Another Day on Earth

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Another Day on Earth
Studio album by Brian Eno
Released June 13, 2005 (UK, Europe)
June 14, 2005 (U.S.)
Recorded Home Studio
Genre Experimental rock, electronic, ambient
Length 46:50
Label Hannibal Records
Producer Brian Eno
Professional reviews
Brian Eno chronology
Wrong Way Up
(1990)		 Another Day on Earth
(2005)		 Beyond Even (1992 - 2006) (2007)

Another Day on Earth is an album by Brian Eno, released in 2005 on Hannibal Records.

Contents

[edit] Overview

This is the first Eno album to chiefly contain vocals in more than two decades. Speaking of the album, Eno said, "The first one I've done like that for a very long time...25 years or so". In addition, he explained his current thoughts on lyrics in music; "Song-writing is now actually the most difficult challenge in music," he confessed.

“ It's very easy to make music now but lyrics are really the last very hard problem in music. What I think lyrics have to do is engage a certain part of your brain in a sort of search activity so your brain wants to say, 'Here are some provocative clues as to what this song might be about'. ”

[edit] Track listing

  1. "This"
  2. "And Then So Clear"
  3. "A Long Way Down"
  4. "Going Unconscious"
  5. "Caught Between"
  6. "Passing Over"
  7. "How Many Worlds"
  8. "Bottomliners"
  9. "Just Another Day"
  10. "Under"
  11. "Bonebomb"
  12. "The Demon of the Mines" (Japan only bonus track)

[edit] Details

1. "This" (3:33)

Guitar - Leo Abraham

2. "And Then So Clear" (5:49)

Keyboards [Triton] - Jon Hopkins

3. "A Long Way Down" (2:40)

Guitar - Leo Abrahams, Steve Jones

4. "Going Unconscious" (4:22)

Loops [Pulse Loop] - Brad Laner
Voice [Spoken] - Inge Zalaliene

5. "Caught Between" (4:25)

Guitar [Lead] - Leo Abrahams
Lyrics by - Brian Eno
Lyrics by [Co-lyricist] - Danny Hillis, Eck Ogilvie-Grant

6. "Passing Over" (4:25)

Guitar [Space Signal Guitar] - Steve Jones

7. "How Many Words" (4:47)

Lyrics by - Brian Eno
Lyrics by [Co-lyricist] - Michel Faber
Violin - Nell Catchpole

8. "Bottomliners" (3:59)

Piano, Synthesizer [Drone], Drums - Peter Schwalm

9. "Just Another Day" (4:21)

Composed by - Peter Schwalm
Loops - Brian Eno , Peter Schwalm

10. "Under" (5:19)

Drums - Willie Green
Effects [Occasional Signals] - Dino
Effects [Splutters] - Barry Andrews

11. "Bonebomb" (3:09)

Voice - Aylie Cooke

[edit] The music

(See Miscellanea for citations)
Eno recorded and mixed most of the album on a Mac, using Logic, over a period of four years. He also engineered it himself, "because otherwise I would have had to spend six years in a commercial studio and pay staff, and that would have become too expensive".

"Bottomliners" and "Under" were first worked on about six years previously, on a DA88, the latter songs' drumming being supplied by Willie Green. On the former, and on the ballad "And Then So Clear" he pitch-shifted his voice up an octave, using the gender-changing function on a Digitech Pro Vocalist creating a vocoder-like effect. His studio features a selection of hardware including a Lexicon Jam Man loop sampler and an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer.

The album is actually built around the "And Then So Clear" song. He says "... In one day, actually, I pretty much finished it ... I liked it so much, and I thought, how I am going release this song, and I thought, I have to write some others".

On the title track he repeatedly cut up the main phrase, so that "the listener had little windows on it". Similar "cut-up" methodolgies were used for the lyrics of "This", in that he used his computer to generate some of the words.

For the ambientesque "A Long Way Down" Eno manually synchronised his vocals with an out of time keyboard melody, and on "Going Unconscious" he went back to using Koan generative music software for the textural background.

The distinctions between songs and instrumentals which contain vocals are deliberately blurred, particularly on the track "How Many Worlds" ..... "There's just enough voice in there to make you hear it as a song, making it a bluff, a deceit".

The final track on the album, "Bonebomb", was inspired by a newspaper story about a Palestinian girl who becomes a suicide bomber[1]. The title refers to a point made by an Israeli doctor that when a suicide bomber detonates, his/her bones are converted into small pieces of shrapnel which are part of the destructive power of the bomb.

[edit] Personnel

  • Vocals, multiple instruments – Brian Eno
  • Keyboards – Jon Hopkins
  • Guitar – Leo Abrahams
  • Violin – Duchess Nell Catchpole
  • Drums – Willie Green
  • Spoken vocals – Aylie Cooke
  • Mastering – Simon Heyworth
  • Artwork by [Design & Layout] - Sarah Vermeersch
  • Photography [Back] - Qin Siyuan
  • Photography [Front], Artwork By [Cover Design] - Brian Eno

[edit] Miscellanea

  • The album was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005.
  • The 2005 psychological thriller The Jacket features excerpts from "Going Unconscious", and an alternate mix of "The Demon Of The Mines" (from the Japanese edition).
  • A slightly longer version of "And Then So Clear" was played on Echoes (syndicated on US NRI stations) in November & December 2003.
  • "Under" dates back to 1991's aborted, unreleased My Squelchy Life album, and was featured on the live-action/animated film Cool World soundtrack. It was also present on the Eno Box II: Vocals album.
  • Eno attributes the melancholy sound of the album to his age. The mood comes from "realizing that your life is finite. You don't realize this when you're 23, when it seems to be endless".

[edit] Charts

Year Chart Peak position
2005 USA Top Electronic Albums #13
2005 USA Top Independent Albums #33

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Eno's Evolution", St. Petersburg Times, 2005-06-03. Retrieved on 2008-02-22. 

[edit] External links

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