Another Green World

iTunes Review

It’s no accident that Brian Eno’s Another Green World often appears on critic’s lists of the gratest albums of all time. The album marks the point at which Brian Eno successfully reconciled his manifold identities; the pruning rock star, the recondite cynic, and the erudite bohemian coexist fruitfully on a single slab of wax, giving birth to an entire clutch of heretofore undreamed of musical genres in the process. Indeed, the album serves as something of a rorschach test for aspiring musicians. While some respond to the popwise sensibilities displayed on miniature masterpieces like “The Big Ship,” others find inspiration in the ambient experiments of the title track, while still others are stunned by the unorthodox instrumentation and eccentric sonic textures of tracks like “Golden Fishes.” Yet despite Another Green World’s dizzying eclecticism, the album always feels effortlessly cohesive. While some of Brian Eno’s more pop oriented work is often weighed down by self-conscious irony, here Eno emerges as a sincere visionary, gently guiding his listeners through the musical worlds that he has been fortunate enough to uncover.