Talking Heads
Vocals/Guitar David Bryne
Guitar/Keyboards Jerry Harrison
Bass Tina Weymouth
Drums Chris Frantz
Intro
Along with Blondie. The Talking Heads are the first New Wave bands. A watered down more poppy form of punk. The Talking Heads are art schoolers who played in CBGB's as a funk influnced jerky punk band in the late 70's. Then they hooked up with Avant-Garde/Ambient producer extrodinare Brian Eno, created three really experimental albums before dumping him after Remain in Light. Aaah, lets just get to the reviews.
Talking Heads 77' 1977
Best: Psycho Killer,The Book I Read
Worst:Don't worry about the government
Grade: A
They called this shit punk!! It's sort of punky. But the songs are really cool and catchy. This album can be really annoying if you listen to this album over and over again. But in small doses, it's really good. The married rhythm section Weymouth and Frantz play really repetitive lines like a disco song, and the guitars sound jerky and loose to go with Bryne's nerdy/tense vocals with cold melodies. The first song "Uh Oh, Loves to Town" has a neat xylophone part and great bridge with Bryne's annoying wail at the end. "No Compassion" changes from a slow song to a midtempo new waveish song with neat guitar melodies then it changes back into slowtempo to end. The classic Psycho Killer has catchy bassline and a great melody. This album doesn't have much of a Eno/ worldbeat influence that would plauge the rest of thier catalouge. This album gets a 9 from me.
More Songs About Buildings and Food 1978
Best: Take me to the River
Worst: The Big Country
Grade: C
The first of a trilogy of Enoduced albums. This album is not good as the first album. Warning Sign and Found a Job has a nice funky groove, With our love has a catchy rhythm, and Artists Only is catchy. But the rest of this album is shitty danceable new wave, and The Big Country just gets on my nerves with countryish guitar. Take me to the River is my favorite song on the album. And its better than the original Al Green version, because it's as not as sleepy as to listening to Al Green drone over and over. This album deserves a C.
Fear of Music 1979
Best: Memories Can Wait,Mind, Electric Guitar
Worst: Zimbra, Drugs
Grade: B
The second of the Eno trilogy. This is a concept album about Fear of(Music, Air, Animals etc). The Talking Heads were way ahead of thier New Wave contemporaries at this point. Most New Wave is just pop songs, this is a paranoid experimental album. This album annoyed me when I first bought it, but after listening to it for a while. It's a good album. "Zimbra", "Life During Wartime", and "Cities" has a catchy 7/8 disco beat. "Heaven" is the first ballad the Talking Heads ever did. "Electric Guitar","Mind", and "Memories can wait" are great songs with Eno electro bleeps all over it. Not a bad album, but not a great album either.
Remain in Light 1980
Best: The first four
Worst: The last four
Grade: A+
The Finale of the Enoduced trilogy. Eno has his hands all over this. The first four songs are montonious, hypnotic, intelligent dance-funk at its best. The last four is a bunch of pretentious Experiementation. You may have heard "Once of a lifetime". But there is some other great songs. The first four "Born under Punches" "Crosseyed Painless" "The Great Curve" are the bands masterpeices. Weymouth plays only two notes each song, much like Jah Wobble (of Public Image Ltd). But they are so hypnotic, its worth listening to. Frantz is just pounding the 4/4 beat, sometimes 7/8. I don't really care what Byrne is blabbing about, I just love the music. If you play this at 78 rpm, its sounds like wacko disco. The last 4 songs is a bunch of pretentious garbage. But the first 4 songs are so great. I give this a A+. One of the pinnacle albums of the 80's.
Speaking in Tongues 1983
Best: Burning down the House, Girlfriend is better, I get wild/wild gravity
Worst: Swamp,
Grade: A-
Three years after their pinnacle album. The Heads dump Eno and return to their funk pop sound. SiT has a very 80's synth funk feel. So it is kinda dated listening to it now.
Side one starts off with one of my favorite Heads songs "Burning Down the House" that I had to read the Insert to understand what he's saying. But I love the funky keyboards and the acoustic intro. The Eno bleeps are still there in half of the songs. "Girlfriend is Better" is a kickass song full of sound bleeps.
"Slippery People" is lite soul in the Talking Heads style. "I get Wild/Wild Gravity" has a white reggae feel remisent of the police. Byrne tries to be George Clinton in spoken word humor "Swamp" and fails. The ending ballad "Must be the Place(Naive Melody)" is the most diferrent sounding song in SiT with flutes!! And you thought only Jethro Tull can do a cool song with flutes!.
Anyways. This gets a A- minus cause SiT is a rehash of the earlier. But its still a good listen.
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