My three favourite musicians each released a new LP (or should I say album) recently. I refer to Mike Oldfield, John Cale and Brian Eno. The Oldfield double CD is okay, perfectly listenable, and a number one choice for having on in the background without it being necessary to stop whatever you’re doing to listen more closely. The first half is better than the slightly techno second. A bit too much of it is made up of snatches of better stuff from the past. Cale’s latest has its moments, but it’s a fairly typical offering, with some jaw dropping classics mixed in with a few total clangers. It definitely needs pruning down to half its original size. At any rate, it’s not a patch on his earlier work; although, I have to admit, I’ve listened to it much less often than the others, and it may grow on me yet. Eno, however, with his first vocal offering for many, many years, has come up with an absolute stunner. As the proud owner of the Eno vocal box set, comprising Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Another Green World, and Before and after Science, I feel I must know what I’m talking about. Staggering, chocolate melting melodies and bizarrely beautiful lyrics make this my release of the year.

This

This chord
This water
This son
This daughter
This day
This time
This land
It’s all mine

This Calling Bell
This Forge Bell
This Dark Bell
This The Knife Bell
This calling
This burden
This falling
The world’s turning

This What I thought I knew
This What I thought was true
This I understood
This In the deep wood
This Ah there I stood a child so fair
This On a certain square
This Down the dirty stairs
This To see the table set
This With golden chairs
This Ah to follow, follow, follow, follow there

This race
And this world
This feeling
And this girl
This revolver
This fire
This I’ll hold it up higher, higher, high