4 Essential Songs Produced by Brian Eno

Oblique Strategies is a method of creativity made by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. Using a deck of cards to break creative blocks, each card lists a challenge to provoke the artist to think imaginatively.

One such strategy reads: Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate. That card is as close as one may come to defining the enigma of Eno. He used the method on David Bowie while they worked together on Bowie’s 1977 masterpiece “Heroes.”

Below are four essential Brian Eno productions.

Honour thy error as a hidden intention.

“Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads from Remain in Light (1980)

David Bryne, suffering from writer’s block, began writing differently after Eno introduced him to Fela Kuti. Kuti’s African polyrhythms became central to Remain in Light. Eno wasn’t sure “Once in a Lifetime” was any good. But Byrne persisted and wrote in a spoken-word style mimicking a radio evangelist. One of Talking Heads’ most popular songs is also one of their most peculiar. It’s another example of Eno’s genius in bringing bizarre noises to the mainstream. Same as it ever was.

“Lost!” by Coldplay from Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008)

It sounds hyperbolic to say Eno saved Coldplay, but following the backlash the band received following their third studio album, Eno at the least corrected their course. For many, Coldplay sounded too Coldplay on X&Y, prompting a scathing article in The New York Times by Jon Pareles. However, Eno expanded the band’s musical palette beyond Radiohead’s The Bends and U2’s The Joshua Tree. What’s striking about Eno’s approach is how it’s theoretically anti-pop. Yet Coldplay, like U2, became the world’s biggest rock band. The ambitious textures on “Lost!” turn Chris Martin’s modest pronouncements into something profound.

“Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2 from The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

Following three studio albums with producer Steve Lillywhite, U2 began a prolific run with Eno and co-producer Daniel Lanois. The Irish rock band was after an ambient sound, and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” sent U2 on a path to replace The Police as the world’s biggest rock band. Eno’s role in the studio isn’t easily defined—he’s been described as an antagonist. A colossal hit, “Pride” sounds like both a spiritual and revolutionary song. Meanwhile, The Edge expanded the cascading guitar sound he’d hinted at over three albums. Eno and Lanois transformed U2’s post-punk sound into something entirely cinematic.

“Heroes” by David Bowie from “Heroes” (1977)

David Bowie and Tony Visconti are credited as the producers of “Heroes,” but Bowie’s classic would have been impossible without Eno’s guiding hand. Eno co-wrote the song with Bowie and designed the swirling atmospherics. He fed Robert Fripp’s guitar through an EMS Synthi AKS—a portable synthesizer Eno manipulated with a joystick. His textures perfectly capture the desperation of young lovers meeting daily near the Berlin Wall. When Bowie played the initial chord progression, Eno said it should be called “Heroes,” because the chords sounded “grand and heroic.”

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