LogFAQs > #956511774

88. Brian Eno Needles in the Camels Eye (1974)
from the album Here Come the Warm Jets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SWrIB75vc8

Key lyrics:
Why ask why?

As a producer, Brian Eno helped shape the modern music scene. Working with acts like David Bowie, Talking Heads, and U2, he assisted in forming larger than life soundscapes. His own career is a bit more obscure. He is perhaps best known for popularizing ambient music during his later career, but he kicked things off in the glam scene. But even then, Brian Eno feels less like a rock star than a producer trying to push the boundaries of popular music. Needles in the Camels Eye certainly has the vocal hallmarks of a glam song, but the mixing pushes it into uncharted territory.

The dense instrumentation is relentless; listening to Needles in the Camels Eye is like drowning in sound. Though Eno is a perfectly capable vocalist, he mixes himself like just another instrument. While playing to the very specific glam aesthetic, Eno instead lays out an aggressive prototype to his ambient developments. He simply accomplishes this while using plenty of guitars and bass. The multi-layered sound makes it difficult to discern every individual piece, resulting in a singular focus like rock had rarely seen before where bands like The Beach Boys kept every detail of their Wall of Sound crisp, Eno seeks to overwhelm.

As such, Needles in the Camels Eye can be an unpleasant experience at first. It honestly took me ages to properly digest any of Enos early solo output. But, over time, I have come to appreciate him as a man who views music as a sonic playground. Needles in the Camels Eye is such a striking deconstruction of glam rock that I find myself returning to it more often than most traditional works in the genre.

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My top 100 games (with write-ups): https://foolfantastic.com/top-100-video-games-project/