Brian Eno: I’ll Come Running

Continuing my focus on the music of 1975, today’s selection is from album #3 on my Top 20 list. These last 3 albums on my list are three of my favorite albums of all time, and I listen to each of them multiple times per year (and have been doing so for decades). In other years, Brian Eno‘s Another Green World could be #1 on my Top 20 because I think it is a perfect album. It is definitely my favorite Eno album, and it is one of the most important pop releases ever recorded. After his early work with Roxy Music and the groundbreaking compositions of his first two solo albums, Eno perfected his combination of rock, art pop, electronic music, and minimalist experimentation with Another Green World. The album flows from short interludes to more traditionally composed pieces, and each transition is perfection. Unlike other prog releases of the time, the album is not an in-your-face conceptual collection of songs. Instead, the concept is delivered via Eno’s production mastery in a way that mesmerizes and surprises throughout. After your first listen, you are left wondering if what you just heard was as amazing as you thought. After a second listen, you start to determine that it was. After several more listens, you find that you probably missed 50% of what is going on. Even now, after more listens than I can count, I still hear things buried throughout the compositions that strike me in new ways. Sometimes, the interludes draw my attention. Sometimes, the longer pieces surprise me with their complexity. That is about the highest praise I can give to a piece of musical art.

There are a lot of interesting Eno techniques you can read about, such as his use of Oblique Strategies, if you want to learn more about this album.

If you are interested in other years, check out my Year in Review series.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

• Best of 1975