Excellence Already
Brian Eno and Karl Hyde have done it again. Only a few short months after releasing the full length Someday World, the duo have put together another LP, High Life. The project was made in only five days but the production and musicality do anything but suffer. The marathon first track “Return” has a guitar riff that seems like it could go on forever. High Life’s trancey jam band vibe brings the listener to the point where they think that they can’t possibly take it any longer, but they don’t push it over the edge.
The light vibes on songs like “Lilac” sound like chasing a summer romance on bicycle through wheat fields, with wind blowing through hair and sundresses. There is an underlying feeling that there is an end approaching, but that is something to be ignored—you’re content to live in those shining forever guitar chords. When the song does finally come to an end, it can be felt for the next couple of days, like a sunburn or heartbreak.
High Life isn’t just young love and wheat fields, though. “Moulded Life” adds very necessary tension and weirdness to the album. Hectic, hostile electronic elements go to battle with familiar guitar riffs in a very excellent way. “Moulded Life” adds the balance to what could have been an overly cheery vibe for the album. Finally, like a recessional hymn, “Cells & Bells” peacefully brings the album to its somber conclusion. The ominous tones and deadpan vocals usher us out of Eno and Hyde’s delightful world and back to ours.
High Life is one of those albums that you will find yourself going back to over and over again. The beauty of it may not be apparent at first, but when given the attention it deserves, it’s hard to imagine a time when this album wasn’t in your life.
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