Eno

Here Come the Warm Jets - Island Records 1974

Tracks: 1. Needles in the Camel's Eye / 2. The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch / 3. Baby's on Fire / 4. Cindy Tells Me / 5. Driving Me Backwards / 6. On Some Faraway Beach / 7. Blank Frank / 8. Dead Finks Don't Talk / 9. Some of Them Are Old / 10. Here Come the Warm Jets

Comments:

Eno's debut solo album from January 1974 is one of the truly original albums in rock history. The music can be very difficult to label, and some may argue that it is not really rock. The music is at once marked by melody, different instrumentation, harmony and dissonance. Eno’s lyrics are often both mysterious and thoughtful. Whatever label you might want to put on the music, there should probably be no doubt that this album is the one which comes closest to the style Eno helped create on the first two Roxy Music albums and in fact it is perhaps also the most easily accessible. At any rate it contains a wealth of fine numbers which have shown strong durability.

If I was to compile a 80 minutes ”Best of Eno" exclusively from his vocal albums, there is no doubt that "Here Come the Warm Jets", will be strongly represented; in the close competition with the sequel "Taking Tiger Mountain"

"Needles in the Camel's Eye" is almost pre-punk, a little in the style of David Bowie's "Heroes" - an obvious choice for a "best of". The same applies to the second track "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" which is rock, very much as Roxy Music style. "Baby's on Fire" is a bit weird and crass, and a track I would probably choose to omit. In turn, the Lou Reed-like "Cindy Tells Me" is a completely obvious choice.

"Driving Me Backwards", with its very strange noises and loose structure, sounds like something from a soundtrack - too weird for a "best of". There seems to be a bit of Phil Spector inpiration on "On Some Faraway Beach", which has a very long instrumental intro, but which, eventually turns into being a vocal track; and a very fine one, too. "Blank Frank", written in collaboration with Robert Fripp again is highly experimental and over in the crass department. Experimental may also be called "Dead Finks Do not Talk"; this track, though, has also both charm and melody, and is thus an entirely obvious song for a selection for my ”best of Eno”.

Melodic is also "Some of Them are Old" which has a somewhat strange interlude, but otherwise is a relative classic pop / rock composition. The title track is a punk instrumental has something alluring about it and the number may easily with your mind. If

I were to compare Eno with other originals in rock during this period names that come to mind are Syd Barrett and Alex Chilton, and fans of these other great artists, I would think are likely to fall for this exciting album.

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