Thursday Afternoon

Brian Eno | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 31, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: E.G. Records
• ASIN: B000003S1T
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,008 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Limited Edition Japanese "Mini Vinyl" CD, faithfully reproduced using original LP artwork including the inner sleeve. Features most recently mastered audio including bonus tracks where applicable. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brian Eno's "Thursday Afternoon"., April 3, 2005

By 

Louie Bourland (Garden Grove CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thursday Afternoon (Audio CD)

When the CD format first began to take shape, legendary producer/composer/ambient pioneer Brian Eno jumped at the opportunity to create a piece of music specifically for the medium. The end result is the 1985 masterwork "Thursday Afternoon" which still stands strong as one of ambient music's shining moments 20 years later.
"Thursday Afternoon" is a single continuous 61-minute piece which remains unchanging in mood despite its epic length. Throughout its hour-long running time, there is a quiet single chord which is held through the entire piece. Single piano notes, bell-like tones, subtle chord washes and a light drone all settle themselves around the main central chord creating a lush beautiful landscape in sound. There is nothing compilicated or difficult about this piece. It is built with the most basic musical elements and is kept at its most simplistic form throughout. This is what makes "Thursday Afternoon" such an intruiguing work - its beauty of simplicity without becoming boring.
As mentioned above, "Thursday Afternoon" continues to be a pioneering ambient effort 20 years after its original release. Surely, it ranks among Brian Eno's best instrumental work and fits in perfectly with other works such as "Music For Airports", "Discreet Music" and his other hour-long ambient/minimalist opus "Neroli" which he would create in 1993.
An Essential Ambient Masterpiece!!

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars will eno please do this again?, September 30, 2000

By 

"phuq23" (west vancouver, b.c. Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thursday Afternoon (Audio CD)

having listened deeply to all of enos recorded work, i can think of no other title (except possibly "on land") that has consistently provided a transcendental listening experience with every single play.spanning 61 minutes, thursday afternoon is a somewhat commited listening experience, which reveals numerous subtle shifts in tone and melody that is uniquely eno-managing to evoke emotion and feeling in a context (ambient music) that is difficult to bring those things into alot of the time.many passive listeners will find this to be aural wallpaper, but for an active listener seeking to escape into a beautiful mesh of sound, this disc is a sure winner.12 years after purchasing this cd, i still find it to be one of the most appealing things to listen to when scanning my cd collection for things to chill out to.eno followed this cd up with "neroli"- a sort of companion piece to thursday afternoon, as far as its 1-track format is concerned, but thursday afternoon is the superior disc, manging to blend the atmospheres of on land, apollo, and the pearl into one glorious 61 minute excursion.take a chance with this one-highly recommended.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extended work., June 14, 2005

By 

Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thursday Afternoon (Audio CD)

Having spent the past several years exploring a somewhat more theme-based form of ambient composition, "Thursday Afternoon" is in many ways a return to form for Brian Eno, embracing instead the structure of "Discreet Music" and "Music For Airports"-- there are multiple themes that are complimentary and of varying lengths that are repeated at uneven intervals. The results are remarkably astounding.

The sound of "Thursday Afternoon" is quiet, relaxed, almost soporific. A haze exists in the background, with the melody sounding like a gentle electric piano. What it somehow manages to do is convey in its lack of intrigue exactly that-- it holds your interest, remarkably for the over an hour of length that it stretches.

Because "Thursday Afternoon" is one extended composition, it may be harder to digest than other works. Nonetheless, its a fine piece worth investigation for any fan of ambient music.