Thursday, September 4, 2008

Eno and Byrne - Everything That happens Will Happen Today

I got the knew Eno/Byrne collaboration and I've been listening to it for the past few days. It's not bad, but it's not that great either. I liked Eno's Another Day on Earth (2005) much better. Like their other collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today has a few great tracks and a bunch of only OK songs.

Check out Eno's Hoodless Sweatshirt (sick) and Byrne trying too hard (again) to look smart:



I don't know it just sounds like Eno's arangements are a little weak and he's using too many canned insturments/effects. Likewise, Byrne just sounds sort of old by trying to sound young and vibrant. At times he sounds like Talking Heads Era Byrne, at other times he sounds like Byrne a la Bowie or even Byrne a la Bob Dylan.

While the album starts out sounding like a collection of Flaming Lips B-Sides it eventually finds its stride. That's not to knock some of the songwriting. The melodies are great. A lot of it is the kind of stuff that, like Rolos, really sticks with you. Another way of putting it is that it's the kind of songs that when you hear them the second time, you know you've only heard them once before, but it seems like you've heard them lots of times before, in a good way. That's Eno's knack I guess. I wonder how many of the insturments he really plays.

The one true standout on the album is Strange Overtones:

No comments: