A CD-only expansion of the 1986 compilation More Blank Than Frank,
Desert Island Selection is
Brian Eno's handpicked summation of his first few albums, now thought of as his pre-ambient pop phase. It's actually not a bad selection at all, and
Eno seems to have taken care to choose and sequence the songs so that the whole thing hangs together. The only problem is that the album's unerring focus on the mellower, almost proto-ambient side of
Eno's early music -- "Here He Comes" and "On Some Faraway Beach" instead of "Baby's on Fire" or "King's Lead Hat" -- gives a skewed and not entirely representative view of these albums, which were much more cacophonous and weird than prettily poppish tracks like "I'll Come Running (To Tie Your Shoe)" and "Taking Tiger Mountain" would suggest. This set hints at what was to come with the addition of two slightly later instrumental tracks, "Spirits Drifting" and a six-minute condensation of the first track from
Music for Airports, "1/1." ~ Stewart Mason