Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of Sacks & Co.)
This past October Verve released Brian Eno’s 22nd solo studio album. I first became aware of Eno in the early eighties, when I was living in Connecticut and spending all of my free time in New York City. I quickly became a faithful listener to John Schaefer’s radio program New Sounds, through which I learned that Eno was a prodigious polymath, experimenting with approaches to minimalism when he was not working on production projects with David Bowie. One of my greatest regrets was giving up the Working Backwards: 1983-1973 box set, which never made the transition from vinyl to digital.
The new release, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, is Eno’s 22nd studio album and his first since Reflection, which came out in 2017. On this release Eno is joined once again by his brother Roger, as well as by his daughter Darla and his niece Cecily. However, if some of the performers are basically “newcomers,” the accompaniment to Eno’s lyrics still captures many of his “ambient” tropes. However, if his past work often evoked sinister tropes of alienation, he is now directing his “dark rhetoric” to the current climate crisis and the frustrating inaction on the part of those with the power to change prevailing conditions.
Personally, I continue to be a pessimist when it comes to climate issues. It is hard for me to avoid recalling one of the most cynical British tropes: “I’m all right, Jack; screw you all!” No one is “all right” these days; but those that prefer denial are certainly doing a first-rate job of exercising it. So, while I sympathize with Eno for his position and the rhetorical devices he can evoke, I fear that any “message” in the tracks on this new release are unlikely to have any positive effect.
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