I was driving on the motorway the other day listening to the radio. I couldn't get good reception on a classical station so I was flicking through the other ones when a song caught my attention. It was 'This' by Brian Eno, a track from his new album. I love Eno's earlier 'vocal' albums, especially 'Before and After Science' and 'Another Green World'. I think the new one might be a worthy successor, but it's been a long wait ...

'Another Day On Earth is a collection of new Eno songs, "the first one I've done like that for a very long time...twenty five years or so". Eno's song-writing, his typically concise analysis of the problems that most song-writers face, and the methods he employs to solve these problems reveal the unique nature of his approach to this particular art: "Song-writing is now actually the most difficult challenge in music. It's very easy to make music now but lyrics are really the last very hard problem in music. What I think lyrics have to do is engage a certain part of your brain in a sort of search activity so your brain wants to say 'here are some provocative clues as to what this song might be about'. They don't have to be explicit... in fact for me they certainly shouldn't be explicit".'