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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Re-transfers"? Wot? Good music, though., June 15, 2004
2 cents on the music: very good, very wonderful, very Eno. Unabashed pop (Backwater, Here He Comes) mixes with artier WTFs (Kurt's Rejoinder), nervous funk (No One Receiving), and spacier dreamscapes (Energy, Julie). I quite prefer the second half of this album, which in its textural bliss culminates in the gorgeous Spider and I, which is a fitting farewell to Eno's "vocal" era. As on his previous album Another Green World, Eno makes use of the deft rhythm battery of Phil Collins and Percy Jones, who were both playing in Brand X at the time. (And one of `em was in Genesis, too, I think.) For all his talk about being a non-musician, blah blah blah, Eno knew the value of hiring top creative players, and he himself is no slouch at playing imaginative keyboards - listen to that almost orchestral buildup in Julie With. So, the music gets four stars from me, even if a couple of the tracks grate the nerves on occasion.But if you're reading this, chances are you're wondering about the SOUND of these reissues. I had cassettes of these early Eno albums back in college, I had original CDs, I had the 1993 boxsets...and I figured this time out, we'd get the once-and-for-all, definitive, hi-quality editions we'd all been waiting for. And...er...well, it's nothing that drastic. These are not remasters, these are not remixes, these are "retransfers"; to my ears, this apparently means a wee bit more clarity, a wee bit higher CD master volume (but not much), and that's it. No doubt they sound better than the original CDs, but it's not much of an improvement over what was heard in the Vocal and Instrumental boxsets over a decade ago. And those were needing an upgrade, if you ask me. The problem is in the original mixes. No One Receiving, for example, buries the drums and removes almost all the visceral punch you could expect from a track with two basses. It's maddening to have to adjust your home EQ/volume to try and bring this track out of its shell. On the other hand, Kurt's Rejoinder puts the bass WAY OUT THERE, and I'm left wondering why Eno couldn't have found a happy medium somewhere. Actually, it's some of the bass/drum tracks on Another Green World that frustrate me the most, but there are bits on this album, particularly the leadoff track, that could have used some 2004 tweaking. To clarify, I'm not complaining about the analog beauty of the album. Those keyboard washes in Julie With sound wonderful to me, better than any digital recording. There's a "datedness" to the sound of this record that cannot be replaced (or fixed). But I'm still left with the opinion that these latest reissues are not all they could have been. Nevertheless, these have become the definitive editions for now, so grab this album and its predecessor, have your remote handy, turn out the lights, cue up and enjoy.
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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eno's True Masterpiece!, August 25, 2004
There are many people who belive that 'Here Come the Warm Jets' is Eno's best album & there are an equal amount of people who are behind 'Another Green World', but I believe Eno's true masterpeice is 'Before and After Science'. It utilizes everything that was great about Brian Eno, from his fast paced glam rock to his slow, meditative confessionals, and even leaves room for some ambient music(which Eno invented). Whereas 'Here Comes the...' was sometimes overflowing with too much "glam", and 'Another...' was slightly overdoing it with the ambience/instrumentals, 'Before and...' strikes just the right balance. The first side is mostly in the same vein as 'Here Comes...' with some fabulous songs like "Kings Lead Hat". Side 2 on the other hand is THE gratest side of music in rock history. It is basically a mix of what Eno experimented with on Side 2 of David Bowie's 'Low' and what he himself did on 'Another Green World'. Every song on Side 2 has shimmering beauty that I have never heard anywhere else. 'Here he Comes', 'Julie With...', 'By This River', & 'Spider and I' are all perfect songs, and 'Through Hollow Lands' is one of Eno's most beautiful instrumentals (along with Sombre Reptiles, Becalmed, & anything off 'Music for Airports). Even though Eno made around 6 other classic solo albums (Another,Here Come,Taking Tiger Mountain,& Ambient 1,3,&4), I have always felt the 'Before and After Science is not only his greatest achievement, but one of the most amazing recordings in rock history. Do yourself a favor and buy it now!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Brian Eno's finest albums, March 5, 2005
Brian Eno is one of the most marvelous paradoxes in all of music. He is both a musical genius and yet not the least virtuosic. On the one hand, as he is avid to emphasize, he is at most an average musician. He is competent as a guitarist, a keyboardist, and bass player, but hardly brilliant. If one hears a strikingly brilliant instrumental solo on a number, it is almost invariably the result of a contribution by one of the many musical guests on his albums. On the other hand, he is astonishingly masterful at constructing exquisite musical competitions, layering one marvelous element upon another to produce music that is both energizing and utterly unique. Eno possesses an almost preternatural ability to add a new wrinkle that cranks up the level excitement to a higher level, almost functioning like a sonic masseur who locates one musical pressure point after another with his subtle variations and machinations. BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE is one of his very finest albums. I would put it on a short list of his most essential works, along with the three other vocal albums (HERE COME THE WARM JETS, TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN BY STRATEGY, and ANOTHER GREEN WORLD) and one purely instrumental album, AMBIENT IV. Although he is at best an adequate vocalist, his vocal albums have a richness of texture and content that is missing in all of the instrumental efforts. To say that the instrumental albums are more boring than the vocal ones doesn't quite get at the point: the instrumental albums seem empty at their core. They are not bad, but except for the sole exception noted above, none of them come anywhere near to the level of the four vocal albums.
Although BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE was Eno's fourth (and up to the present, last-one fears that he may never attempt another) vocal album, it is possibly his most pop oriented. Although none of the cuts was a candidate for a top 40 hit, this album is far more accessible than anything else he has recorded. This could be a fault if the individual songs were not so marvelously done. Although this is not my favorite vocal album, it nonetheless has several cuts that I enjoy as much as anything that Eno has done. Nothing on this album approaches the extraordinary beauty of a cut like "Everything Merges With the Night" from ANOTHER GREEN WORLD, but it does contain several remarkable numbers. My personal favorites are "Blackwater," a joyously surreal nautical tale that is notable for its hard driving energy and relentless forward momentum, and "King's Lead Hat," which shows Eno at his creative peak. Other highlights include the opening cut "No One Receiving," the fascinating "Kurt's Rejoinder," "Energy Frees the Magician," and the gentle, folkish "Here He Comes."
I originally got Eno's albums around the time that they were first released, and over the years they have provided me with as much consistent enjoyment as anyone I have listened to. Now that most of his better albums have been re-released on CD, all fans of music should avail themselves of this opportunity to experience these albums firsthand.
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by Brian Eno 
