Another Day on Earth

Another Day on Earth
Studio album by Brian Eno
Released	13 June 2005 (UK, Europe) June 14, 2005 (U.S.)
Recorded	Home Studio
Genre	Post-rock, electronic, ambient
Length	46:50
Label	Hannibal
Producer	Brian Eno
Brian Eno chronology
The Equatorial Stars (2004, with Robert Fripp) Another Day on Earth (2005) Beyond Even (1992–2006) (2007, with Robert Fripp)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Pitchfork Media	(6.1/10)
PopMatters

Another Day on Earth is an album by Brian Eno, released in 2005 on Hannibal Records.

Overview

This is the first Eno album to chiefly contain vocals in more than two decades. Speaking of the album, Eno said, "The first one I've done like that for a very long time...25 years or so". In addition, he explained his current thoughts on lyrics in music; "Song-writing is now actually the most difficult challenge in music," he confessed.

“

It's very easy to make music now but lyrics are really the last very hard problem in music. What I think lyrics have to do is engage a certain part of your brain in a sort of search activity so your brain wants to say, 'Here are some provocative clues as to what this song might be about'.

”

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Brian Eno, except where noted.

1. "This" – 3:33
2. "And Then So Clear" – 5:49
3. "A Long Way Down" – 2:40
4. "Going Unconscious" – 4:22
5. "Caught Between" (co-lyrics by Danny Hillis and Eck Ogilvie-Grant) – 4:25
6. "Passing Over" – 4:25
7. "How Many Worlds" (co-lyrics by Michel Faber) – 4:47
8. "Bottomliners" – 3:59
9. "Just Another Day" (additional music composed by Peter Schwalm) – 4:21
10. "Under" – 5:19
11. "Bonebomb" – 3:09
12. "The Demon of the Mines" (Japan only bonus track)

The music

Eno recorded and mixed most of the album on a Mac, using Logic, over a period of four years. He also engineered it himself, "because otherwise I would have had to spend six years in a commercial studio and pay staff, and that would have become too expensive".

"Bottomliners" and "Under" were first worked on about six years previously, on a DA88, the latter songs' drumming being supplied by Willie Green. On the former, and on the ballad "And Then So Clear" he pitch-shifted his voice up an octave, using the gender-changing function on a Digitech Pro Vocalist creating a vocoder-like effect. His studio features a selection of hardware including a Lexicon Jam Man loop sampler and an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer.

The album is actually built around the "And Then So Clear" song. He says "... In one day, actually, I pretty much finished it ... I liked it so much, and I thought, how I am going release this song, and I thought, I have to write some others".

On the title track he repeatedly cut up the main phrase, so that "the listener had little windows on it". Similar "cut-up" methodologies were used for the lyrics of "This", in that he used his computer to generate some of the words.

For the ambientesque "A Long Way Down" Eno manually synchronised his vocals with an out of time keyboard melody, and on "Going Unconscious" he went back to using Koan generative music software for the textural background.

The distinctions between songs and instrumentals which contain vocals are deliberately blurred, particularly on the track "How Many Worlds" ..... "There's just enough voice in there to make you hear it as a song, making it a bluff, a deceit".

The final track on the album, "Bonebomb", was inspired by a newspaper story about a Palestinian girl who becomes a suicide bomber. The title refers to a point made by an Israeli doctor that when a suicide bomber detonates, his/her bones are converted into small pieces of shrapnel which are part of the destructive power of the bomb.

Listeners of this album who put it on 'repeat' will discover that the end of the song "Bonebomb" seamlessly mixes with the beginning of the track #1, "This".

Personnel

• Vocals, multiple instruments – Brian Eno
• Keyboards – Jon Hopkins
• Guitar – Leo Abrahams, Steve Jones
• Violin – Duchess Nell Catchpole
• Piano, Synthesizer – Peter Schwalm
• Drums – Willie Green, Peter Schwalm
• Loops – Brad Laner, Brian Eno, Peter Schwalm
• Effects [Occasional Signals] – Dino
• Effects [Splutters] – Barry Andrews
• Spoken vocals – Inge Zalaliene (track 4), Aylie Cooke (track 11)
• Mastering – Simon Heyworth
• Artwork by [Design & Layout] – Sarah Vermeersch
• Photography [Back] – Qin Siyuan
• Photography [Front], Artwork By [Cover Design] – Brian Eno

Awards

• The album was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005.

In popular culture

• The 2005 psychological thriller The Jacket features excerpts from "Going Unconscious", and an alternate mix of "The Demon of the Mines" (from the Japanese edition).
• A slightly longer version of "And Then So Clear" was played on Echoes (syndicated on US NRI stations) in November and December 2003.
• Marianne Faithfull covered "How Many Worlds" on her 2008 album Easy Come, Easy Go.

Charts

Year	Chart	Peak position
2005	USA Top Electronic Albums	#13
2005	USA Top Independent Albums	#33

External links

• Song lyrics
• SoundOnSound article
• Mix article
• Album's Russian release
• Multi-review links