STOP MAKING SENSE

After the first shaky studio album from the band, Talking Heads didn't waste any time and decided to document their excellent live show for everyone to enjoy. The final result definitely speaks for itself and there is no denying that the band performed, what I consider to be, one of my top ten live video recorded stage shows that only surpass by classics like King Crimson's deja VROOM and Director's Cut version of Pink Floyd's Live In Pompeii, among others.

Even though I completely adore this stage performance, the soundtrack to this release is a different story all together. Unlike the DVD, this 75 minute release becomes weary towards the middle of the show, right around Swamp, and never recovers after that. The main problem is that the songs that are featured on the set-list aren't strong enough to make this an excellent live album with big concert favorites that have already been done on The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads sounding tired and uninspired without the visuals to back them up. I'm mainly talking about songs like the Found A Job, Once In A Lifetime and especially the full choir version of Take Me To The River. While songs like I Zimbra, Cities and Born Under Punches have now been substituted by the new material from Speaking In Tongues, which I suppose means the Talking Heads were proud of their new studio release. Too bad, I can't appreciate their passion for that album since those songs lack both the songwriting hooks and the passion of everything that came before it.

I also never cared much for the Tom Tom Club and the performance of Genius Of Love really makes no sense on the live album, unless you watch the video and see that the song is actually performed in order to let David Byrne have a quick costume change. What I'm basically trying to say is that the well choreographed visuals of the performance don't transfer that well onto the live album and you're probably going to sit and visualize the different scenes from the show while listening to it anyway!

Jonathan Demme is a masterful music director and he demonstrated it only recently with the 2006 release of Neil Young: Heart of Gold. Still, its his work with Talking Heads that probably marks one of the most well recognized video recordings that have ever been done. So my question is why would you want to substitute it by limiting yourself by the audio only version of this masterpiece? If you really want to hear a great live album by Talking Heads then you can listen to the superior performances on The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads and only pick up this album once you've got tired of the 160 minutes worth of material that is offered there!

***** star songs: Psycho Killer (4:25) Heaven (3:41) Life During Wartime (5:51)

**** star songs: Thank You For Sending Me An Angel (2:10) Found A Job (3:15) Slippery People (4:01) Burning Down The House (4:06) Making Flippy Floppy (4:40) What A Day That Was (6:01) This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) (4:57) Once In A Lifetime (5:26) Take Me To The River (5:33) Crosseyed And Painless (6:11)

*** star songs: Swamp (4:50) Genius Of Love (4:31) Girlfriend Is Better (5:06)