Here Come the Warm Jets
September 17, 2006
"Here Come the Warm Jets" by Brian Eno
1974
A landmark album that isn't really all that popular and a high influential work that hasn't really spawned any imitators, "Here Come the Warm Jets" is an anomaly in 1970s rock music history. Experimental without slipping into prog rock pretentiousness or falling over the edge of accessibility, the album is a strange, fuzz-drenched trip for anyone who can appreciate singsong vocals, arcane production techniques and lyrical surrealism. The most grating of Eno's early albums, it's also his most out-and-out rockin', avoiding almost entirely the gentler soundscapes that would define almost everything he did from "Another Green World" on. Instead there are blaring, scraping walls of noise, waves of feedback and always Eno right in the center, telling his strange, senseless tales. The album is a single, undividable classic, but one highlight stands out well above the rest: "Baby's on Fire," in particular Robert Fripp's mind altering guitar solo. Opening with the darkly funny line "Baby's on fire/better throw her in the water/Look at her laughing/like a heifer to the slaughter," the song is one of the best in Eno's catalog. Much like the work Can was doing at this point in the seventies, the album was remarkably ahead of its time, still sounding as fresh and relevant as anything released today.
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