BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE

Eno made a good move in forsaking everything he had done previously and going all ambient. Maybe it was this album that helped him do that. Anyway, "Before And After Science" has got a mix of the eccentro-pop of his earlier solo albums and the ambient stuff he toyed with earlier (and would explore in depth for years to come). The only problem is that while at their best, these two "sides" of Eno are great, but here, he runs aground and it's all medicore at best. Songs like "No One Receiving" and "Kurt's Rejoinder" hearken back to earlier solos albums with some success while "Through Hollow Lands" is more of the ambient stuff, with less success. It's rather uninteresting, really. Eno would do much better ambient work than that. The pop songs are the highlight of the album as they are more interesting. The biggest problem with this album is that is lacks the cohesiveness, specifically found in "Another Green World." That album explored ambient music with a little pop with much better results, mostly because everything flowed, but here everything sounds fractured, like it was just cut and pasted to follow in the footsteps of David Bowie's "Low". If you are a big fan of Eno, go ahead and get this ablum, but don't make it one of your first few Eno purchases. And is it just me, or does "Matte Kudasai" by King Crimson sound a lot like "Julie With..." from this album?

Standout songs: "Backwater," "King's Lead Hat"