Demystifying Eno - Rated 
So many music biographies so often miss the point via brevity, misplaced gushing praise, or lack of authoritative support. Not so here. This is an excellent book, clocking in at around 500 pages, and written with serious intent and obviously fully researched. Perhaps most importantly, the author had access to both the subject of his book and many of those involved, adding to the quality of the finished product.
Brian Eno's early life and influences are fully developed, as is his time with Roxy Music and his early works. Every important release, be it solo material or collaborations are fully expounded upon, giving the reader genuine insight into the working process behind these works. Perhaps as importantly, each is directly tied into what went before and what is to come; a chronology of influences.
As the pages turn, Eno's output is explained in a way that for me anyway, demystified much of his works, while at the same did not lesson the "magic" contained within them. Indeed, it would be difficult to read this book without listening to the recordings being written about and hearing them again with new ears.
Unfortunately, and preventing what otherwise could have been a 5-star book, as the years roll by, the later works are given less and less pages... rushing to the end without the detailed narrative it began with. Another minor quibble is the lack of a discography, which would have served as a valuable reference point.
All that said, there is no finer book on the life and works of Brian Eno available and those interested in understanding the who, what, when and where of this most important of recording (and visual) artists, should regard this volume as a desert island selection.
Enotastic... - Rated
Good to see that Fabers have binned that pastel hued dust jacket in favour of something a little more in tune with the subject of the book.
The book is excellent up until Eno starts working with U2, whereupon it speeds up, and we race through Eno's career to the present day. The book doesn't go into much detail about Eno's projects in this period; it reads like "Eno did x, then he did y, and then spent some time doing z". As other reviewers here have noted, this may be because the author doesn't think Eno's later work is worthy of the same attention as his earlier output.
I'd have liked a bit more coverage of Eno's work in the visual arts. This is dealt with in the book, but only superficially.
To end on a positive note, I'd add that while I've followed the Enomeister's activities fairly closely over the past 30 odd years, there were plenty of things about the great man that I learnt in this book.
mixed emotions - Rated 
Couldn't agree more with the "erstwhile" comment. You start off with a sense of deja vu and after a while it's just downright irritating. Incredibly dry prose and certainly not for those who've forgotten their GSCE French. One would hate to be stuck in a lift with this guy.
Personality aside, Sheppard's done his research and some bits are actually quite engrossing, particulary Eno's NY period - a fascinating snapshot of the energy and joyous inventiveness of the scene. The late 80's and 90's seem like a hell of a rushed job, although in fairness much of the mystique was wearing thin by then. You can tell the author shares the same opinion.
Erstwhile Eno - Rated
Whilst a great read and an insight into the methods of the erstwhile Roxy sound distorter, it didn't tell me anything about him as a person. I found myself four fifths through the book about the erstwhile Bowie collaborator and we were still in 1979. It reads like a very long (very knowledgeable and well written) record review of the erstwhile Plastic Eno Band man, but Sheppard uses the word erstwhile far too often for my liking.
Anatomy of a brainbox - Rated
Well written, very entertaining, full of gossip and a nice selection of photos. I have the feeling a lot of Eno-facts have already been aired elsewhere (like the infamous meeting of Eno with Bryan Ferry on the stairs at Elton John's Christmas party soon after he left Roxy Music). The descriptions of the first four vocal solo albums are illuminating and done largely in a track by track fashion: read how that sublime album Another Green World came togther. Eno was so prolific in the late 70s/early 80s that this book is invaluable in working out when he did what. There's plenty of insight into the relationship with Talking Heads (makes a good read) and not so much on U2 (which is also good, in a way). Tina Weymouth's take on David Byrne and Eno buddying up, to the extent of wearing similar clothes and smoking the same brand of cigarettes, is a hoot. But most people have nothing but praise for Eno, though Gavin Bryars is rather loathe to ascribe any musical talent to Eno, in no small part I'll be bound due to a question of unpaid royalties for his releases on Eno's Obscure label. An interesting side of Eno that comes out from the experience of Bryars and others is Eno's ability (perhaps unconscious) to take over a project. Thus, Bryars is instrumental in forming the Portsmouth Sinfonia, but then sees their star rise due to their involvement with Eno and the press attention that his stardom in Roxy Music brought with it, to the extent where PS end up effectively seen as Eno's latest pet project! New York avant garde trumpeter Jon Hassell also sees his ideas for making afro-centric ambient music edged out and submerged into what became Byrne and Eno's "My life in the bush of ghosts". And sometimes, Eno appears to have been downright devious, as in sorting out the writing credits for Talking Heads' Remain in Light album.
Unlike a friend of mine, who thinks Eno stopped being interesting in about 1981, I love Eno's later ambient works. But it seems that either Sheppard can't write expansively about later albums or isn't really interested enough to do so, so the last 25 years of Eno's career occupy perhaps a quarter of the book. Admittedly, it's harder to write about a sparce 60 minute solo piece like "Neroli" than AGW with its 14 tracks and multiple guest musicians. The Drop, which isn't such a bad album of juju space jazz in my books, or the Curiosities 1 and 2 collections of studio outtakes that feature "Captain" Bob Fripp, have tracks that could easily have been described in some detail, for sure. The engineer who collated the Curiosities volumes could have been tapped for insight into why certain tracks made the cut. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Eno's recent return to a vocal album, Another Day on Earth, merits a more substantial track-by-track dissection. A key omission, I think, is that there's no description for the curious of the missing tracks from the famously unreleased My Squelchy Life album. Few of those tracks have subsequently emerged through conventional channels. And why won't Eno release Seven Deadly Finns or The Lion Sleeps Tonight through iTunes? I think we should be told. There's also little of a technical nature describing Eno's approach to generative music, nor much information on his favourite synths/software/studio gear beyond the famous "Putney" VCS3 from the Roxy days. I suspect though that, like my friend, most people are interested in the Roxy days, the first four vocal albums and the collaborations with Bowie, John Cale and TH, and this book certainly delivers in those areas.
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