Before and After Science (1977)

Before and After Science is the fifth solo studio album by the English musician Brian Eno, originally released by Polydor Records in December 1977 in the UK and by Island in the US soon after. It was produced by Eno and Rhett Davies.

Several musicians from the UK and Germany collaborated on the album, including Robert Wyatt, Fred Frith, Phil Collins, Phil Manzanera, Paul Rudolph, Andy Fraser, Dave Mattacks, Jaki Liebezeit, Dieter Moebius, and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Over one hundred tracks were written, but only ten were included. The musical styles range from energetic and jagged to languid and pastoral.

The album marks Eno's last foray into rock music as a solo artist in the 1970s. Most of his following work instead showcases avant-garde and ambient music, which was hinted at predominantly on the second side of Before and After Science. It was Eno's second to chart in the US. The song "King's Lead Hat" (the title of which is an anagram for Talking Heads, for whom Eno later produced three albums) was remixed and released as a single, although it did not chart in the UK. Critical response to the album has remained positive, with several critics calling it one of Eno's best works.

Production

Unlike Eno's previous albums, which were recorded in a very short time, Before and After Science was two years in the making. During this two-year period, Eno was busy working on his solo ambient music albums Music for Films and Discreet Music and collaborating with David Bowie on the latter's albums Low and "Heroes". Due to the very positive critical reception accorded his previous rock music-oriented album, Another Green World, Eno was afraid of repeating himself but still wanted to release a high-quality product.

As on his previous rock-based recordings, Eno worked with a plethora of guest musicians. Several artists from German and British groups of the era contributed to the album, collaborating with Eno for the first time. Guitarist Fred Frith of Henry Cow caught Eno's attention with "the timbral possibilities that [Frith had] been discovering" on his solo guitar album Guitar Solos. Jaki Liebezeit of the German krautrock group Can played drums on "Backwater", and German ambient duo Cluster co-wrote and performed on "By This River". Eno had previously worked with Cluster on their album Cluster & Eno, released in 1977. Other musicians included Dave Mattacks, who played drums on "Kurt's Rejoinder" and "Here He Comes", and Andy Fraser (bass guitarist in British blues rock band Free) who played the drums on "King's Lead Hat".

Several musicians who had worked with Eno on previous albums returned. Percy Jones of Brand X and Phil Collins of Brand X and Genesis played bass and drums respectively, as they had on Another Green World. Other returning contributors included Robert Fripp, Paul Rudolph, Bill MacCormick and Eno's former Roxy Music bandmate Phil Manzanera. "Shirley Williams" is credited on the album sleeve for "time" and "brush timbales" on "Through Hollow Lands" and "Kurt's Rejoinder"; Williams was a pseudonym for Robert Wyatt. Working extensively with the musicians and his instructional cards—the Oblique Strategies—during the two years working on the album, Eno wrote over one hundred songs.

Music and lyrics

Jim DeRogatis, author of Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock, described the overall sound of Before and After Science as "the coldest and most clinical of Eno's pop efforts". David Ross Smith of online music database AllMusic wrote that "Despite the album's pop format, the sound is unique and strays far from the mainstream". According to David Bowie biographer Thomas Jerome Seabrook, the album is "split between up-tempo art-rock on side one and more pastoral material on side two", while Piotr Orlov of LA Weekly categorized it as an art pop record. The album's opening tracks "No One Receiving" and "Backwater" start the album as upbeat and bouncy songs. "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram of Talking Heads, a new wave group Eno had met after a concert in England when they were touring with the Ramones. Eno would later produce Talking Heads' second, third and fourth albums, including Remain in Light. The last five songs of the album have been described as having "an occasional pastoral quality" and being "pensive and atmospheric".