HERE COME THE WARM JETS

This was a nice 're-'discovery. Back in the day I discarded this album for being too Brian Wilson instead of Brian Eno, but I gave it another try and was pleasantly surprised generally. Some of the music sounds old-fashioned but other songs are downright visionary.

We find Eno shortly after leaving Roxy Music here and his songwriting was still following the blueprint of the music he created with that band. So we hear a lot of Velvet Underground type art-rock mixed with more personal sonic experimentation. The result is somewhat uneven, some of the songs still sound fresh and modern, others sound hopelessly dated. Tracks like Needle, Baby On Fire, Driving Me Backwards and the title tracks still continue to inspire artists and are a must-hear.

Vocally, Eno does a decent job, but in this field he has competitors by the names of David Bowie, Bryan Ferry and John Cale, and he misses the depth and charisma of said heroes to be entirely convincing. Songs like Driving Me Backwards are a grating listen because of it, despite being original and intriguing. Other tracks work just fine.

This album deserves an excellent rating for its importance, personality and originality, but the songwriting is somewhat uneven, with too much standard art-rock fare burying the gems.