Guides/A Riffiter guide
Albums Brian Eno shaped
Ambient pioneer and the most cerebral producer in rock, behind Bowie's Berlin, Talking Heads' funk, and U2's reinvention.
Brian Eno is an English musician and producer who pioneered ambient music and reshaped art rock from behind the desk. This guide collects the albums he produced or shaped, from Talking Heads' Remain in Light to U2's The Joshua Tree.
Brian Eno treats the studio as an instrument and the producer as a kind of provocateur. He'd rather pose a problem than fix one, dealing out his famous Oblique Strategies cards, scrambling a band's habits, chasing accidents until they became the record.
That approach turned a string of great bands strange and new. These are the albums where he left his mark.
- 1

Another Green World
Be the first to rate—His own pivot from art-rock to ambience, half song, half soundscape, and a blueprint for everything he'd later do for others.
- 2

Ambient 1: Music for Airports
★ 4.8 · 5—The album that named a genre. Eno set out to make music "as ignorable as it is interesting," and invented ambient music in the process.
- 3

Low
★ 4.9 · 5—The first of Bowie's Berlin albums, with Eno shaping its fractured, instrumental second half, pop's boldest left turn of the 1970s.
- 4

"Heroes" by David Bowie
Be the first to rate—Eno and Bowie's collaboration peaks on the soaring title track, built from layers of treated, looping sound.
- 5

Fear of Music
★ 4.0 · 2—Eno tightened and darkened the band's nervy art-funk, setting up the masterpiece to come.
- 6

Remain in Light
★ 4.8 · 5—Eno's most radical production, African polyrhythms, loops and layered grooves that reinvented what a rock band could be.
- 7

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
Be the first to rate—Eno produced the de-evolution band's debut, capturing their jerky, satirical new wave.
- 8

The Unforgettable Fire
★ 3.5 · 1—Eno and Daniel Lanois pulled U2 away from anthemic rock toward atmosphere and texture, the start of their most important partnership.
- 9

The Joshua Tree
★ 4.5 · 3—Eno and Lanois produced U2's masterpiece, the album that made them the biggest band in the world.
- 10

Achtung Baby
★ 4.5 · 5—Eno helped U2 demolish and rebuild themselves in Berlin, trading earnestness for irony and noise.
- 11

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
★ 4.0 · 2—Eno pushed Coldplay out of their comfort zone, producing their most adventurous and best-reviewed album.
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