Brian Eno FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE 180g LP

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the February 2023 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Analog Planet Rated 8/11 Music, 9/11 Sonics!

FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is the 22nd solo studio album from Brian Eno and the first since January 2017's Reflection. The 10-track album was recorded and produced by him at his studio in West London and sees Eno singing on the majority of tracks. It's a sonically beguiling, ultimately optimistic exploration of the narrowing, precarious future of humanity and our planet. As Eno himself concludes, "Briefly, we need to fall in love again, but this time with Nature, with Civilization and with our hopes for the future."

One of the first things I had to absorb about FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE once I started listening is that it moves at a very slow pace, reminiscent of many of Eno's ambient recordings. However, this is an album of 'songs' with vocals, It is very much a song cycle, a concept that Webster's defines as 'a group of related songs designed to form a musical entity.' So, when you get your copy of FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, be prepared to sit, listen, and think a bit — and perhaps listen again and ponder awhile more. This isn't driving music or really an album to play while commuting on the train to work or even one to play in the background. In short, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is a thinking person's recording...If you have headphones, I suspect this would be a good, enveloping listen. I found FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE works well at louder volumes — where you can feel more of the resonance of subtle instrumentation textures — but it also performs well more quietly. FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is no doubt a significant statement from Brian Eno, one we should take seriously. We should probably be thankful for it too.

ForeverAndEverNoMore is an elegy for a planet that is struggling to stay alive. The album's centerpiece, 'There Were Bells,' evokes this grief most poignantly, drawing upon the biblical imagery of the dove as a final beacon of hope amidst the flood. Across the record, Eno's production is so enveloping you can almost escape the surrounding world. The concluding track, however, which is part of the interdisciplinary climate project Back to Earth, serves as a reminder of how the mission is the opposite: not to escape, but to care for Earth as home.