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Dan Watkins Reviews : Talking Heads

So what did these guys sound like in the beginning? Well, even from the start, they really didn’t sound like any other band. This album is filled with clanky guitars, paranoid vocals, and odd rhythms. What’s kind of neat is that while this stuff seems weird on the surface, it is actually really accessible and catchy once you let yourself get into it. This album has a good balance of mood too. You have your happy sugary pop songs like “Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town,” “Happy Day,” and “Don’t Worry About The Government,” and then you have dark, moody pouters such as “No Compassion,” “New Feeling,” and “Tentative Decisions.” I enjoy the darker stuff the most, but even the other stuff is really catchy. “Psycho Killer” is the one on here that everyone remembers, but there are so many other great songs on here that should have been hits. People always hail the three following albums as classics but for some reason overlook this one, and I’m not quite sure why. The only song on here I don’t care too much for “Pulled Up,” and it’s still an okay song. Oh, and David Byrne hadn’t exactly perfected his voice by this point, but it doesn’t bother me. This one is every bit as vital as the next three albums.

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For their next three albums, the band recruited former Roxy Music keyboardist, Brian Eno, to handle production duties. His presence definitely shows too. This record is much more atmospheric and experimental than the last one, and there are lots of neat little studio tricks going on. The band plays with more of a new wave slant on this album, and light layers of keyboards give the band a different sound. For some reason, I didn’t really like this album at first and couldn’t understand why people raved about it so much. However, after a few listens, I really started to like it. These songs are really catchy! You just have to get used to the sound of the album first. I was actually going to give this one an 8½, but I listened to it again and decided that there’s no way I can give this any less than a 9. I’m completely in love with the first half of the record, but there are a few songs that I’m a little iffy with on the second half. “Stay Hungry” doesn’t really do anything for me until the second half comes around. Oh, and there’s the band’s first top 40 hit, a cover of Al Green’s “Take Me To The River.” Well, everyone on the planet seems to love it but me. Sorry folks, I don’t see what the big deal is. That song is just one big snoozer for me. I never understood how it became a hit or why people like it so much. To me, it just seems to plod along for five minutes without really doing anything interesting. I do like the “Hold me/Squeeze me/Love me/Tease me” part, but that only lasts for like five seconds, so that doesn’t make up for it. I do enjoy the closing anti-rural strummer, “The Big Country,” though. This is actually one of the band’s best albums. I can’t believe there was a point in my life when I thought it was a weak effort.

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Readers Comments Simon B.slb23@shaw.ca This is a major step up from their debut - no sophmore slump here! David Byrne's vocals have improved, neat drum patterns, catchy hooks. Cool cover, too. Best Songs: "Thank You For Sending Me An Angel", "With Our Love", "The Good Thing", "Warning Sign", "The Girls Want to Be With The Girls", "I'm Not in Love", "Take Me to the River", "The Big Country". 8/10

Jeez, this is one strange album. This doesn’t sound much like any of the previous albums at all. When I first listened to it, I thought it sounded terrible. It starts off with the fun and dancey “I Zimbra,” but things get really weird from there. Y’see, this is a concept album, and it works too! As the title might suggest, all of these songs deal with paranoia, and if you put “fear of” in front of all those song titles, you get a general idea of what I mean (well, okay, it doesn’t work on a few of them). The production on this one is really cold, which can be a little off-putting at first, but it actually reveals itself to be really effective for the album. After giving the record a few more chances, I really started to enjoy it.

I personally like the Stop Making Sense version of “Life During Wartime” better than the one here, but this version works nicely as well. “Animals” is a really funny song that describes David’s fear that all the animals are laughing at us. “Cities” is another favorite of mine, but I prefer the version from Stop Making Sense, which HAS NEVER BEEN RELEASED ON CD, DAMMIT! Let’s see, other highlights… “Heaven” is a beautiful ballad. “Drugs” is a spooky, atmospheric number that presages the type of stuff the band would explore on the next album. The only song on here that I don’t particularly care for is “Electric Guitar.” It’s not terrible. It’s just kind of ugly, and the lyrics a little dumb. Everything else is great. The band never sounded this strange on any other album. I highly recommend it.

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Readers Comments Adrian Denning 'I Zimbra' is a great way to open a record. It immediately gets your attention. Whether it keeps your attention is down to your own personal tastes, I guess. A very rhythmic track. The chanted vocals work well. Talking Heads do sound strange here. I'm not overly familiar with their back-catalogue, more familiar with the hits and assorted other bits and pieces. I like this stuff though. 'Mind' with it's weird effects in the background. 'Cities' has a great pace about it, and fine lyrics too. 'Memories Can't Wait' is a great track to feel demented to, if that makes sense. Possibly not? Ah well! 'Heaven' is rather dreary for me. Everything else is pretty good. I'll give it a 9. Simon Brigham slb23@shaw.ca This is IMHO, Talking Heads' best album with Brian Eno. Most of the songs are really good, but there are others that aren't as good (ie: "Paper" "Cities" "Air" and "Animals"). My Favourites are: "I Zimbra", "Mind", "Life During Wartime", "Memories Can't Wait", "Heaven","Electric Guitar", and "Drugs". Overall a pretty good album. 8/10 gazza garyhess44@hotmail.com My favourite talking heads album . life during wartime and memories can wait sound like new york at the time edgy,funky and drugged up . The world music influences are starting to show in the rhythms and enos textures add a lot to the material . heaven is actually a rather touching ballad with a country feel to it . The band were now on route to becoming one of the most influential and original sounding groups of the late 70s and 80s . will will_rhcpfreak@hotmail.com Yeah i gotta say this is their best. Their first 3 albums improve on each other as time goes on. These first 4 albums, are classic Talking Heads. Not a bad song here. My favourite is 'Mind'

Okay, so where do I begin with this one? This one is generally referred to as the best Talking Heads album out there, and I suppose I have to agree. You see, I actually have trouble trying to decide if this is really better than Fear Of Music. Unlike that album, which was full of short little bizarre-but-catchy pop songs, this album consists of five-to-six minute atmospheric songs that put you in a hypnotic trance. I agree with what Mark Prindle said in his review: “You CANNOT just stick your little stereo needle at the beginning of every song, say ‘nah, don't like that one,’ and move on to the next track; if you do, you'll end up thinking that ‘Once In A Lifetime" and ‘Crosseyed And Painless’ are the only good numbers on the LP.” I couldn’t agree more with that statement. These songs take a minute or so to grab you, but when they do, they’re really interesting. Everyone in the world has probably heard “Once In A Lifetime,” and it is a great song, but the songs that really do it for me are hypnotic dance tunes like “Born Under Punches,” “The Great Curve,” and “Houses In Motion.” I know I’ve already used the word “hypnotic” a billion times, but “hypnotic” is really the only way to describe this album. Over all, I guess this album is just a hair better than Fear Of Music in my book, but they are both great in different ways.

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Readers Comments Simon Brigham slb23@shaw.ca I am a fan of The Talking Heads (I own More Songs About . . .and Fear Of Music and also the Brian Eno/David Byrne collaboration My LIfe In The Bush Of Ghosts) But when I listened to this one, I was quite disappointed. The only good songs are "Once In a Lifetime" and "Crosseyed and Painless." Sorry guys. The rest just didn't grab me. Jay LewisDontJump@aol.com Listening Wind and The Overload get a little dreary for me, but before that it is pure brilliance. I still think Fear of Music is better though. Mark Mark190271@yahoo.com Many consider this their masterpiece but i find the majority of it leaves me cold!! I own all their albums but this is the one i come back to least and im always hoping to hear something i might have missed........... but i never do.... Hal mutzpunter@yahoo.com I couldn't agree more with this review! I own the Talking Heads' albums from '77' up till 'Speaking In Tongues' and don't care much about what they did afterwards. 'Remain In Light' truly IS their masterpiece, impossible to surpass, as it turned out. Being marvellous artists on their own rights, it just seems that everything touched by Brian Eno turns into gold (see Roxy Music's 'For Your Pleasure' or U2's 'Joshua Tree', for instance). I think he was a major force in reaching those artistic heights. Strangley, I found this album instantly accessible, don't know why. Each and every song on RIL grabbed me from the first time I put it into my CD player. In the meantime, though, I usually omit 'The Overload' because I find it a little too depressing. 'Fear Of Music' gave me a much harder time getting into. Simon and Mark, listen to this album in a way the reviewer suggested and you'll be able to appreciate its greatness. By the way, why hasn't anyone mentioned that the best song! on 'More Songs...' is 'Found A Job'? :-) Simon B., slb23@shaw.ca I just want to say that my previous comment is out of date. I now acknowledge the fact that there are other good/great songs on REMAIN IN LIGHT than just "Crosseyed and Painless" and "Once In a Lifetime" (even though I think those are still great). I have a new appreciation for "Born Under Punches" and "The Great Curve", two very catchy and rhythmic songs in their own right. (the latter with a cool Adrian Belew guitar solo, and intricate layered backing vocals). And speaking of catchy and rhythmic, the drum/percussion loop on "Seen and Not Seen" is also very good. Though I still cannot get into "Listening Wind". "The Overload" is lyrically good, but musically, very monotonous, repetitive and dull (but maybe that was the point). Anyway, I just wanted to say that I like REMAIN IN LIGHT a lot more for what it contains and has to offer, and that it was very influential on the music scene after its release, and today's as well.

Well, I finally got a hold of this record, and it was definitely worth the wait and hassle of Ebay. This 2-LP live album was released after Remain In Light while the band members were taking a break from each other and trying out other side projects. My guess is this was put together to buy time in between records, but it’s actually a really good live album. The first half is culled from live performances from 1977-79 with the four-piece band, and the second half is live material from 1980-81 featuring an extended line-up. The juxtaposition of the stripped-down early songs with the heavily arranged later songs works very well. My favorite here is the re-working of “Drugs,” which I actually like better the original. The band takes the song and gives it a steady tempo, thus turning it into a great song. Other favorites here are “New Feeling,” “Memories Can’t Wait,” “Houses In Motion,” and the previously unheard of “A Clean Break.” Some of these songs would turn out better on Stop Making Sense (“Life During Wartime” and Crosseyed And Painless” come to mind), and I still don’t care for “Take Me To The River,” but everything else is just fantastic.

For some strange reason, this has never been released on CD. Does anyone have any idea why? I just spent several hours transferring the record to CD-R, and I guess it will have to do until the powers-that-be decide to give this album a proper release on CD. Try to find yourself a vinyl copy though. It’s worth it.

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Readers Comments Simon Brigham slb23@shaw.ca Okay. Here we go. This has GOT to be one of the worst live albums I have ever heard. Absolutely nothing catches me here. It even sounds like there is only 15 people in the audience on Side One! They even re-arranged the songs on Record Two to the point where I can't really recognize them. They totally transformed "Drugs" and "Cross eyed and painless" (possibly my favourite Heads song.) until they are screwed up. African (?) rhythms and whatnot. For REALLY HARDCORE / DIE HARD Talking Heads fans only.

Well, if there’s one thing you can say about the Talking Heads, it’s that they don’t like to make the same album. For this one, they got rid of Eno and made their own little strange disco album. “Burning Down The House” deserved to be a big hit that it was. Many of these songs would appear in better versions on Stop Making Sense, but I’ve really grown to like these versions too. “Girlfriend Is Better” is one of the best dance songs I’ve ever heard, and I don’t even like dance music! “Making Flippy Floppy” is another one that I really like. Unlike most people, I really enjoy the lesser-known songs on the record. A lot of folks don’t care a whole lot for “I Get Wild/Wild Gravity,” “Moon Rocks,” and “Pull Up The Roots,” but I like them. Oh, and what about “This Must Be The Place?” It’s the prettiest song the band ever did in this reviewer’s opinion. For some reason, the CD is a little different from my vinyl copy of the album. A few songs are remixed, and there’s an extra verse in “Making Flippy Floppy.” I’ve never heard anyone else mention this, so I thought I would be the first!

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I could write a review of this album simply saying “Excellent movie, so-so album,” but I’m far too professional to do that. For starters, if you have never seen Stop Making Sense, you should put down what you’re doing and rent it right now. It was my favorite movie when I was in the 6th grade, and rightfully so! It’s still the best concert movie I’ve ever seen. Heck, it’s even better than Frank Zappa’s Baby Snakes. The song selection on the film is great, including plenty of songs from their older albums and Speaking In Tongues, which they were promoting at the time. The reason I can only give this album a 7½ is because the movie has almost 20 songs, while this album only has 9. To add to that, half of those songs are live versions of songs from the last album. Plus, in my opinion, they could have picked better songs from the movie to use.

With that aside, this is actually an okay album. It just could have been a lot better. One of the great things about this album is that some of these songs are very different from the original versions. “Psycho Killer” is just David with an acoustic guitar and a drum machine. “Slippery People,” “Girlfriend Is Better,” and “Life During Wartime” are done with much more energy here than on the original versions. Another bonus is that they included a song originally from David Byrne’s solo album, The Catherine Wheel, called “What A Day That Was,” and it winds up being one of the best songs on the album. As for the others, they’re fine, but they’re not really any more interesting than the original versions.

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…And here comes the sellout album. Yep, after years of squeezing out quirky and unique albums, they finally made a normal pop album. I suppose I could bitch about these guys giving in to MTV and the radio, but these songs are still great! You’ve probably heard the singles, “And She Was” and “Road To Nowhere.” The rest of the album pretty much sounds a lot like them, but there are some excellent songs on here. “Television Man” and “The Lady Don’t Mind” are actually a couple of my favorite Talking Heads songs. “Give Me Back My Name” tries to maintain a little bit of the oddness that the band was known for, and it turns out to be another goody. I have to drop a couple of points for a few weak tracks though. “Creatures Of Love” is way too cute for me, and “Walk It Down” just doesn’t do much for me. However, this one still shouldn’t be skipped over just because it’s often referred to as “the sellout album.”

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Readers Comments Adrian Denning You know, my first introduction to Talking Heads music was almost certainly 'the hits' from this particular little commercial gem. They did 'commercial' very well. It's something of a shame they didn't keep it up. Anyways, other than 'the hits' I also like 'Creatures Of Love'. It's cute! Sorry Dan! Well, yeah. It's nothing substantial, a little love song. That's all. Not harmful, though. 'Perfect World' is a little too much 'funk' for my liking, 'Walk It Down' funky but full of other interesting things as well. 'Television Man' is good and this is a fine album. An 8. Jeremy Wonder_Warriors@hotmail.co.uk This album is atrocious. The first Talking Heads album i heard was Stop Making Sense. I thought this is really good although a bit too poppy for my liking. Little creatures takes all of the dark brilliance of songs like Psycho Killer and instead sticks in some awful dance beats, especially in Perfect World which made me want to turn it straight off. In conclusion i think you are mad for giving this an 8 i would give it a 4 and i think its comparable to bands like S-Club 7. will will_rhcpfreak@hotmail.com This album is a 6. There are a few great hooks: 'Road To Nowhere', 'And She Was', 'Perfect World'. But otherwise the Talking Heads don't have that same flair as they did around 77-80. I must say there is some filler here: 'Stay Up Late', 'Television Man', etc.

Yeesh. Talk about a few dozen steps backwards. This is certainly the group’s nadir. True Stories is another album by the Talking Heads that was accompanied by a film. Unlike Stop Making Sense, True Stories is an actual movie, as opposed to a concert film, starring the band and John Goodman. The movie itself is okay at best, and the album simply isn’t very good. About half of this album sounds like Little Creatures outtakes, and the rest of it just sounds like failed experimentation. With the exception of “Love For Sale,” nothing on side one does a damn thing for me. It’s hard to see what exactly the band is trying to do here. It seems like they’re trying to be poppy like with the last album but at the same time, are wanting to branch out into other genres. Ironically, this album only works when the band is trying to copy the straightforward poppiness of Little Creatures.

Fortunately, things take a fairly strong turn for the better on side two. “Dream Operator,” “People Like Us,” and “City Of Dreams” are actually quite pretty, and “Wild Wild Life” is a decent rocker. The All Music Guide says the CD ends with an extended mix of “Wild Wild Life,” but it’s not on my vinyl copy, so I can’t comment on it. This isn’t really a bad album, but it’s definitely the band’s least essential record. Get it if you find it cheap.

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A lot of people consider this album an even further plunge from True Stories and a pretty disappointing final album. I happen to really like it, but I think I’m in the minority. I guess the band finally got bored with the pop formula of Little Creatures and decided to try something different. This album is full of tasteful horns and African percussion, and some of these songs are among the band’s best in my opinion. “Blind” is one of my favorite Talking Heads songs ever. “Mr. Jones,” “Totally Nude,” “Ruby Dear,” and “(Nothing But) Flowers” are much better than anything from the last album.

Things slow down a little bit on side two though. “The Democratic Circus” isn’t too interesting, and “The Facts Of Life” is a little cheesy. The rest of it is fairly pleasant though, and “Cool Water” is a great closer. This album probably isn’t for everyone. In fact, for all I know, it might suck beyond belief, but I really like it. This record foreshadows some of the cultural music experimentation David Byrne would try out later in his solo career, and it definitely beats the hell out of the Latin-tinged album he put out the following year. If you ask me, this is a fine farewell album.

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Readers Comments Adrian Denning 'Mr Jones' is a great little song, and this is a perfectly fine, if not exactly special album. The african/latin rhythms on several of the songs actually sound rather charming to me. David Byrne sounds in fine, characteristic voice. Heck, he's a great vocalist! I don't like either his vocals or lyrics on 'Mommy Daddy You And I' and 'Facts Of Life' is very strange. I'd probably give this a 7.

A wonderful compilation album! This is a great place to start with these guys. The song selection is excellent, and it does a pretty good job spanning their entire career on two CD’s. The only problem I can think of is that it is a little pricey, but there’s no way a fair compilation from these guys could be achieved with one disc. There are eight songs on here that you can’t find on any of the other albums (four from the pre-’77 years and four from the post-Naked years), and only one of them, “Gangster Of Love,” sucks! If you don’t feel like buying the individual albums, this collection is absolutely essential.

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Dandy! For the 15th year anniversary of Stop Making Sense, they decided to re-release the film in the theaters (but, of course, it never made its way to where I live) and re-issue the soundtrack with all of the songs from the movie. Well, okay, not all of the songs. The bonus songs from the movie, “Cities” and “Big Business/I Zimbra,” aren’t here, but I won’t complain about that. Arg, well, I really like that version of “Cities,” and they put “Genius Of Love” on here instead! That song blows! BLOWS! Okay, I’ll stop. There’s too much other good stuff on here to be happy about. I finally get to have these live versions of “Making Flippy Floppy,” “Crosseyed And Painless,” “Found A Job,” and “This Must Be The Place” on a nice, clean, remastered CD rather than that shitty homemade tape I made from my old VHS copy of the movie. I’m probably rating this album a bit higher than most people would, but I think this comes pretty close to being the best Talking Heads that money can buy.

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Readers Comments Jes25689@aol.com It is a very fine album, and a huge improvement over the original version. With songs like "Girlfriend is Better" and "This Must be the Place", you just can't go wrong. I'm rather fond of the Tom Tom Club's contribution, though. Hey, if David Byrne can put a solo track of his on the CD ["what a day that was"], then Chris and Tina are entitled to one as well, huh?