TALKING HEADS

David Byrne with Brian Eno, Adrian Belew, Robert Palmer to already say the range of artists who came to lay this project; the TALKING HEADS or the extraordinary sidereal OMNI for the Ts, more of a comet than anything else, captivating, nervous, shimmering sounds, to get you out of your wheelchair,... Well, here we go!

1 Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) extra terrestrial direct attack, avant-garde with this tribal rhythm of a sound 'linked to prog', that I like! A mouth-watering track, between pop and rock, between rock and detuned synth, between burst vocals and catchy hypnotic rhythm, a bit long at the end though 2 Crosseyed And Painless tumbles like part of another piece; it's all there, the perfect rhythm, the sound that seems to come out of a power socket and put a dump, a dump, a dump again; 3 The Great Curve with percussion and the distant air, like James Bond arriving on stage; the air is still connected to the PTO, the legs can't stop stamping, just when I have aches, it's clever; the guitar scratched empty, uh long live finally you understood, we are on a rock mantra; far from new-wave, far from prog dinos; but a bit of both, an early merger? Yes we are here 43 years later; the overly repetitive title is worth its weight with this tortured and torturing second solo; yes you have to get back into the atmosphere. 4 Once In A Lifetime and this sound coming out of nowhere, the bass, the percussion, David's voice, everything is strange, everything is in the progressive imprint; the dancing rhythm that moves your ears a little, the chorus that comes back, comes back to your calves, the verse that seems to go to jungle-like lands, a bit of XTC and their own madness; in short, the vocal break brings the binary progression and prints it on your forehead, don't move anymore, it fits; go remember the space riff from beyond the grave that sweeps the most recalcitrant 5 Houses In Motion hop we take the train before the horn mist; it goes fast you don't have time to ask yourself; always these choirs from here and there, always this catchy sound, always this musical madness; here it makes me think of the tribal titles of DEAD CAN DANCE which bewitched you as you went along; the oriental flute? in any case it twirls, it fills the air with its waves and would make you forget the monolithic rhythm of monolithic; go a little flute to get the snake out of the box. 6 Seen And Not Seen in the same vein, its archaic, binary, metronomic; notes slipped here and there, a clap of hands, space synth... it seems so simple, me who has been starting to see my calves swollen for half an hour from moving... a deaf chorus comes stir up more trouble; but where are we? 7 Listening Wind ..., ...., .... .... Morse code well, the ship has lost its way in space, beep bit; yes BOWIE had also abused these sounds... the intro that makes me the most in the field, wait I'll put it back, yes with a bar in far we can do it too; between space and jungle, between dawn and fog, THE TITLE of the album, hovering, bewitching, hypnotic, mantranic repetitive where the sound stops and remains in suspense. 8 The Overload with finally a worthy intro; abyssal, Birdyenne?? yes I am thinking of Peter GABRIEL's percussions of course; a sinister musical over-over which sets off on an unprecedented space-time curve, a dark OMNI moment before its time; the last of the mohicans resisting the prog label shoots his ax in the foot here, he lost; a sound that I will find on the Terry RILAY, on the LUSTMORD always gloomy and mischievous, always invaded by idyllic lunar beauty. When I leave you...

A hidden chronicle with 5 of course for the album 'Remain'!

This album always struck me as a sort of baby More Songs About Buildings and Food. It got the same sort of vocals, and the songs handle themselves in mostly the same way, but this doesn't have the production genius of Brian Eno. It's not that this album's worse off for it, instead this means that it has more of a personality, and it's generally more of a unique listen.

Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town is an incredible start. Telling us what the album's going to sound like, and introducing us to the shenanigans of David Byrne. It introduces us to the entire cast. The bass line shows Tina's musicianship, Chris' steel pan shows us his influences, and Jerry's there too. I'm surprised that this wasn't as big a hit as Psycho Killer, to be honest, it's so goddam groovy.

The next four tracks all got the same sound. But instead of being lazy or boring, they all have identities. Each of them swaps ideas around creating a feeling less of four entirely different songs, and more of a ten-minute suite. This section of the album is also extremely cozy. There's nothing unhappy going on here. Just good vibes all around.

The next track "No Compassion" is very important to me personally. It's about being hung up on other people's problems. When either they're fake, they just want attention, you're taking too much energy worrying or any number of reasons. One thing I was hung up on doing around the time I first got into this album (and Talking Heads in general) was being hung up about my fake internet friends and their fake problems. The blunt-force lyrics, and the really honest way David sings them, spared no time in telling me exactly what I needed to hear. Another thing this song helped me with was being more honest, putting my problems in perspective with other people's lives, not making up [&*!#] for attention, and trying not to be one of the people the lyrics talk about. I want to make it clear that if you think I'm praising this song too much, I'm not, this is art, and art is supposed to change/influence people, and saying this song influenced me is an understatement.

The first track on side two "The Book I Read" is a cute little love song. My interpretation of the lyrics is that our protagonist is writing about something that changed his life, which would be the book he read. A metaphorical book. And when he found out that this book was someone close to him, he falls madly in love with them. I love the line "I'm running a race and you're the book I read", which is basically saying "I'm overcoming/completing something all because of you. Look! You're helping my life just by being there." You can swap the "I'm running a race" with whatever and it will fit perfectly. Along with this song having never described this book person. This line helps the song feel personal.

Don't Worry About The Government is a political track (wow!! how'd I figure that one out?!?!) with a million billion different interpretations. And I haven't yet landed on one I like. So to me, it's just another song about buildings and pine cones.

First Week/Last Week? Carefree harkens back to tracks two through five. Being a cozy mellow one. This one is softer and feels like it's leading somewhere, which it is, Psycho Killer of course,

Psycho Killer is a New Wave staple. Everyone knows it, most if not everyone loves it. It's funky, it's groovy. The lyrics are great satire; they are unfortunately tied to serial killers, because of the single's release so close to the Son of Sam serial killings. The lyrics seem to me like they're making fun of people who glorify and romanticize violence and general mischievousness, edgelords if you will. Aside from being as iconic as it is, the bass line is also super fun to play.

Pulled Up is a great way to end the album. Not too heavy. It didn't counter the weight of any other track on the album. It's very grateful and ends with a sense of optimism. As opposed to failing to end it off with a sense of bewilderment.

This album is great. But the band has not yet fit the square block into the square hole. Their next album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, is where they pull it all together. But I'll get there when I get there.

As the title implies, this is the 1977 technically self-titled debut album by Post-Punk-before-it-was-"Post-Punk" NYC band Talking Heads. I never grew up with the Heads aside from their radio hits, but my girlfriend who wanted me to hear it is a longtime fan. I like things that clearly came out of what they were doing, but I really never expect to consider myself a fan (at least any time soon). I'd rather Television or PiL or... I dunno. XTC and Oingo Boingo, for instance, are well out of their league for my personal tastes. Regardless, I found myself enjoying this first listen-through way more than I ever could have anticipated.

The first track that really did something for me was "New Feeling", a funky number, with quirky instrumentation and a solid vocal performance from Byrne. This track isn't super crazy or super super interesting, but it's just... real good! There are some interesting ideas on "Tentative Decisions", but much of it was just... hokey. Solid enough, in comparision, was "Happy Day".

The next track to really catch me in a groove was "Who Is It?" This is another, I suppose, Avant-Funk number. Super groovy, as implied, with fun vocals and they really waste no time. Under 2 minutes, it is perfect Pop haha. I mean, who wouldn't take a little bit more, though? "No Compassion" has some very interesting, chiming sort of guitar and has a lovely groove as well. Glad I am relistening to this here, as this mid-section is soooo nice! And as it was in the end, it slinks on back down to a quirky lilt.

"The Book I Read" offers nothing for me but decent melody. "First Week / Last Week....Carefree" offers some interesting textures, like... is that Xylophone? Sax is pretty nice, too. Finally, and I find it funny how late in the album it is, the Talking Heads' classic, "Psycho Killer". I mean, this was a hit for a reason. Great melody in the refrain, groovin' beat with a loud drum in the mix. I really don't feel it's any better than the other very good/excellent material on this album, I wanted to note. Truly finally, our closer is the quickened "Pulled Up". Silly song. Fun song.

Anyhow, decent material is juxtaposed with very much excellent Rock music. This album arrived at a super interesting time, with the popularity of Punk and the advent of its sister-genre New Wave. There was a wide array of fresh experimentation, musicians and bands willing to mix Punk with Pop, Reggae, Funk and much more.

True Rate: 3.5/5.0

David Byrne with Brian Eno, Adrian Belew, Robert Palmer to already say the range of artists who came to lay this project; the TALKING HEADS or the sidereal OMNI, more a comet than anything else, captivating, nervous, shimmering sounds, to get you out of your wheelchair, to hit your neighbor who is snoring while listening to Aya.. . OK, let's go!

1 Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) extra terrestrial direct attack, avant-garde with this tribal rhythm of a sound 'linked to prog', that I like! A mouth-watering track, between pop and rock, between rock and detuned synth, between burst vocals and catchy hypnotic rhythm, a bit long at the end though 2 Crosseyed And Painless tumbles like part of another track; it's all there, the perfect rhythm, the sound that seems to come out of a power socket and put a dump, a dump, a dump again; 3 The Great Curve with percussion and the distant air, like James Bond arriving on stage; the air is still connected to the PTO, the legs can't stop stamping, just when I have aches, it's clever; the guitar scratched empty, uh long live finally you understood, we are on a rock mantra; far from new-wave, far from prog dinos; but a bit of both, an early merger? Yes we are here 43 years later; the overly repetitive title is worth its weight with this tortured and torturing second solo; yes you have to get back into the atmosphere. 4 Once In A Lifetime and this sound coming out of nowhere, the bass, the percussion, David's voice, everything is strange, everything is in the progressive imprint; the dancing rhythm that moves your ears a little, the chorus that comes back, comes back to your calves, the verse that seems to go to jungle-like lands, a bit of XTC and their own madness; in short, the vocal break brings the binary progression and prints it on your forehead, don't move anymore, it fits; go remember the space riff from beyond the grave that sweeps the most recalcitrant 5 Houses In Motion hop we take the train before the horn mist; it goes fast you don't have time to ask yourself; always these choirs from here and there, always this catchy sound, always this musical madness; here it makes me think of the tribal titles of DEAD CAN DANCE which bewitched you as you went along; the oriental flute? in any case it twirls, it fills the air with its waves and would make you forget the monolithic rhythm of monolithic; go a little flute to get the snake out of the box. 6 Seen And Not Seen in the same vein, its archaic, binary, metronomic; notes slipped here and there, a clap of hands, space synth... it seems so simple, me who has been starting to see my calves swollen for half an hour from moving... a deaf chorus comes stir up more trouble; but where are we? 7 Listening Wind ..., ...., .... .... Morse code well, the ship has lost its way in space, beep bit; yes BOWIE had also abused these sounds... the intro that makes me the most in the field, wait I'll put it back, yes with a bar in far we can do it too; between space and jungle, between dawn and fog, THE TITLE of the album, hovering, bewitching, hypnotic, mantranic repetitive where the sound stops and remains in suspense. 8 The Overload with finally a worthy intro; abyssal, Birdyenne?? yes I am thinking of Peter GABRIEL's percussions of course; a sinister musical over-over which sets off on an unprecedented space-time curve, a dark OMNI moment before its time; the last of the mohicans resisting the prog label shoots his ax in the foot here, he lost; a sound that I will find on the Terry RILAY, on the LUSTMORD always gloomy and mischievous, always invaded by idyllic lunar beauty. When I leave you...

Well....those who know know it's a bomb; those who didn't know will curse, how did I manage to live without having listened to this? a pure product from another planet, it's easy. Prog related ... unique and singular rock which delivered here a perfect musical abyssal lament.

I don't know why Talking Heads are in a progressive rock music site, but it is still a very good band (I know some of the singles and music videos). "77" is my first album listen by them and damn it is a good album, regardless of its status as prog. The music and moods from this album is nothing like the music from that year, it has a very upbeat and feelgood mood, in comparison to punk rock (which I like) and not as sophisticated and convoluted as prog rock.

The music style from this record is very unique, It has more to do with funk and latin rhythms that with punk (and I really don't like latin rhythms even though I'm mexican) and even an african feeling, but totally dressed as a New York band.

There are no signs of distorted guitars, but the album can get heavy sometimes, with the guitars reminding me of early Pete Townshend playing from "My Generation" or "A Quick One", with that hard playing and shiny, bell-like sound, really great playing. Bass is not as protagonic compared to later songs or "Psycho Killer" but it is still groovy and always serving the songs, along with very solid drum playing.

The main highlight of the record is David Byrne's performances, so good, I like the mundane topics like in "Don't Worry About The Government" or The Who-like angst in "No Compassion", his vocal style mix between talking and singing is actually listenable and actually great, and even the tone of songs that could be cringy such as "Who Is It" are not cringy because of what a good performer David Byrne is.

I don't consider this album prog so I don't know how I would qualify this record as prog, but in an overall music rating it deserves 4 stars. Really good music, I wan't to listen to more of their stuff, It might be even better than this great record.

I recently saw on TV David Byrne's American Utopia, the excellent concert film (2020) that not only features songs from Byrne's album of the same name but also several classic TALKING HEADS songs. I'm still not a connoisseur of that American new wave band of a cult status, but I'm gradually getting warmer for their music. 'Once in a Lifetime' is one of their best known and most charming songs, appearing on their fourth studio album Remain in Light (1980) which is generally regarded as their best work.

As was the whole album, 'Once in a Lifetime' was created collaboratively by the entire band and the innovative producer Brian Eno. It was developed through extensive jams inspired by Afrobeat musicians such as Fela Kuti, and Byrne's lyrics and vocals were inspired by preachers delivering sermons. So, the song can be seen as a forefather to the rap genre; I personally hate rap music, but I do like this song despite the rap-reminding elements. The soundscape behind Byrne's manic talking and the upliftingly catchy chorus ("Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down") is delicious and hasn't dated at all, it still sounds very fresh. If you're familiar with BRIAN ENO's vocal pieces and especially the album Wrong Way Up (1990) that Eno did with John Cale, you can easily recognize the relation. 'Once in a Lifetime' is a thinking man's pop classic which has appeared on several listings of all-time greatest American songs. David Byrne has said that the lyrics are about the unconscious: "We operate half-awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven't really stopped to ask ourselves, How did I get here?"

The single's B side song 'Seen and Not Seen' was also taken from Remain in Light. The soundscape has a lot of electronic experimentation above the dominating, monotonous rhythm pattern, and Byrne's vocal parts are mere talking in a normal voice. As an overall stylistic/atmospheric reference, one could think of Peter Gabriel's third album from the same year or Robert Fripp's Exposure (1979), in addition to Brian Eno. Perhaps these references are a good way to get into Talking Heads, keeping in mind they are not progressive rock.

While Talking Heads' debut was certainly a success in a number of ways, not only landing a huge hit with Psycho Killer, but immediately establishing a compelling approach and sound, it's really their 2nd album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, where the band properly found that stride of releasing total masterpieces. With that said, their sophomore album in general feels rather different in a few key areas to the rest of the band's output. Everything here just feels as if it's far more grounded, with the more personal, introspective approach to lyricism rather than the often broader or more abstract subject matter, or at least presentation of those topics, making it quite powerful and impactful in many instances. Combine this with the other decisions such as the greater focus on guitar or how the majority of the songs are shorter and feel more about capturing a mood as opposed to a full fledged song, and you've got yourself a truly excellent and fascinating listening experience.

Thank You For Sending Me an Angel immediately represents this shift in approach by almost sounding as if it's starting in the middle of the song during a particularly climactic moment, with driving drums pairs with the bouncy guitar and bass especially giving off this vibe. Really energetic opener that never feels as if it slows down in the slightest, which is most clear in the way that even the little guitar solo is used to simultaneously support the rhythm and stand out in its own way as a neat little moment of technicality. This sort of seemingly unchanging steadiness to each individual track on the first side contributes to the band feeling as if they have near boundless amounts of energy to bring to the table, almost as if the album will just never stop going this hard. What's most impressive in this regard is how it translates so neatly into the 2 mid paced songs on this part of the album, The Good Thing and Warning Sign. The way The Good Thing slowly escalates is a significant reason for this, and makes the more intense, frenetically played conclusion feel perfectly natural. Warning sign is even more effective at crafting this sort of latent energy with the way its slower melodic elements are contrasted by a faster paced, underlying rhythm from the guitar. It also helps a lot that this is such a charming and catchy song, though you could say that about the majority of them here.

The album isn't only about these short bursts of energy however, with a few longer songs finding their way onto More Songs About Buildings and Food as well, as can be seen with the side 1 closer, Found a Job. While certainly similar in vibe to everything preceding it, the different sections of the track feel more clear-cut and and obvious. Once again the guitar really is the star of the show here, with the way it perfectly plays off the rhythm, feeling both tightly regimented yet very fun and groovy, with the interactions with the keyboard further elevating things to the point of being one of the band's greatest instrumental moments. And if that wasn't enough, what follows is the fantastic one-two punch of Artists Only and I'm Not In Love. Artists Only feels as if it is able to represent the experience of the creative cycle both through its lyrics and music itself. I'm quite a fan of the way this so harshly can switch gears while remaining cohesive, with stretches of driven energy being balanced by moments of off kilter instrumental madness, before quickly picking itself back up and sounding as if it will keep trying the same thing yet again. It hits the point where it almost feels as if it's desperately working towards some sort of goal by the end, making for some nice parallels to the lyricism. I'm Not In Love on the other hand is not something I can as easily express my feelings on, it's just a song that really gets it, hard to explain it much more than that, it just works remarkably well on a personal level for me. That said, what I can easily say about it is the way that nothing stands still at any point makes for a sight to behold in its own right, like, wow there's so much greatness bombarding you in this one song.

The album ends things well with a couple of of more grounded, long songs that feel like a good way to calm things down to a near halt, and are overall just very chill ways to end things after such an album. Of these I definitely like Take Me to the River a bit more, with its iconic hook and awesome keyboard elements giving it a lot of really fun sections that know how to get stuck in your head for ages. Overall, this album is what I'd consider to be a resounding success, further refining Talking Heads' sound, while pushing them in some different and interesting directions, all when ensuring that the album itself is constantly fun and interesting. This is where the band became something truly special to me, and the fact that they'd comfortably top this a bit later is totally insane. Not the first place I'd send someone in the Talking Heads discography, but undoubtedly a remarkable album that is essential listening.

Best songs: Thank You for Sending Me an Angel, Found a Job, Artists Only, I'm Not In Love

Weakest songs: Stay Hungry

4.5 stars rounded down

I've recently been getting into Talking Heads, finding their interesting brand of nervous energy and playfulness making for a lot of extremely entertaining material, but that said, while I feel that Talking Heads 77 embodies certain elements of the band's identity quite clearly, it also misses the mark in some areas in ways that ultimately make me enjoy this far less than the next few albums to come after it. While you can hear a lot of their sound here, with a far more distinct, well-realised sound to a lot of other bands with their debut, there are also a fair few aspects of it that end up being unrefined, with a more conventional new wave sound in a lot of parts clashing with the more eccentric sensibilities of the band, especially in terms of David Byrne's vocals. While it's easy to see how his vocals could be off-putting to some, I feel like this album really accentuates these more potentially annoying aspects of his voice. Furthermore, the album is quite inconsistent compared to some of their slightly later output, with a lot of songs sounding more like half-baked sketches or just ideas that really didn't pan out to become anything meaningful, culminating in a very promising, yet somewhat underwhelming album.

All the problems I just mentioned don't really come up in the first 3 songs however, especially in Uh Oh, Love Comes to Town, which embodies a lot of the great aspects of the band. I love how upbeat and funky this song is, just feeling really fun throughout, especially with the choice of using steel drums in various parts of the song, giving that extra little hint of quirkiness to it while also just sounding really good in general. New feeling is probably one of the songs on the album that closest resembles the lightly later albums of the band, with a lot of focus to the rhythmic elements of the song and their extremely meticulous sounding interplay, each note contributing to a very anxious tone, hints of distortion and the at times almost panicked delivery of David Byrne solidifying this, all while making the song a ton of fun to listen to at the same time. Tentative Decisions is more minimalistic than some others on the album, and I really mostly like it for the great groove of the chorus, not much to say here.

It's from here where the album goes downhill for a while to me, especially with Happy Day, which is the main song I was talking about when I mentioned David Byrne's vocals potentially being annoying. The song on the whole just doesn't feel like it goes anywhere, making it quite dull, so when it's combined with the vocals on the chorus, where he just seems like he's poorly trying to hit a high note repeatedly, and failing, making it a reasonably rare case of vocals strongly putting me completely off a song. Who Is It? follows these issues, once again sounding extremely uneventful and directionless, with the same line repeated ad nauseum as the song goes absolutely nowhere and doesn't even have anything particularly interesting going on anyway. No Compassion, while it definitely has some potential, especially with the way it periodically switches to a more bouncy rhythm before settling back down in the slightly more subdued stuff. the issue I have with it is that in the end I find that despite the fact it's only about 5 minutes, it really ends up dragging, the entire last verse and chorus being something that could easily be cut out without any major loss, through the song as a whole ends up feeling repetitive regardless.

It's First Week / Last Week where I consider the album to finally find its feet again fortunately, and ends up being one of my favourites on the album, just a really great song with some amazing vocal melodies. Psycho Killer is similarly really great, and is deservedly considered one of the absolute classics in their discography, once again bringing out the more anxious vibe, but also being easily the catchiest thing on the album, and it isn't even close. The part where Byrne starts singing in French is another really charming little aspect of this song, especially the way it really ends up feeling like he ups the intensity during this section, something further heightened by the guitar solo at the end as the song gradually speeds up, each beat being extremely prominent due to the bassline. Pulled Up closes off the album decently, as while it's not quite as good as the previous 2 songs, it's another one of the more entertaining songs here, I especially like the faster pace of it, especially when compared to the predominantly mid-paced nature of the album. While my score of this album and overall opinion on it don't reflect anything to do with the bonus tracks, I just quickly want to mention that people really should listen to these when listening to the album, as most of them are actually better than even some of the highlights from the regular tracklist.

Overall, there's little doubt in my mind that there's quite a bit of greatness in this album, but there's even less doubt that I'm just not a fan of half of the album in the slightest, with a couple of songs I'd go even as far as saying are outright bad, along with a few that are just very mediocre, often not making up for the fun high points that the album has. This band definitely went on to become something great, and some of this album already shows their greatness, but on the whole, it's not really an album that I'd go back to particularly often.

Best tracks: Uh Oh, Love Comes to Town, Psycho Killer, First Week / Last Week....Carefree

Weakest tracks: Happy Day, Who Is It?, Don't Worry About the Government

Fear of music is the third album by the band Talking Heads. The album continued the collaboration with Brian Eno. Fear of music further evolved the band by adding in funk and disco elements into their artsy new wave pop/rock sound. The album is personally one of my favorites by the band because I truly got the most enjoyment from listening to Fear of music and its follow-up. I Zimbra is the opening track of the album and its interesting because it uses African rhythms, which the band would continue to utilize later on in their career. I also noticed that the album had more songs in the minor key, which made the album sound darker than the previous two. Fear of music is great because the band continued to evolve and experiment with their sound, which is why they were so successful and why Fear of music and their other records are great and fun listens. Fear of music is a great album to start with if you are getting into the band.

More songs about building and food was the second album by the band Talking Heads. The album marked the beginning of the bands collaborations with Brian Eno. More songs about buildings and food has an evolved sound from the bands last offering, Talking heads: 77 and it is not only because Brian Eno is featured, its also because the band started to add more art music into their sound. The album is still rooted in punk rock, but the punk roots are not as prominent as they were in the last record, which shows that the band is evolving and creating their own signature sound. The album is very nice and I personally enjoyed it more than Talking heads: 77 because I thought this one was more creative and innovative. I love new wave music because it has so many different sounds to it so that it prevents it from having clones of the same band over and over again. Talking heads not only got on their feet with this record, they started a journey down a path that would make their music more art rock like, complex and experimental.