Wrong Way Up


Wrong Way Up is the sole collaborative studio album by Brian Eno and John Cale, originally released on October 5, 1990, on Opal and Warner Bros. Records. The album sits between the electronic, prog-rock and art rock genres and features some of both Eno and Cale's most mainstream work.
The 2005 re-release on All Saints Records was remastered and had a different cover, but reverted to the original in 2020. It contains two bonus tracks, "Grandfather's House" and ″You Don't Miss Your Water″ by Eno. Both titles only appeared on single or EP before; the latter was taken from the 1988 OST album Married to the Mob.
The album was acclaimed upon reviews by critics, whilst it is predominantly only recognized by some for the single "Spinning Away", which was notably covered by the American rock band Sugar Ray.

Reception

Trouser Press praised the album, calling it "an absolutely wonderful pop record, a subversion of Top 40 formulae to the pair's own idiosyncratic ends." In a retrospective review, Pitchfork called it "an album of contention, contrasts, cycles, and pop songs so layered and euphoric it ranks among the best albums either artist has ever made."

Track listing

All tracks written by John Cale and Brian Eno; except where indicated.

Original 1990 release

;Side A
  1. "Lay My Love" – 4:44
  2. "One Word" – 4:34
  3. "In the Backroom" – 4:02
  4. "Empty Frame" – 4:26
  5. "Cordoba" – 4:22
;Side B
  2. "Spinning Away" – 5:27
  3. "Footsteps" – 3:13
  4. "Been There, Done That" – 2:52
  5. "Crime in the Desert" – 3:42
  6. "The River" – 4:23

Bonus tracks on 2005 remaster

;UK & rest of the world:
  2. "Grandfather's House"
  3. "You Don't Miss Your Water"
;US:
  2. "You Don't Miss Your Water"
  3. "Palanquin"

Promotional tracks

In the early 1990s, Warner Bros. US released a series of promotional-only 7" colored vinyl split-artist EPs called Soil Samples. Each side of these 7"ers would have unreleased tracks from the sessions of the artist's record these promos were ostensibly promoting.
Soil Samples #3 had unreleased tracks by House of Freaks on one side, and two unreleased cuts from the Eno/Cale Wrong Way Up sessions on the other side: a cover of "Ring of Fire" with vocals by Eno, and the instrumental "Shuffle Down to Woodbridge", apparently Cale solo.
To date, neither of these has been issued on CD, or anywhere else except this promotional 7".

Personnel

  • John Cale – lead vocals, backing vocals, pianos, keyboards, bass, harp, horn, dumbek, viola, strings, omnichord
  • Brian Eno – lead vocals, backing vocals, keyboards, rhythm bed, Indian drum, guitars, Shinto bell, bass, little Nigerian organ, cover picture
  • Robert Ahwai – rhythm guitar
  • Nell Catchpole – violins
  • Rhett Davies – backing vocals
  • Daryl Johnson – bass
  • Ronald Jones – tabla, drums
  • Bruce Lampcov – backing vocals
  • Dave Young – guitars, bass
;Technical
  • Recordings engineered by Brian Eno, except John Cale's vocals recordings, which were engineered by Dave Young
  • Rhett Davies, Bruce Lampcov, Brian Eno – mixing
  • Brian Eno, Kevin Cann – art, design