Here Come The Warm Jets - Reception

Reception

Initial critical reception for the album was mostly positive, praising its experimental tendencies. Critic Lester Bangs of Creem declared it "Incredible", while Robert Christgau also of Creem gave it an "A" rating, stating that "The idea of this record--top of the pops from quasi-dadaist British synth wizard--may put you off, but the actuality is quite engaging in a vaguely Velvet Underground kind of way." Billboard wrote a positive review stating that "...while it all may be a bit unpredictable, and may be a longshot to do much in the U.S. market, it is an excellent LP." The album was also placed in Circus magazine's section for "Picks of the Month". Cynthia Dagnal of Rolling Stone wrote an article on Eno, calling the album "a very compelling experiment in controlled chaos and by his own self-dictated standards a near success." The next month, Gordon Fletcher wrote a negative review for the album in the "Records" section of Rolling Stone, stating " record is annoying because it doesn't do anything...the listener must kick himself for blowing five bucks on baloney." In 1974, Here Come the Warm Jets was voted one of the best albums of the year in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll for that year.

Modern assessments of the album have been positive; Allmusic, Rolling Stone and Uncut gave the album five stars, their highest ratings. In the November 2003 issue of Rolling Stone, the album charted at number 436 on the magazine's top 500 albums of all time. In a retrospective review, Rolling Stone's J. D. Considine gave the album four out of five stars and commented that "It may be easy to hear both an anticipation of punk and an echo of Roxy Music in the arch clangor of Here Come the Warm Jets, but what shines brightest is the offhand accessibility of the songs", adding that "the melodies linger on the album seems almost a blueprint for the pop experiments Bowie (with Eno producing) would conduct with Low". In 2004, Pitchfork Media ranked the album at number 24 on its list of "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s", as well as giving the re-issue of the album 9.2 out of 10. In 2003, Blender placed the album on their list of "500 CDs You Must Own: Alternative Rock", stating that "remains his best pop effort. His experimental touch turns basic glam-rock into something sick and sinister. The free-associating, posh-voiced vocals are an acquired taste, but there’s method in this madness". The Canadian music magazine Exclaim! referred to Here Come the Warm Jets as "Arguably one of the greatest solo debuts of the 1970s...Songs such as “Baby's On Fire,” “Driving Me Backwards,” and “Needles In The Camel's Eye” capture the lush and sleazy underpinning narratives of the British Invasion in arrangements that sound quintessentially timeless".