Talking Heads
Speaking In Tongues
Yes, it's the one that has "Burning Down The House." Yes, it's the one that doesn't have Brian Eno. And, yes, it's the one the one that spawned the "Stop Making Sense" tour, the Jonathan Demme movie, and the big suit. It's a good Talking Heads album, which, by definition, makes it pretty great--and that's where the confusion arises for the guys here at the Factual Opinion. When you're dealing with a monster year, and make no mistake, 1983 was a monster, with debut albums from some of the greatest American bands to ever appear on the scene, what is one to do with albums that are merely solid pieces of cultural ephemera? These lists, for all their flaws, are an attempt to nail both the voice of a year as it was then, and the sounds of that year that resonate now. Unlike January's 2006 breakdown, this is a list that can be interpreted through the work as history, whereas a more immediate "look-back" is always going to be infected by the personal--the Bloc Party album you're not sick of yet, but will be, the Mars Volta album that turns out to be something you don't miss when you lose the mp3 file--but with the 80's (and the new 70's project that Mr. Brown and Mr. Stone are currently making out with,) you've heard a lot of this stuff before. You just didn't know it fell into the limited eyeball of the 1983.
In other words, Speaking In Tongues is an album that will always be a favorite, even though most of it's songs are better addressed on the live "Stop Making Sense" issue, it just doesn't happen to be a powerhouse in the veins of the earlier masterstrokes--Remain In Light, '77, and Fear of Music. Speaking In Tongues is great, and for 1983, it's just nearly top ten material, but it's not a revelation unless it's your first experience with Byrne and Co. Happily, to get to that point of realization, you have to listen to it--a lot. If you're in your late 20's, or mid 30's, than you probably already have.
-Tucker Stone, 2007
i never understood this band...it makes me feel kinda stupid.
common tucker typo:
than instead of then.
Posted by: andre | 2007.08.20 at 23:32