Day 0765 - Brutal Youth

Elvis Costello "Brutal Youth" (1994)

The book mentions Costello having recorded albums of surf and classical music.... so in a way it's a pity that they haven't really looked at those, instead selecting this one which returns to his early sound of melodic, yet biting rock music.

Having said that, the album does seem to wrap in different sounds that Costello had been playing around with, from jazz and soul flavours, piano balladry, and Beatles/Wilson-esque vocal harmonies which helped to keep things interesting.

As with all his other albums here, I enjoyed this and would happily listen to it again.

Day 0369 - Before and After Science

Brian Eno "Before and After Science" (1977)

Eno collaborates with a catalogue of artists including Robert Fripp and even Phil Collins. As with his other solo albums that I've listened to so far, he manages to incorporate interesting audio textures, avant garde techniques and, here, some occasionally virtuosic performances into a cohesive and often quite 'pop' sounding whole.

This album doesn't stand out above the other two of his that I've heard on this list, but that says more about the consistency of quality of Eno's solo output than any particular shortcoming of this album.

Fun fact, Eno would go on to produce the second Talking Heads album, and this record features a track "King's Lead Hat" which is an anagram of that band's name.