Description
Label Review.
1990 album. Also available on CD and Deluxe CD.
Our Overview.
The 30th Anniversary reissue of ‘Wrong Way Up’, the historic coming together of two icons of leftfield music: Brian Eno and John Cale. Having both started their careers as creative forces in seminal bands (Eno’s unique synthesizer treatments in Roxy Music and Cale’s viola and bass contributions to the Velvet Underground), they’ve appeared as guest musicians on each other’s records as far back as 1974, the year in which they also made a historic live album with Nico and Kevin Ayers at the Rainbow Theatre in London.
They remained friends and the year prior to ‘Wrong Way Up’, Eno produced Cale’s ‘Words For The Dying’ album. This paved the way for the pair to write and record an album together, notably the first time Eno had delivered a collection of song-based recordings since ‘Before And After Science’ in 1977. The resulting album is a triumph for both artists, containing the singles ‘Spinning Away’ and ‘Been There Done That’. The b-sides to the ‘Spinning Away’ single are included as bonus tracks.
Despite the pair’s avant-garde leaning’s the resulting album turned out to be a stunning pop record. Pitchfork said of the album: “Brian Eno and John Cale’s 1990 collaboration is an album of contention, contrasts, cycles, and pop songs so layered and euphoric it ranks among the best albums either artist has ever made.”
Tracklisting: Lay My Love / One Word / In The Backroom / Empty Frame / Cordoba / Spinning Away / Footsteps / Been There Done That / Crime In The Desert / The River