HERE COME THE WARM JETS

Brian Eno made a pretty good decision that he should go out on his own, so in 1973, he left Roxy Music in order to have more say in the music he was making. In hindsight, looking at it now, we can all pretty much see the influence he has had in rock and pop music (and continues to have), but also in his solo and soundtrack work. It seems you see his name everywhere now. But, he had to start out on his own somewhere, and the album "Here Come the Warm Jets" was that album.

Most people know that he does very little singing himself, and so this album is a rare occurrence where we get to hear his vocals on every track. But, also to prove that many other musicians agreed with his decision to go out on his own, he was able to recruit a lot of guests to help him out. He had a lot of help from former Roxy Music bandmates along with Robert Fripp (whom he had worked with previously on "(No Pussyfooting)"), Simon King and many others. He also made the smart decision to stick with the glam-pop sound and this made at least 3 of the tracks here sound a lot like the type of music Roxy Music was making at the time.

Needles in the Camel's Eye - Sounds very much like a Roxy Music track from that same period. Most of the songs on this side of the album are written by Eno and Manzanera, plus two other members from Roxy Music help out on many of the tracks. So the wall of noise is somewhat understandable.

The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch - The only lyrics on the album that really are based upon anything, the other songs are pretty much nonsensical. This one is based upon an urban legend about someone that breathes fire. This continues in the weird sounds of Roxy Music of the time, even with the kooky synths, but it's still quite a catchy song nonetheless, with a lot of Bowie influences.

Baby's on Fire - John Wetton helps out on bass on this one and so is Robert Fripp and Paul Rudolph on guitar. This one has a different atmosphere, but still has that evil sounding playfulness in Eno's vocals. The Fripp/Rudolph solo (which goes on for 3 minutes) in the break is great of course, and contrasts quite well with the "innocent-but-not" attitude of the vocals.

Cindy Tells Me - Manzanera returns one more time for this track. This track has a nice, retro doo-wop feeling to it, again not unlike some of Bowie's early songs. Some metallic effects swoop around over different parts of the track reminding you that this is not a typical pop track, but one with that avant-garde touch to it.

Driving Me Backwards - One thing I didn't mention earlier is that Simon King from Hawkwind is involved in the percussion on about every other track on this album, as he is on this track. This one has more of a later Eno sound to it, even with vocals. It is tense and a bit strung out in the vocals. Both Fripp and Wetton join in on this one too. The melody almost gives you a sense that you are listening to a song backwards.

On Some Faraway Beach - Busta Jones from Talking Heads and bandmate (from Roxy Music) Andy MacKay help out on bass and keyboards respectively on this track. This has a nice, mellow vibe to it and is centered around the piano riff. The vocals on this are multi-tracked wordless harmonics. It builds as it goes with synth layers giving it a nice, symphonic feel. Regular vocals come along far into the track, and has probably some of the most heartfelt lyrics and melody on the album.

Blank Frank - Fripp and Simon King come back on this track. This is the only track that gives Fripp co-writing credits. It has a very direct and hard beat and overall feel. The sarcastic sound is back in Eno's vocals and this matches well with the loudness of Fripp's hammered guitar strumming.

Dead Finks Don't Talk - Busta Jones comes back for this track and yet another Roxy cohort Paul Thompson helps out on percussion. Eno's vocals begin more as a spoken word lyric at first, but when he starts singing, it is much more understated this time, softer and quieter. It has some really kooky vocalizations later on in the track, just to remind you this is not your regular radio type music. According to the credits, Eno plays a snake guitar, whatever that is, but my bet is that it is on this song, as during the instrumental break, there is a guitar that sounds really slithery.

Some of Them Are Old - Eno plays almost everything on this track, except for some keyboards (which are played again by Andy Mackay) and a slide guitar by Lloyd Watson. This one uses multitracked vocals again in both the foreground and background. The harmonies are very nice here, somewhat similar to the harmonies that would show up a lot in the later album "Wrong Way Up" where Eno would collaborate with John Cale. The addition of the slide guitar is a nice surprise to the track.

Here Come the Warm Jets - Both Simon King and Paul Rudolph return on this last track. There is a weird effect here that sounds like a bunch of cellos playing on top of each other, or something like that while rolling percussion plays lightly behind it. It makes for a strange sound that Eno tries to make sound accessible, but I'm not so sure he succeeds. That's okay, because this is Eno after all, and we have come to not expect normal less often that we do expect it.

It's an odd way to end this art-pop of a record, but it still comes across as a nice bit of pop experimental-ism with shades of David Bowie, Roxy Music and King Crimson scattered throughout. How could that be a bad thing? As most everyone knows, Eno very seldom sang except for his first few solo albums, but I think, overall, the world is a better place because of it, as his strength was more in instrumentation and everything that doesn't involve him singing. But it's a pretty good album, not a masterpiece, but still one that would appeal to avant-pop and glam rock lovers. Needless to say, Eno didn't want to stray too far away from his Roxy Music roots in this case. There would be time for that later.