RS #432: Brian Eno, Here Come The Warm Jets

#432

Brian Eno, Here Come The Warm Jets

Release Date: 1974
Previously Owned: No
First Time Listen: Yes

Brian Eno, Here Come The Warm Jets
Here Come The Glam Album Cover

Impressions: I mostly know Brian Eno: Top-Notch Producer who brought out great work with Talking Heads, U2 and his stint with Roxy Music. And Brian Eno: Ambient Music Pioneer. But I dont know much about Brian Eno: Solo Rock Star. Let’s put this on… Catchy, rocking guitar on “Needles In The Camel’s Eye” almost sounds like Boat or Pavement. In the running for strangest name of a song yet, “The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch” has punky, angular rock with crazy, glitchy keyboards that sounds like if T-Rex dropped the cool and went experimental. Sometimes glammy, sometimes precient of Talking Heads, Television, Wire, XTC 2nd wave King Crimson. Eno’s vocals have a residual Roxy Music effete sneer to them, but he sounds much more like a rock dork (in bizarre tracks like “Baby’s On Fire”) than the suave vocals of Brian Ferry. Most of the tracks are pretty out there, with Eno turning the knobs and producing some really crazy sounds. But, when it looks like things are going South, the catchy hooks and Robert Fripp’s spiralling, mechanized guitar genius holds it all together. Love the cinematic “On Some Faraway Beach” with lyrics like “Given the chance/I’ll die like a baby/On Some Faraway Beach” and the jaunty piano driven “Dead Finks Don’t Talk.” Not a long album, but dense… a lot to take in. I really enjoyed the expansive experimentation of this one, it still sounds very fresh.

Starred Songs: “Needle’s In The Camera’s Eye,” “Here Come The Warm Jets”
Sneaky Track: “Baby’s On Fire,” “On Some Faraway Beach”
Should this be on the list: Yes.
Will you listen to this again? 
SureSummary: Pre-punk prog-rock solo album is challenging but still sublimely catchy and dorktastic.
Rating: ★★★★1/2