Eno and Hyde - Someday World

by Jon Rogers

published: 6 / 5 / 2014

Label: Warp Records
Format: CD

Admirable yet underwhelming joint album between Brian Eno and Underworld's Karl Hyde

Review

Brian Eno, now at the ripe old age of 65, is perhaps the collaborators' collaborator. The musician others turn to when they want another artist to bounce around ideas with. After all, Eno has an impressive line-up of references that include the likes of Robert Fripp, Kevin Ayers, Harold Budd, John Cale, David Byrne and Jah Wobble to only name a few that have taken place over the years. [Let's put his extensive work with David Bowie to one side as they have always been seen as Bowie albums, despite the heavy influence of Eno.] Now he's teamed up with Underworld's Karl Hyde for their first complete album. The pair though have worked together on the dance outfit's 2011 song 'Beebop Hurry' while Eno has also remixed Hyde's song 'Summin' It for the Weekend'. The album is also notable for the appearance of Eno's former bandmate in Roxy Music saxophonist Andy Mackay and Coldplay's Will Champion. So, the credentials are really beyond doubt and not to be dismissed - when was the last time Eno put out a misfiring album? - but as with some of Eno's collaborations the end result does not quite match up to the promise of the potential on offer. Albums such as 'After the Heat' and 'Wrong Way Up', while far from 'bad' albums, never quite managed to catch fire in the way perhaps listeners would have hoped. 'Someday World' does rather fit rather snugly into that category. The sort of album you admire and respect rather than cherish and lovingly adore. Certainly there is much to applaud - the single 'Daddy's Car' is an obvious example - along with the likes of 'Mother Of A Dog', 'Who Rings The Bells' and 'Witness' that all stand up alongside some of the best of Eno's work over the years (although a little way behind the masterful 'Music For Airports'). Once too often though the rather uninspired singing and rather liberal smattering of synthesizer brass over most things linger a bit too long and end up leaving a rather bitter taste in the mouth. At times 'Someday World' just sounds a little too tame. There are sparks of inventive flair and panache but, overall, it feels just a touch too safe - as if both Eno and Hyde could have pushed themselves just that bit further, massaged those creative juices just a little more which would have - possibly - created something a little more special. 'Someday World' has much to offer, just do not expect to be blown away by it all.

Track Listing:-

1 The Satellites
2 Daddy's Car
3 A Man Wakes Up
4 Witness
5 Strip It Down
6 Mother of a Dog
7 Who Rings the Bell
8 When I Built This World
9 To Us All

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karl-Hy
http://www.enohyde.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BrianEnoNews
http://www.moredarkthanshark.org/
http://www.underworldlive.com/