Low vs Another Green World

The 'arty' stuff is good, whichever.

But Bowie's songs are better than Eno's.

Easy Question.

I think I'd choose Eno, to be honest.

Low - Side A >>> Another Green World
Another Green World >>> Low - Side B

Pillbox is correct.

Another Green World.

Eno. There are massive similarities for sure but the two albums have different strengths for me - Low feels like a coherent whole whereas Another Green World is more like a sketchbook of different textures and tones, with the contrast brought out really well in the sequencing. In terms of overall quality, I think they're roughly even on the art-pop side but AGW wins out for the ambient pieces.

Low is only my third favourite Bowie album though - choosing between AGW and "Heroes" (or Station to Station) would be much harder.

Another Green World.

Abstain.

But I'm not of the opinion that AGW is Eno's best by a long shot. Seminal, sure, but I'd take "Here come the warm jets", "Taking tiger mountain", "Possible musics", "Before and after science", "Music for airports" and on some days "Another day on earth" over "Low".

Inasmuch as you can discern their personality through their works(*), Bowie wins. They're both self absorbed but Bowie is content to keep the spotlight focussed inwards whereas Eno believes he can be a shining radiant beacon of inspiration to the world.

(*) A Year with Swollen Appendices may also have contributed to the forming of this opinion.

pillbox cray, side b of low is the bedt thing bowie ever did

eno easy choice for me. station to station would make it a lot closer

Low, easy.

"Heroes">>>Another Green World>>>Low

Laraaji's Day of Radiance vs Iggy Pop's the Idiot

Anyway I love Low, but Another Green World is so much warmer and easier to love.

Might try combining these into one superalbum later today.

nothing is better than another green world, pretty much

yup

Another Green World is one of my favourite albums. Low is also outrageously great.

Comparing the two, I think that AGW is nature music, whereas Low is culture music. AGW wants to capture the elements. Low just wants to capture Europe.

I have always preferred Another Green World to any of Bowie's albums. In fact I cant even bring myself to listen to any of Bowie's albums any more.

traumerei, Yes! Another Green World is the countryside to Low's city.

Another Green World for me.

Love both, but this has to be "Low", the best either ever did.

Only one of these has "Sound & Vision".

I think all of Eno's 70's output is unfuckwithable. Bowie for me is a little bit vulgar, probably because my mum used to play his records when I was a kid!

Have trouble deciding between "Sound & Vision" and "St. Elmo's Fire" as far as songs go, would change day by day

this is like choosing between cool and warm
each has its place but warm is more comfortable for me

not a big fan of Eno but AGW is easily one of my favorite albums ever.

Tough. I've always been a huge fan of both -- but thought each was overrated to some extent.

traumerei, Yes! Another Green World is the countryside to Low's city.

Funny enough that AGO was recorded in a studio in London whereas Low was done in the French countryside.

easy, AGW has "I'll come running" so Low wins

i wonder, are either of the authors of the 33 1/3 books gonna chime in here?

easy, AGW has "I'll come running" so Low wins

Taken on its own it's a good song! (I always skip it though.)

voted AGW for "Everything Merges With the Night"

AGW

AGW is far from eno's best, imo, but i do generally prefer it to low, so...

"I'll come running....(I always skip it though.).."
xxposst
i'll come running one of Fripp's greatest solos period though no?
AGW is a touchstone for me and i love Low to peces

no way I can choose between these two.

I often skip past the title song because as beautiful as it is, in my mind it is the opening credits to a documentary about Duchamp or something. Blame Arena and its iconic opening credits burned onto my brain before I discovered the album.

Low is hardwired into me, Another Green World is more mysterious possibly because it's not so familiar, but ultimately it's Low. Heroes vs. Before & After Science might be harder.

i just tried to vote in this again

the idea that bowie is, unqualified, a 'better' songwriter than eno is kind of odd, to me

Eno's pop albums > AGW imo

i thought AGW was one of his pop albums.

it is

eno

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i honestly have no idea what to pick. they're both amazing, of course

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Well done everybody -- didn't vote but its the correct result.

Wow...Low got killed. Kind of shocked, but then again, I imagine Another Green World is like Low with better instrumentals for many...

89 votes, wow.

Lowl

I imagine Another Green World is like Low with better instrumentals for many...

I...don't get this. Why would many people be inclined to favor "Becalmed" and "Zawinul/Lava" and "Spirits Drifting" over the instrumentals on Low? I'm sure some people would, obviously, but I can't see why that would be a common preference. (And I have to ask specifically if you're including "Warszawa" amongst the instrumentals?)

Phil Collins is laughing somewhere, and it sounds extra sinister because it has that auto-doubletracking that is on every single song of his.

I missed this poll. I would have voted for Another Green World; it's not even a contest IMO.

btw "Spirits Drifting" is by far better than anything on Low. much love to Low and "Warsawza" but "Spirits Drifting" is fucking awesome

Phil Collins is laughing somewhere

hey he's good! Just don't let those guys from the 200 worst songs project know that!

i missed this poll as well and would have voted for the winner. the otherwordliness of agw makes it so extraordinary for me.

I cannot BELIEVE the Eno "Year with Swollen Appendices" or whatever it's called is out-of-print...what gives with that?

What exactly is that?

He kept a journal of 1995, even though he'd never been much of a diary-keeper before, and published it with a lot of additional material -- essays, correspondence, etc.

It's at my library, and I'm the only person who's checked it out (four times).

http://www.amazon.com/Year-With-Swollen-Appendices-Brian/dp/0571179959/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332081179&sr=1-1

it's gotta be reprinted at some point, I guess...I'll start with the Vertical Color of Sound book, it looks excellent:

http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Eno-Music-Vertical-Color/dp/0306806495/ref=pd_sim_b_2

I had it, I sold it. It's really not that interesting. Vertical color of Sound is really good.

It's ambient stuff? Closest to what other album?

Thanks, AKM....now I don't feel so jazzed to find a copy right away! (Gerald, it's a book--sorry, my posts were vague)

VCoS is good, not great. It was the guy's thesis paper, so it's a little academically structured. I liked his Robert Fripp book a bit more.

AYwSA is quite good. It's what you would imagine an Eno diary is comprised of -- progress reports about music he's working on with James, Bowie and U2, risotto recipes, cheeky observations about his family, and tales of being driven through the Irish countryside by Bono at death-defying speeds. Also, he tastes his own piss at one point.

I quoted his lecture/essay on culture in a class once.

need to use the risotto recipes too

you would've thought he'd tried tasting pee--his own or more likely that of others--sometime between "Warm Jets" and AYsSA

A Year With...is pretty decent, if a taaaaaad smug in places. LOL@ his obsession with female body building VHS's.

The pee-tasting entry was burned deep into my neurons, but Eno's uh hijinks have a way of sticking

I love both of these albums, but I don't really rate the instrumentals on Low compared to the instrumentals on AGW, which comprise more than just "side 2" (I know many love the Low instrumentals, but I've just never quite dug them as much as something like "Crystal Japan," which is totally AGW-esque). The pop songs on Low, however, have a lot in common with AGW, not least their brevity, but AGW's songs are just so weird, mysterious and beautiful.

The Vertical Color of Sound is available as a download on Eric Tamm's website:
http://www.erictamm.com/books.html

Another Green World is my favorite record. Listening to it takes me back to a special time.

Thanks, doo dah!

Why would many people be inclined to favor "Becalmed" and "Zawinul/Lava" and "Spirits Drifting" over the instrumentals on Low? I'm sure some people would, obviously, but I can't see why that would be a common preference

i enjoy the first side of 'low' but the second side has never made much of an impression - it always seems like they're just faffing about.

i can't say about the instrumentals themselves but i suspect the sequencing of 'green world' is important.

I've been watching the Brian Eno Under Review 1971-1978 documentary and it's great! 2 1/2 hours, folks--many talking heads expounding at great length, but the best is Christgau..i had never seen footage of him, the guy's hilarious, just like you'd imagine him...kind of looks like Paul Schaeffer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAIcviDVErQ&feature=related

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/david-bowie-low-round-31-nicks-choice/

Low is okay - side one is very good but hardly the greatest side of the 70s, and side two is not particularly good at all. Calling it the best album of the 1970s, as Pitchfork has, is preposterous. The overrating of Low is one of the more annoying developments in rock talk during the past decade.

Nobody, I mean, nobody, that I EVER came across in the late 70s or early 80s thought of Low as the best of the best out there. How many people at the time even thought it was the best album of the YEAR it came out? I don't even remember Bowie fans thinking it was the best Bowie album. What gives with this endless revisionism?

Another Green World, on the other hand, was presented to us all back then on a pedestal so high that it couldn't possibly have lived up to the accolades it received. Only, it did. It's one of the rare perfect albums in any genre, a miracle. I will add that it is the greatest coming down record ever made. Comparing Another Green World to Low is like comparing a Cezanne to a pleasant motel painting.

What gives with this endless revisionism?

Look at the second paragraph here. I remember reading Patti Smith saying how much she liked Bowie's Berlin albums at the time, too. I'm sure there are others.

and as pointed out in the bowie poll results thread, the critical celebration of low is hardly the product of the last decade alone:

xxp in 1985 the NME Top 100 albums of all time listed Low at #15, Young Americans (!) at #36, Heroes at #64 and Station at #66.

― fit and working again, Sunday, March 11, 2012 8:12 PM (3 months ago)

I'd say the critical reactions of Americans support my point: the canonization of Low did not get much of a start in the 70s. Some more interesting consensus: Low didn't even finish in the Top 30 of the Pazz and Jop Poll the year it was eligible (both Station to Station and Heroes made the lists their years. Another Green World finished 11th the year it was up.)

The NME poll from 1985 is something else though, maybe the album sustained a better rep in Britain?

i think it did

Lester Bangs dissed it a bit in that Eno piece that was printed in Perfect Sound Forever:

"The first side of Low is really interesting and some people consider The Lodger a masterpiece, but in general these sound like half-baked imitations of the Real Stuff as in Tiger Mountain, Green World, etc."

maybe the album sustained a better rep in Britain?

that's the impression i've gotten from british ILXors, anyway. seems to me that it's been creeping up on GOAT status for quite some time, even in the states. when i was a record store clerk in the early 90s, it was a holy object to quite a few of my co-workers.

It is ironic for me to bash Low because I really liked it when I bought it used, very very cheaply, in the early 80s. Maybe when I'm 90 it will be underrated again.

Hey fun fact --- Another Green World narrowly missed the top ten of the Pazz and Jop Poll that year because it was beaten out by Blue Oyster Cult!!!

I'm enjoying this.