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"The Drop" - A Different Kind of Eno.

Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 02/16/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

""The Drop" is Brian Eno's 1997 album that listeners and critics seem to fully comprehend or completely thumb their noses at. Granted, the album does lack the hefty amount of atmospheric air that made such releases as "Music For Airports", "Discreet Music" and "On Land" so innovative. However, "The Drop" does have a significant amount of material which after a few listens can be quite entertaining.

"The Drop" consists 17 tracks - all but one run for no longer than three minutes in length. Some tracks such as "Swanky", "M.C. Organ", "Blissed", "Rayonism" and "Dear World" are highly rhythmic in nature while others such as "Belgian Drop", "Out/Out", "Block Drop" and "Boomcubist" display a dry minimalist approach. There are also some chilling cinematic moments heard in "Hazard", "Boomcubist and "Back Clack". While there are these strong moments heard in the album, others such as "Slip Dip", "But If" and "Cornered" merely sound like underdeveloped ideas that begin and end before anything exciting begins to happen. Indeed, the entire album does feel like a disjointed soundtrack to an unreleased film. However, despite what seems like a lack of focus, there is somewhat of a cohesiveness throughout the entire disc and the pieces do oddly fit together in their own strange way.

The obvious joke with this CD is after listening to 16 short pieces, Eno pulls out the stops and closes the album with a nearly 33-minute piece, "Iced World". A shorter version of this piece was used as a hidden track for the Eno/Jah Wobble collaboration "Spinner" from 1995. Throughout its half-hour running time, there are minimalist-like chords, a simple two-note bass line and haunting repeated piano lines all set to a lightpaced rhythm. After a while the piece tends to sound like a long loop as it never builds with intensity or changes. This can be tedious after awhile however, it does provide "The Drop" with a strong finish.

Despite the negative criticism behind "The Drop", the album is still a satisfying and entertaining release from Brian Eno. It's not necessarily ambient in nature but does contain some worthwhile material.

In conclusion: Not a classic, but still very good."