My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

"There's a song called The Jezebel Spirit where there's a snippet of a preacher and the way the sounds were mixed in was so fresh it was amazing," Mr. Wright comments on a track that seems to get good reviews from most people. While I admit the track is well put together, there are times when I skip it because it can be quite unnerving! If you ask me, that exorcist sounds much more evil at times than the supposed demon he is trying to remove! I'm afraid I can't see why some reviewers are calling this track optimistic. Probably, in addition to "The Jezebel Spirit", my least listened-to track on this album is "Moonlight in Glory". However, over time, I have actually come to appreciate it even if it's not a favorite; this is why I no longer feel any heartburn with giving a full 5-star rating.

In my opinion, the three strongest tracks are the ones that draw from Middle Eastern sources for their vocals. Each of them, including the painfully short "A Secret Life", I wish had been longer! My two favorites were those with vocals sampled from Lebanese mountain singer Dunya Yusin: "The Carrier" and "Regiment". I must also point out the excellent guitar work in "Regiment", which seems to me like a precursor to the similarly enjoyable work in Speaking in Tongues' "Making Flippy-Floppy". I also noticed what seemed to be almost a sort of commentary by David Byrne upon politicians and televangelists (the latter are not slams on religion, in my opinion--rather, the *popularization* of it); the way sound clips are used seem to make both groups look a bit ridiculous at times. For instance, "Mea Culpa's" juxtaposition of the babbling politician's weasling out of whatever he did with David Byrne's listless "blah blah blah blah" makes just as much of a statement as if he'd written lyrics of that nature and sang them. I also notice that in the song "Come With Us", he makes the evangelist sound rather like some freaky cultist, which in my opinion sometimes becomes the case when the evangelist focuses upon creation of a personality cult rather than a religious organization. There are other examples than just these two, however.

Overall, I think this is a very worthwhile album if you're willing to put forth the effort that may be needed to adjust to it.

(missing track) One of the Best Albums.......2003-08-10

there was an earlier version with the track "Qu'ran" on it, but they had to cut it from later editions due to political/PR pressures.

this is one of the very best Brian Eno albums, an artist whose best works tend to be collaborations anyway (i.e, Bowie, Talking Heads, etc.). an early (though not first) example of certain types of sampling (vocal) mixed with live instruments and loops. david byrne (talking heads) apparently played most of the wide variety of acoustic instruments used to make the sounds that weren't sampled off the radio or an old record. such sound sources reportedly included a pot, a spoon, a box, and other unusual items (no doubt "treated" or manipulated somehow by Eno to sound totally different). the sampled voices are great, including berkley radio personality Charles Amirkhanian, some famous female arabic singer (sorry, forgot who ;), a great gospel preacher, and various other radio personalities.

Byrne and Eno work very well together on this album to balance out each others worst tendencies and enhance their better ones, imho. this could very well be the best album released by both of these very prolific artists-both of whom have released a lot of great albums.

Une décennie d'avance.......1999-08-02

Un bijou! Une fusion techno-ambiant largement en avance sur son temps. L'exploration des possibilités du "sampling" par Byrne-Eno est prodigieuse et sert l'oeuvre, non pas comme simple artifice, mais comme véritable instrument de base...

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