Another Green World - Reception

Reception

Another Green World was released in September 1975 and did not chart in either the United Kingdom or the United States. The album's reception was for the most part very favourable. Henry Edwards of High Fidelity wrote positively of the album, claiming it to be Eno's "most accessible to date". Tom Hill of The Village Voice also noted the accessibility of the album, stating "It wouldn't be fair to say that Another Green World is Eno's best album, but certainly it is his easiest to love." Charley Walters of Rolling Stone praised the album, claiming "Eno insists on risks, and that they so consistently pan out is a major triumph. I usually shudder at such a description, but Another Green World is indeed an important record—and also a brilliant one". Negative reviews of the album focused on the lack of rock songs of previous albums. Jon Pareles of Crawdaddy! wrote "This ain't no Eno record. I don’t care what the credits say. It doesn't even get on my nerves." Lester Bangs of The Village Voice shared this view, noting "I found much of it a bit too, well, "Becalmed", as one of its precisely programmatic titles declared. Those little pools of sound on the outskirts of silence seemed to me the logical consequence of letting the processes and technology share your conceptual burden". Robert Christgau suggested the same at first, but wrote in his review "Although I resisted at first, I've grown to love every minute of this arty little collection of static (i.e., non-swinging) synthesizer pieces (with vocals, percussion, and guitar)." In 1977, Another Green World was voted one of the best albums of the year in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1976.

In 2004, Virgin Records began reissuing Eno's albums in remastered digipaks. Modern reception of the album has been more unanimously positive. Steve Huey of Allmusic called the album "A universally acknowledged masterpiece" and "the perfect introduction to his achievements even for those who find ambient music difficult to enjoy." Chris Ott of Pitchfork Media gave the album a rating of 9.8/10, declaring it one of Eno's most important albums. Q praised the album as "breathtakingly ahead of its time". Music publications Allmusic, Blender, Mojo and Uncut all have given it five stars, their highest ratings. The album has made several top albums lists. Pitchfork placed the album at number ten on its list of greatest albums of the 1970s. In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 429 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, Blender placed the album on its list of "500 CDs You Must Own: Alternative Rock", stating that the album is "Experimental yet accessible, it’s exactly the kind of album that Eno devotees long for from him today". The album also ranked at number 36 in NME's list of the greatest albums of the seventies.