Editing Before and After Science (section)

== Critical reception ==
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name=Allmusic />
| rev2 = ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]''
| rev2score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Wolk|first=Douglas|author-link=Douglas Wolk|url=http://www.blender.com/reviews/review_2169.html|title=Brian Eno: (various reissues)|magazine=[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]|location=New York|year=2004|access-date=21 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040806081840/http://www.blender.com/reviews/review_2169.html|archive-date=6 August 2004|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
| rev3score = A−{{sfn|Christgau|1981|p=127}}
| rev4 = ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''
| rev4score = A<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Brunner|first=Rob|url=http://www.ew.com/article/2004/06/04/another-green-world-and-after-science-brian-eno|title=Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy), Another Green World, Before and After Science|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|location=New York|date=4 June 2004|access-date=24 August 2016|archive-date=7 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107074912/http://www.ew.com/article/2004/06/04/another-green-world-and-after-science-brian-eno|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| rev5 = ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]''
| rev5score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Buckley|first=David|title=Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets / Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) / Another Green World / Before and After Science|magazine=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]|location=London|issue=127|date=June 2004|page=123}}</ref>
| rev6 = ''[[The New Zealand Herald]]''
| rev6score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite news|last=Reid|first=Graham|author-link=Graham Reid (journalist)|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=3573436|title=Brian Eno|newspaper=[[The New Zealand Herald]]|location=Auckland|date=18 June 2004|access-date=3 February 2018}}</ref>
| rev7 = ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]''
| rev7score = 7.7/10 {{small|(2004)}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/e/eno_brian/here-come-the-tiger-mountain-green-world-after-science.shtml |title=Brian Eno: Colours: Pitchfork Review |accessdate=2023-06-20 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040618124433/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/e/eno_brian/here-come-the-tiger-mountain-green-world-after-science.shtml |archivedate=18 June 2004 }}</ref><br />10/10 {{small|(2017)}}<ref name="Wolk">{{cite web|last=Wolk|first=Douglas|author-link=Douglas Wolk|url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/brian-eno-here-come-the-warm-jets-taking-tiger-mountain-by-strategy-before-and-after-science/|title=Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets / Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) / Before and After Science|website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]|date=3 August 2017|access-date=3 August 2017}}</ref>
| rev8 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev8score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{sfn|Considine|2004|p=278}}
| rev9 = ''[[Spin Alternative Record Guide]]''
| rev9score = 9/10{{sfn|Powers|1995|p=129}}
| rev10 = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
| rev10score = 8/10<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Bonner|first=Michael|title=Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets / Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) / Another Green World / Before and After Science|magazine=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]|location=London|issue=244|date=September 2017|page=46}}</ref>
}}

The album was critically acclaimed upon release. Writing for ''[[Creem]]'', Joe Fernbacher called the ''Before and After Science'' "the perfect Eno album",<ref name="creem">{{cite magazine|last=Fernbacher|first=Joe|title=Brian Eno: Before and After Science|magazine=[[Creem]]|location=Detroit|issue=9|date=April 1978|page=67}}</ref> and Mitchell Schneider in ''[[Crawdaddy (magazine)|Crawdaddy]]'' stated he could not "remember the last time a record took such a hold of [him]—and gave [him] such an extreme case of [[Vertigo (medical)|vertigo]], too".<ref name="crawdaddy">{{cite magazine|last=Schneider|first=Mitchell|title=Brave New Eno|magazine=[[Crawdaddy (magazine)|Crawdaddy]]|location=New York|issue=84|date=May 1978|page=64|quote=Brian Eno is an agent from some other time and some other place who seems to know something that we don't but should... I can't remember the last time a record took such a hold of me—and gave such an extreme case of vertigo, too.)}}</ref> In ''[[DownBeat]]'', Russell Shaw wrote that the album was "another typically awesome, stunning and numbing Brian Eno album—the record [[Pink Floyd]] ''could'' make if they set their collective mind to it".<ref name="downbeat">{{cite magazine|last=Shaw|first=Russell|title=Brian Eno: Before and After Science|magazine=[[DownBeat]]|location=Chicago|issue=45|date=13 July 1978|page=36|quote=What a wonderland of a zoo, a cross between steaming smoke, atonal mystery and hanging, frothy ditties... This is another typically awesome, stunning, numbing Brian Eno album—the record Pink Floyd could make if they set their collective mind to it.)}}</ref> Tom Carson of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' considered the album "less immediately ingratiating than either ''[[Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)|Taking Tiger Mountain]]'' or ''[[Here Come the Warm Jets]]''. Still, the execution here is close to flawless, and despite Eno's eclecticism, the disparate styles he employs connect brilliantly."<ref name=rollingstone /> Critic [[Robert Christgau]] gave the album an A− rating, stating that he "didn't like the murkiness of the quiet, largely instrumental reflections that take over side two", but did not find that this "diminishes side one's oblique, charming tour of the popular rhythms of the day".{{sfn|Christgau|1981|p=127}} In 1979, ''Before and After Science'' was voted 12th best album of the year on ''[[The Village Voice]]'''s [[Pazz & Jop]] critics' poll for 1978.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres78.php|title=The 1978 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll|newspaper=[[The Village Voice]]|location=New York|date=22 January 1979|access-date=31 May 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619143455/http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres78.php|archive-date=19 June 2009|url-status=live}}</ref>

Among later reviews of ''Before and After Science'', the editors of [[AllMusic]] awarded the album the highest rating of five stars, with David Ross Smith stating that it ranks alongside ''[[Here Come the Warm Jets]]'' and ''[[Another Green World]]'' "as the most essential Eno material".<ref name=Allmusic /> The music webzine ''[[Tiny Mix Tapes]]'' awarded the album their highest rating, stating that it "is not only one of the best albums in Eno's catalog, but of the 1970s as a whole".<ref name="tinymix">{{cite web|author=Eyad|url=http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Brian-Eno,5982|title=Brian Eno – Before and After Science|website=[[Tiny Mix Tapes]]|date=11 April 2008|access-date=31 May 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090620170136/http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Brian-Eno%2C5982|archive-date=20 June 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Douglas Wolk]] of the webzine ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' gave ''Before and After Science'' a perfect rating, calling the album "the most conceptually elegant of Eno’s '70s song-albums".<ref name="Wolk"/> ''Pitchfork'' placed ''Before and After Science'' at number 100 on their list of "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s", referring to it as a "lovely, charming album" and going on to state that, while "not formally groundbreaking, it's frequently overlooked when discussing great albums from an era that's romanticized as placing premiums on progression and innovation—and particularly in the context of Eno's career, which is so full of both".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/5932-top-100-albums-of-the-1970s/|title=The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s|website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]|date=23 June 2004|access-date=16 October 2020|page=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531052330/http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5932-top-100-albums-of-the-1970s/|archive-date=31 May 2009|url-status=live}}</ref>