HERE COME THE WARM JETS

Originally released simply under the name ENO, the debut album of BRIAN ENO finds him recently straight out of Roxy Music after butting heads with the Bryan Ferry on musical direction and after a proto-ambient drone experimental album with Robert Fripp of King Crimson, ENO went solo and since has released decades worth of material. HERE COME THE WARM JETS falls more into the Roxy Music camp rather than the more famous ambient music he would dish out a few years down the road, however ENO shows without a doubt that he's more than capable of conjuring up truly addictive art rock with super catchy hooks all dressed up with his experimental frosting that resonates and reverberates well into the modern day.

In fact i'm beginning to think that all roads modern and musical lead back to the 70s. While this kind of playful art rock owes a lot to the juxtaposition of Bryan Ferry's 50s rock'n'roll fetish mixed with ENO's futuristic surrealism found on the first two Roxy Music albums, there is enough tweaking around the edges to give HERE COME THE WARM JETS a rather unique and innovative sound that echoes well into the 21st century. Think of all those indie rock and indie pop bands that have emerged since the 90s. I swear that tracks like "Baby's On Fire" could fit in undetected on albums by Animal Collective or Of Montreal. In fact i hear all kinds of sounds on this album which lead me to believe that bands like Built To Spill, Modest Mouse and the army of other indie disciples found a lot to latch onto from this early experimental rock phase of ENO's career just like metal bands worship Black Sabbath and progsters cite King Crimson as ground zero and so forth and so on.

The music on HERE COME THE WARM JETS is really nothing more than brilliant. It retains all the melodic catchiness and proto-punk energy of the first two Roxy Music albums and ups the ante for experimentalism which obviously displays the differences between ENO and Ferry as the Roxy Music albums became more mainstream after ENO's departure. This debut album also show's ENO as a fairly entrenched force in the musical world early in his career resulting in an army of guest musicians lending a hand on this one. Not only do we get Phil Manzanera, Paul Thompson and Andy Mackay from Roxy Music helping out, but also Robert Fripp and John Wetton from King Crimson, Simon King of Hawkwind, Bill MacCormick of Quiet Sun and Matching Mole fame as well as Paul Rudolph from The Pink Fairies and still others leading up to quite a diverse and full richness of sounds that gives this album an instant epic feel to it.

HERE COME THE WARM JETS is an excellent blend of art pop mixed with glam rock with sprinklings of avant-garde. While apparent from the get go that this is a branch of the Roxy Music school, ENO was allowed to shine without restraint proving that he had full control of his musical reins that allowed everything to be rationed into a perfect balance. With nasally vocals and screaming guitars mixed with pummeling bass lines and subdued doowop melodies ENO managed to marry some of the more esoteric idiosyncrasies of Frank Zappa into the accessible delivery of glam rock. Quite a feat considering how much is crammed into these tracks. At the end of the day, it's not the technical wizardry that makes this a fun ride, it's the clever catchy hooks that keep you coming back. ENO would put out a couple more art pop albums before venturing into his better known ambient phase however this music is as exciting and dynamic as anything in his other career phases and it's obvious why it was uncovered by all those indie rockers who utilized many aspects of this music that began way back in 1973. 4.5 rounded down