The first track on the album, Needle In A Camel’s Eye, is like a return to the first Roxy Music album, and it even sounds like it’s Bryan Ferry singing. It isn’t Ferry, however, but Eno doing a passable Ferry impersonation. However, fellow Roxy musicians Phil Manzanera on guitar and Andy Mackay on saxophone do appear on the album, along with a host of guest musicians including Simon King of Hawkwind.
There are all sorts of behind-the-scenes mad inventiveness from Eno to get the end sound, such as hiring musicians from diverse genres and then directing them using interpretive dance, followed by heavy manipulation of the tracks in post-production. All of this isn’t really evident in the finished tracks, but they are the kind of art-pop electronica craziness that you might expect from Eno, while remaining very good tunes.
Underneath are a variety of musical styles, with each song very much being its own thing while still being part of the whole. The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch features a great bleepy synth solo that sounds like R2D2 taking his turn on the karaoke. Baby’s On Fire has a pulsing Tangerine Dream-style synth beat over which Robert Fripp solos a fantastic grungy, squealy guitar. Some Of Them Are Old feels like there’s barber shop quartet underlying the synth weirdness.
Some tracks are slow and hypnotic – Driving Me Backwards sounds like it has some back-tracking in it, On Some Faraway Beach is expansive and swirling. Other tracks are more upbeat – Blank Frank uses a Bo Diddly beat to give a proto-punk feel and possibly makes fun of Bryan Ferry (Blank Frank = BF = Bryan Ferry?). The track Dead Finks Tell No Tales is almost certainly a dig at Ferry; I’m guessing the two didn’t part on the best of terms.
Somehow, Eno manages to be post-punk New Wave before there’s even properly been punk yet. If Talking Heads and the B52s don’t cite this as an inspiration, I’d be very surprised.
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