2000 Great Songs #1504: On Some Faraway Beach
Brian Eno 's first solo album after leaving Roxy Music , 1974's Here Come The Warm Jets , is one of the all time great just-left-the-band debuts (at least as great as the first Peter Gabriel album and the initial rash of former Beatles releases). It's eclectic to a fault, from glam to prog to proto-punk; but my favorite track on the record takes a pass on the album's overall weirdness. "On Some Faraway Beach" is one of the most beautiful things Eno ever recorded, introducing the ambient balladry he'd pick up again on the title track of the album which followed a few months later, Taking Tiger Mountain , and really mine on 1975's Another Green World and the second half of 1977's Before And After Science . The track takes its own sweet time warming up, nearly three minutes of a simple piano ballad with some lush orchestration and vocal choir, Eno's voice eventually surfacing and adding an entire new level of beauty to the song. I view the s...
