Classic tune. Chuck Rainey on Bass, Rick Marotta Drums. Don and Walter doing their usual. My all-time favorite rhythm section. Michael McDonald's back-up vocals are interesting. Lyrics you can relate to, as soon as you decode them...

Picture yourself in a boat on a river.

Actually, in this case it happens to be the middle of the ocean. Just drifting any direction. No land in sight, nothing else on the water, not even any clouds. No distractions. Just you, the boat, and the water.

Oh, and Julie -- she's there -- with her open blouse, gazing up into the empty sky.

What's so powerful about Eno's "Julie With..." (and this is perhaps representative of his entire career) is that he gives you an experience in perfect detail, as if reading a book.

Even if you discount the lyrics, which, although not exactly Shakespearian, are clear and unambiguous, there is no escaping the image that Eno is presenting.

Casting aside any overanalysis, what we're left with is an outstanding bit of relaxing, but emotionally evocative chillout music. Completely beatles, the instrumentation is typical Eno: pad synthesizers, minimoog and guitar with heavy chorus. Not something you'd throw on at an afterparty, but great for a sunset in solitude.

This track kicks off the first album by the Jane Relf - Jim McCarty - John Hawken group which arose from the ashes of Renaissance when the latter was taken over by the Camp / Dunford / Thatcher cabal after a couple of LPs (that's not a knock at Renaissance by the way!). "Isadora" is interesting because although it's almost seven minutes long and doesn't have a great deal of lyrical content, it does have a wonderfully frosty mood to it (all those minor chords will do that) and I love some of the piano riffs that fall in behind the lines of singing. And its frostiness makes a remarkable contrast to the sultry "Face Of Yesterday" (q.v.) from the same album!

This is a slow, sultry, intimate piano-led song that makes a remarkable contrast to the frosty "Isadora" (q.v.) off the same LP, despite both songs having basically the same acoustic guitar / bass / drums / piano / vocals lineup. The difference between this kind of soft-rock and, say, the Carpenters, is that the latter were schmaltzy beyond endurance while Illusion provided the genuine article ...

"Face Of Yesterday" was recorded earlier by Renaissance on their "Illusion" LP, which gave its name to this group, which was actually mostly the same Renaissance lineup (with Jane Relf and Jim McCarty) before the Camp / Dunford / Thatcher group took over Renaissance. I know, I know, you can't follow the players without a scorecard in this case ...

This is a beautiful, sweeping song that brings such strong visuals of the Scottish landscape to mind. Like the land it is alternately beautiful and lonely.