The Drop

On his first album in three years, pioneering ambient architect Brian Eno unveils yet another brand of sonic manipulation, a type of music he vaguely labels "drop." Angular melodies, bent guitar notes, piano drizzles and manipulated effects make up The Drop's mixed bag of 17 minicompositions (most clocking in at under three minutes). As usual, Eno is more interested in introducing new musical equations than in actually solving them: He leaves behind the cinematic spaciousness that characterized much of his earlier ambient work and instead creates a series of musical interludes that sound as if they've been stripped of their original contexts — fragmented webs that, strangely, end up connecting nothing.