Another Day on Earth

Infobox Album | Name = Another Day on Earth
Type = Album
Artist = 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
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|2.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3tsqoayaeijp link]
*Pitchfork Media (6.1/10) [http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/17482/Brian_Eno_Another_Day_on_Earth link]
*"PopMatters" Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/e/enobrian-anotherday.shtml link]
Last album = "Wrong Way Up"
(1990)
This album = "Another Day on Earth"
(2005)
Next album = "Beyond Even (1992 - 2006)" (2007)

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

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.

Track listing

#"This"
#"And Then So Clear"
#"A Long Way Down"
#"Going Unconscious"
#"Caught Between"
#"Passing Over"
#"How Many Worlds"
#"Bottomliners"
#"Just Another Day"
#"Under"
#"Bonebomb"
#"The Demon of the Mines" (Japan only bonus track)

Details

1. "This" (3:33):Guitar - Leo Abraham2. "And Then So Clear" (5:49):Keyboards [Triton] - Jon Hopkins3. "A Long Way Down" (2:40):Guitar - Leo Abrahams, Steve Jones4. "Going Unconscious" (4:22):Loops [Pulse Loop] - Brad Laner:Voice [Spoken] - Inge Zalaliene5. "Caught Between" (4:25):Guitar [Lead] - Leo Abrahams:Lyrics by - Brian Eno:Lyrics by [Co-lyricist] - Danny Hillis, Eck Ogilvie-Grant6. "Passing Over" (4:25):Guitar [Space Signal Guitar] - Steve Jones7. "How Many Words" (4:47):Lyrics by - Brian Eno:Lyrics by [Co-lyricist] - Michel Faber:Violin - Nell Catchpole8. "Bottomliners" (3:59):Piano, Synthesizer [Drone] , Drums - Peter Schwalm9. "Just Another Day" (4:21):Composed by - Peter Schwalm:Loops - Brian Eno , Peter Schwalm10. "Under" (5:19):Drums - Willie Green:Effects [Occasional Signals] - Dino:Effects [Splutters] - Barry Andrews11. "Bonebomb" (3:09):Voice - Aylie Cooke

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 [cite news
url = http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=3748
title = Eno's Evolution
accessdate = 2008-02-22
publisher = St. Petersburg Times
date = 2005-06-03] . 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.

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

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).
* The song "Bonebomb" was featured on the soundtrack that accompanied the Prada Spring 2008 fashion show in Milan, in 2007.
* 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".

Charts

Notes

External links

* [http://www.anotherdayonearth.com/ Official site]
* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/adoelyrics.html Song lyrics]
* [http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct05/articles/brianeno.htm "SoundOnSound" article]
* [http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_solo_eno/ "Mix" article]
* [http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=3748 Album's Russian release]
* [http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/enobrian/anotherdayonearth Multi-review links]