert island for me so that one. Tiger Mountain not far behind.

Jesus, these choices ...

write in for Morning Star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ANDSz9yLA

i have been listening to so much discreet music the last few weeks, it's been ridiculous. discreet music in the morning, the recent Reflection before bed.

An ending (an ascent) 45 min version is my favourite go to ambient eno

This is brutal. On Land, instinctively, but that means not voting for Science or Green World.

I'm refusing to vote in this cruel and inhuman poll.

All of them are great - well, I listened to More Music For Films II the least, it's probably 'the worst' of this bunch but as with anything Eno that's not amazing, it's still enjoyable.

I feel that I should vote for Another Green World, but it's probably going to win anyway so I went for my other most favourite Ambient 4: On Land instead.

Not to dismiss any of the other albums, but I've listened to Ambient 4 more than any of them.
But if the Harold Budd collabs were included, Ambient 2 and The Pearl would be #1 and #2.

HCTWJ is a very promising experiment
TTM(BS) is one of the most startling and evocative albums in rock history
Everything after that is different shades of cowardice

Cowardice?

feel pressing need to vote for both an ambient one and a song-based one (which would probably be on land and another green world)

Same here, would go with AGW if I'm picking one though, such a perfect set of sketches.

I'm just being my lovable self

Seriously though I wish he hadn't gone ambient

Tiger Mountain

imago needs re-educating

https://quadrophone.com/site/assets/files/1023/oblique-strategies.png

Voted Another Green World without hesitation. Dug it up last week and was re-blown away by the beauty of The Ship and the title track

but if you study the logistics and heuristics of the mystics
you will find that their minds rarely move in a line
so it's much more realistic to abandon such ballistics
and resign to be trapped on a leaf in the vine

was having a tough time picking between "Warm Jets" and "Tiger Mountain" then realized Robert Wyatt's "turned into a crow crow" bit in the latter, immediately voted for "TM".

imago is possibly more wrong than ever here, to the ambient immersion camp with you

urrrgh blubblub *drowns*

Either Another Green World or On Land.

― pomenitul, Wednesday, April 18, 2018 5:00 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is probably my real answer

on land vs ttm for me

Went with On Land to spite imago (just this once – I otherwise support his commitment to neo-Dada and its precipitates).

I once recommended another green world to an older gentleman when I worked in music retail. He listened to it and decided to pass; by accident I gave him eno instead of the tangerine dream CD he actually wanted. I like to think it grew on him but it’s just as likely he thought it was shite

Where is the love for "Before and After Science"? That was mx first Eno album and there are memories attached and it is the one I have listened to most. Besides "Another Green World", "Here Come the Warm Jets" and "On Land" are probably even better but my personal relation to them is not quite as close. "Music for Films" and "Taking Tiger Mountain" are also top notch.

yea I'm gonna go Before and after Science here. I always felt "Kurt's Rejoinder" was a weirdly unique track. that phased out vocal thing in the end always makes me smile.

The bass on "Kurt's Rejoinder" sounds like bullfrogs recorded on Neptune.

yeah I love that bass part, also all the quoted lyrics to 'Backwater'

agw, discreet> hctwj, TTM > on land, mfa > baas, on land > apollo > films > films 2

note that i love films 2

^^^ pretty much exactly how I'd rank them

I'd probably put AGW/DM between On Land and Apollo in that ranking, but otherwise sure ;)

on some days i'd switch a lot of them around, they're all good. was just listening to films quite a bit a few months ago, and i'm sure i'll revisit it.

whoops, i put on land on there twice! it currently resides in the music for airports tier, not the baas tier. crucial difference

it's before and after science for me, though i haven't heard the ambient albums, oops. i've just connected with it on a weirdly personal level.

'king's lead hat' might be my favorite thing he's done.

I did King’s Lead Hat at karaoke a few months back, it was exhausting.

after the drums in "Third Uncle" the most i really like is "Put a Straw Under Baby", the surreal and lilting lullaby feat. Robert Wyatt and the Portsmouth Sinfonia. the lyrics are so cool and crazy and twisted. in just a few lines he turns a simple folk song into an industrial Orwellian nightmare:

Put a straw under baby
Your good deed for the day
Put a straw under baby
Keep the splinters away

Let the corridors echo
As the dark places grow
Hear superior's footsteps
On the landing below

then again "Baby's On Fire" is like the ultimate 2 chord song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Was a tough decision between AGW and Apollo. But Apollo has an eerie and beautifully surreal quality to it that is consistent from beginning to end with some of the most transcendent highs in music I've heard from any artist.

i kind of didn't think about how little he released solo in the 80's.

Do love Deep Blue Day from Apollo.
Ambient country.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

heh

belated AGW vote

I always liked how the second side of Before and After Science flowed almost as one track. It is some excellent sequencing.

I first heard that album on cassette, where it's sequenced differently: "Energy Fools the Magician" is second on side 2, and "Julie With..." follows "Kings Lead Hat" on side 1. It had made sense to me that the four bounciest tunes were all at the beginning, and then when I heard the LP sequence later it felt wrong. On the other hand, 12-year-old me just wanted to hear those four bouncy tunes sometimes.

Somewhere I read that Eno had recorded something like a hundred songs when preparing the album. I'm guessing Eno's not interested in releasing the leftovers, but I don't think there's another artist/period whose outtakes I'd rather hear.

Huh - I expected way more votes for Ambient 1.

"MUSIC FOR FILMS 2 (or MORE MUSIC FOR FILMS) " this isn't even a full eno record, is it? I know 3 isn't.

it is afaik, but there's a lotta overlap with Apollo for some incomprehensible reason, also it was US-only?

pretty sure it first appeared in the 11LP "Working Backwards" box set as an exclusive

It would be interesting to know if "Taking Tiger Mountain" has always been ranked as highly as it is in this poll, I could be wrong but I suspect not.

Rolling Stone "Blue Guide", 1983:

HCTWJ - 3 stars (lol)
TTM - 4 stars
AGW - 5 stars
BAAS - 4 stars
Music For Films - 2 stars
Music For Airports - 2 stars

and

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts - 5 stars

fuck you, Bart Testa

lol indeed

christgau

Here Come the Warm Jets [Island, 1974] A
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) [Island, 1975] A-
Another Green World [Island, 1976] A+
Discreet Music [Antilles, 1977] A-
Before and After Science [Island, 1978] A-
Music for Films [Antilles, 1978] B+
Music for Airports [Ambient/PVC, 1979] B
On Land [Editions EG, 1982] B+
Apollo: Atmospherics & Soundtracks [Editions EG, 1983] B

All of the albums other than AGW would've probably ranked higher in the absence of AGW. It's just that the bar is set so high.

I'd write in for Thursday Afternoon if I were to vote today. I was awake in the night and listened to the whole thing for the first time in a while. It's perfect.

I wrote this, half asleep.

I was ill once and so exhausted that consciousness was reduced to something close to a flat line, or a background hum. I made it to the garden, where I didn't process as such but lay in the thinnest of October sunshine, and let what was there fall into what remained of me: light spilling through oak leaves, the bonewhite arc of an aeroplane contrail, the subtlest of shift in breeze and air pattern, the flit of bird and insect. I don't recall if it was a Thursday.

I've been listening to a lot of Eno lately. I have never been a huge fan beyond his production work. I really like My Squelchy Life and Michael Brook's "Hybrid" which is listed as a collaboration with him and Daniel Lanois. From his older stuff, Before and After Science has been enjoyable.

before and after science is my favorite, with another green world my first love

xp Hybrid is a great and possibly under-appreciated LP

My daughter (9) has been going to sleep while listening to Thursday afternoon for probably as long as she can remember.

That stuff gets in your DNA, I swear.

Drifting off to it recently, I've convinced myself the birds in the backgrounds are long-tailed tits.
https://xeno-canto.org/species/Aegithalos-caudatus

Eno + tits checks out.