#Crime In The Desert

[rastronomicals]

8:28 PM EST January 3, 2025:

Eno/Cale - "Crime In The Desert" From the album Wrong Way Up (October 5, 1990)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Back when it was new--and I was 25 years old--I eagerly purchased this compact disc. Oh, it was a time, man. The CD was packaged in--get this (if you can: most people today I would assume don't know what it had been)--a longbox. A theft deterrent then, and a music geek collectible now. Funny the way things transform, sometimes.

So. It being that time, I didn't know as much about Brian Eno or John Cale then as I do now, but I still knew Here Come the Warm Jets and White Light/White Heat. And because those records had been great, I expected Wrong Way Up to be pretty awesome.

Did I know then that the 3-1/2-minute revolution called "Sky Saw" featured Cale? Or that there was a cult album named June 1, 1974 that featured them both?

Not sure. Wise now, was I wise then?

Anyway, the excitement before the purchase turned into disappointment afterwards. This album, it did not rock, it bore no traces of Warm Jets or White Heat, and it wasn't weird at all, and I sold it and I forgot about it as quickly as possible.

Lately though, nearly 30 years later, thinner of hair, and wiser of the music, man, I've been on an Eno jag, and I came across a review of the album on Pitchfork that suggested the album, synthpop though it was, achieved nothing less than brilliance in its rather conflicted creation.

Hell, I hadn't even known that the artists hadn't gotten along. . . . So I figured, what *had* I known, in my judgement 30 years ago? I'd been only 25, and had probably been a little bit um, over-influenced, by hardcore punk. My tastes are more sophisticated now! I could like an album that maybe wasn't so manic. Really I could. And shit, everything I've been doing for the last month was all about what a fucking genius Eno was. . . Maybe I'd been hasty in my dismissal of WWU back then, simply because it didn't sound like "Third Uncle," or "I Heard Her Call My Name." 'Cause hell, on reflection, thinking about it in 2019, in the midst of a Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno freakout, neither does "Luftschloss."

Goddamn, then, let's try it again, I thought. So last week, I bought a CD copy off Discogs. Received it yesterday, listened to it on the way into work this morning, and ... it's unabashedly awful.

It's lame, predictable, and without a trace of the genius which otherwise marks both men's work. You're tempted to say a few things, although you should probably resist the urges. You're tempted to say that it was a case of men outside the times attempting foolishly to sound like them, but that's wrong. 1990 had no great rush of synthpop albums.

1990 was about Jane's Addiction; Jane's Addiction, and Happy Mondays and Sonic Youth's major label debut. Nobody was making synthpop. That these two major artists felt like going there, I don't know, it's odd, it's strange, it's fucked up.

You're also tempted to say, maybe, if you're not that familiar with the facts, that this was the work of giants who had exhausted their creative energies prior to its making, young lions become old farts. But, of course, that's ridiculous. Five years after this mistake of a record, Eno would record Nerve Net, which showed him as able as his youngself to stretch things out. And if you want pop, shit, Eno made Another Day on Earth in 2005, as he was approaching 60, and that is a brilliant, quirky, intelligent pop record, even if it's not as much like M83 as I might prefer.

Wrong Way Up is a detour into mediocrity. Definite, and puzzling, that is.

It all goes to show many things, perhaps most importantly--and I swear I'm not looking to trash Pitchfork specifically here--that if an artist known for making good things makes something crappy, there will always--always--be somebody around to tell people that, fuck the facts, it is in fact pretty good.

There's also the reminder given that I had the suss of the thing down back in 1990. I like to think of myself as smarter now, wiser if you have to go there, and I was prepared to second-guess myself, and take a lesson from it too, but at least in this case, me and the version of myself that existed three decades ago are smack dab in agreement. There's a stolidity about that I find appealing, but maybe, just maybe, there's also a disappointing inability to evolve.

Funny the way things don't transform, sometimes.

https://lahistoriadelamusicarock.blogspot.com/2019/04/enocale-wrong-way-up-opal-records-back.html

File under: Fool Me Twice

[normasshearer]

What do you want out of life? Well, everybody wants something. Money, love, travel, their own business... What do you want? - Why do you wanna know?

DESERT FURY 1947, dir. Lewis Allen

[ooooo-mcyt]

Grian is simultaneously completely in love with Scar and immune to Scar's flirting at the same time.

[vesperionnox]

[ Day #4 ]

Our two favorite.., uh... heros! yes, heros!

come and eat @cherrysherin

[avocadish0w0]

Oops, guess I committed a war crime, now I gotta whip and nae nae my way outta this one

[silly-guy-tendencies]

GUH.

[galaxdora]

Why has every life season been just a back and forth desert duo team up. 3rd life desert duo premier. Last life desert duo doesn't team up. Double life desert duo soulmates. Limited life desert duo rivals. And now there's a desert that both grian and scar are kinda basing in?? Fuck dude, idk if I'll survive this

[weregreatatcrime]

Somebody ask me things about father of four au because it's so silly goofy sweet funny (and just a tad angsty) and I just *bangs fists* I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE CHILD SHENANIGANS

Prompto joining the group was started because Noctis is prone to getting horrifically lost. You don't think it's hard to keep an eye on a ten year old on crutches but Cor turns around and Noctis has disappeared again. Noctis doesn't even do it on PURPOSE he just meant to walk like TEN FEET AWAY to check out a weird rock and then he's all alone wondering where tf he is

So Noctis met Prompto while lost out in the desert and well, Prompto was dazzled by this kid with sparkle magic who summons food and cold water out of thin air. Noctis was horrified to see a kid look so thin and have glowing eyes and wires sticking out of his arms. Noctis adopted Prompto on Sight. He lured him with food and water and made a best friend. They went back to Prompto’s place (hole in the dirt) and had a sleepover to avoid the daemons. (Due to narrative drama, they might have also fought MTs, and are totally pretending it was fine and not scary at all, which has further cemented their childhood Instant Best Friends status)

Cor is lucky his hair is too short to tear out because he almost did when Noctis showed up at dawn with a tiny gremlin to jumpscare them all. Ignis is going to tie a LEASH to the Prince. Noctis might even let him at this point. (Prompto very much won't let anyone tie Noctis to a leash)

[swan2swan]

*SLAMS DOOR OPEN*

AND ANOTHER THING ABOUT CLIEGG LARS AND SHMI

"Oh the power dynamic, ha, yeah, bad writing George, he PURCHASES her, frees her, and then MARRIES her, oh, that's a healthy dynamic"

Okay I need you all to think about this:

If he buys a woman who has nothing (because she's a SLAVE on the CRIME PLANET)

And then says "You're free"

and follows that up with "ON THE CRIME PLANET"

What happens next?

What happens if you just turn a woman loose with nothing on the CRIME PLANET?

Yeah. Yeah.

"Well he could get her a ride off-planet" with what, the money he used to free her? To send her where? To his friends off-world? Why is he still living on the CRIME PLANET (that has nothing but SAND, where he FARMS WATER) if he has friends on other planets and the money to travel offworld?

Does Cliegg Lars have a spaceship parked out back?

Can he take her a few lightyears to Naboo? Set her loose on Theed? I mean...the fact that Naboo and Tatooine are in the same sector does raise some questions, but also, again, Naboo is the Peace Planet and Tatooine is the CRIME PLANET.

The point is, he said "Hey, you're free. Hey, come live with me. Move in with me. NOW YOU HAVE EQUAL CLAIM TO MY PROPERTY THANKS TO THIS LEGALLY BINDING DOCUMENT, do whatever you want."

Man was rickety and old and in a Space Wheelchair. There was no Unfair Power Dynamic. This dude was not Taking Advantage of Shmi. He said "Girl you deserve better, come live on a farm in the desert. I mean...you still deserve better, but this is the best I can do, hope it's enough."

[peskyvinot]

LISTEN. attention trafficshipping community I have a song that Each And Everyone of you has to listen to, no matter what ship. will be even more cool if someone in your ship won the life series but that's not a requirement. just fucking TRUST ME. LISTEN

[saggernooseai]

epic scene

[rastronomicals]

2:21 AM EDT August 21, 2024:

Eno/Cale - "Crime In The Desert" From the album Wrong Way Up (October 5, 1990)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Things that should have gone well . . .

[sainzinnorris]

can carlos pull anything off if he tries well enough? absolutely. does that simultaneously imply that he's the best dressed? absolutely not.

[falsenote]

[zombie-bait]

Lanfear's vibe just gets cuntier each episode and I'm supposed to be NORMAL ABOUT THIS???? Ridiculous

[ice-lice-and-2-many-dice]

Ok ok. So iv seen a bunch of people Headcanoning that during the Grian AFK Episode tm that he was basically just asleep on the llama the whole time. And I hear that. But instead I raise you…..

Watcher!Grian dropping his mortal meatsuit like a puppet with cut strings as he astral projects and observes the others interacting with his unconscious skin vessel.