I've been listening to a lot of Eno and other ambient music recently. Four weeks ago, I had knee replacement surgery, and sleep has been hard to come by - but the relaxing sound of some ambient Eno relaxes me and soon has me in the Land of Nod. This album works particularly well.
This indicates a limitation of this exercise. A five star album is going to be one which excites me, touches me with its beauty, makes me feel alive and challenged, or just shows me a real good time. Ambient music is designed explicitly to do none of those things. It's meant to enhance an atmosphere, without imposing itself on the situation. And the eighteen pieces here (average length under two and a half minutes) do just that. Everything here is peaceful, atmospheric, says what it comes to say, then leaves. I'm not going to single out any piece, as deliberately none of them stand out. But there's some beautifully restrained contributions from 1970s luminaries such as repeat Eno collaborator, Robert Fripp, Phil Collins, John Cale, Fred Frith among many others.
So as an ambient album, it's a complete success. Very possible to ignore, yet wen the ear zones in, the beauty of the minimal music is revealed. If anything, the variety of the pieces makes it more satisfying than it's famed predecessor, Music For Airports.
4* - a masterpiece in its genre.
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