Secret Life is a collaborative ambient album between British recording artists Fred Again and Brian Eno released on 5 May 2023 through Four Tets label Text Records.

Background and release
Secret Life is the first collaborative release from Fred Again and Brian Eno, however they have been colleagues since 2014, when Fred Again received writing credits on Eno's Someday World and High Life. Eno then became Fred Again's mentor, saying that "when I first worked with Fred I could see he was brilliant". Eno has stated that Fred Again also acted as his mentor with respect to learning contemporary music.

Secret Life was announced on 2 May 2023 by Four Tet, an English producer with whom Fred Again had previously worked and toured, earlier in the year, with Four Tet calling it "the most beautiful album of 2023". The announcement included the release date of 5 May. Prior to its release, previews of songs were played daily at 10:00 PM BST on the promotional website secretlife.fm.

Musical composition
Secret Life is an ambient album. Fred Again performs the vocals.

It interpolates John Prine's "Summer's End" (from The Tree of Forgiveness) on "Radio" and "Come On Home". The album also interpolates Leonard Cohen's "In My Secret Life" on "Secret" and Winnie Raeder's "Don’t You Dare" on "Enough". Alongside these, Fred Again incorporates sampled vocal snippets throughout the album, akin to his Actual Life releases.

Critical reception

Secret Life received mainly positive reviews from critics. Writing for Triple J, Courtney Fry praised the composition's subtleness, stating it is a "45-minute exhale [come] just at the right time". Ted Davis of Rolling Stone said that while the album falls short of Four Tet's "most beautiful album of 2023" claim, it is still "pretty". WhyNow writer Teddy Coward highly commended Secret Life and called it a "blissfully nourishing sweep" of ambient music. In particular, he enjoyed Fred Again's vocals and the way they blended with the drone ambience.

Reviewers praised the change in style of Fred Again. Davis thought that despite his playful and gimmicky persona, the album demonstrated a more subtle side of Fred Again's music. Ellie Mullins of We Rave You called him a "musical chameleon" and lauded the dynamic between the two artists. Davis also commended the degree of Eno's creativity on Secret Life, believing it something "we haven't heard [...] in years". Conversely, Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian described the album as uninspired, demonstrating the "weaknesses" in the collaborators' producing capabilities. 

According to Will Richards from NME, "The album's full power is only released though when understanding the relationship between the two artists, and what came before. For those in the know, it fills in satisfying gaps; for newcomers or Eno fans unfamiliar with Fred's work, it'd be easy to feel shut out, in spite of the immersive nature of the project." 

The album featured on several weekly "best of" lists, including by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and Far Out. A brief review of new music for The New Zealand Herald by Peter Baker recommended this album for being "a haunting and solemn collection of atmospheric soundscapes fused with YouTube audio snippets, Instagram voice messages and Fred Again's own fragile vocals".

Track listing

Charts

References

2023 albums
Fred Again albums
Brian Eno albums
Text Records albums
Ambient albums
Collaborative albums