(New Wave, Art Rock) Talking Heads - Brick - 8 CDs Box-Set - 2005, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Talking Heads fans have been waiting a long time to have the band's eight studio albums remastered and reissued, but they may find that the long-awaited revamping of the group's catalog is somewhat problematic. Instead of being released as individual titles, all eight titles were boxed and reissued as an expensive set, Talking Heads Brick (this box retails for $149.99; individual releases are tentatively scheduled to follow, three to four months after this set's October 2005 release) -- and they're not issued as CDs, they're only available as DualDiscs, a format that contains a CD on one side and a DVD on the other. Each album is presented in expanded form with a handful of bonus tracks on the CD side, with the DVD side containing the entire album, but usually not the new bonus tracks available on the CD side, in 5.1 Surround mixes and PCM stereo, plus some additional video bonus material. DualDiscs do offer more than a conventional CD, but they're thicker than CDs, which may mean that they may not play on all CD players, and almost surely won't play on any computer or car stereo -- all things that will frustrate fans, but that's hardly not the only thing that will frustrate them about this brick-like set. There's the fact that while most of the group's videos are here, some, like "Once in a Lifetime," are conspicuously missing. Then, there's the packaging, which may be considerably more user-friendly than the ungainly 2003 box Once in a Lifetime, but it's designed as an all-white art object. The raised-type text of the group's song titles is pretty cool on the outside of this moulded plastic box, but each individual CD is given a white tray inlay that contains no text at all -- no text on the spine indicating what album it is, no song titles on the back, which means that anybody wanting to know what the bonus tracks are on an individual discs will have to open up the booklets, which is exceptionally infuriating. Those booklets also contain an insert miniture art lithograph -- replications of pictures and photos interpreting what certain Talking Heads songs mean -- plus testimonials and some artwork recycled from the 2003 box, along with full lyrics, including some shots of the original lyrics. It's nice, but more complete liner notes would have been appreciated.
Apart from these packaging and format problems, the set does deliver on many fan's highest hopes for the set. The sound is indeed a marked improvement over the shoddy compact discs that have been on the market for roughly 20 years; it's not an improvement on the 2003 box, but an extension, and it's a pleasure to hear all these albums in such clear, rich sound. Similarly, the 5.1 mixes are good and use the sound stage well, even if they're not particularly revelatory.
Of course, the bonus tracks are of the most interest to the hardcore fans who have been waiting for this overhaul of the group's catalog, and, by and large, this new material is very good. Talking Heads: 77 has the singles "Love=Building on Fire" and "I Wish You Wouldn't Say That," plus the B-side acoustic version of "Psycho Killer" and "Sugar on My Tongue," which previously appeared on Sand in the Vaseline; there's also a good previously unreleased outtake of an early song called "I Feel It in My Heart," which is also on the DVD side as a compelling video performance of the band playing at the Kitchen in 1976, while there's video of the group live in 1978 playing "Pulled Up." More Songs About Buildings and Food has a spare version of "Stay Hungry" cut during the 77 sessions, along with alternates of "I'm Not in Love" and "The Big Country," which are lean, fairly rough, and exciting. There's also a previously "Country Angel" version of "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel," which is built on acoustic guitars and has heavy washes of organs; there are two live performances from 1978 on the DVD side. Fear of Music -- which rivals Remain in Light as the best overall remastering here -- has alternate versions of "Life During Wartime," "Cities," and "Mind," plus the "unfinished outtake" "Dancing for Money," which may have a promising groove, but is as unfinished as it's billed, containing little more than a rhythmic vamp and two basically wordless guide vocals; the DVD side contains two performances from their 1980 appearance on the German TV show Rockpop. Remain in Light has four unfinished outtakes, and the fact that they're not finished should come as no great surprise given the way that the album was recorded from the rhythm tracks up, but all four are excellent, dense rhythmic vamps highlighted by "Fela's Riff," which is so tight there's no room for guide vocals, and the intertwined, trippy "Double Groove" ("Right Start" mutated into "Once in a Lifetime"). The DVD side contains Rockpop appearances from 1980, but not any music videos. Speaking in Tongues has just two bonus tracks: the unfinished "Two Note Swivel," which is closer than anything on Fear of Music or Remain in Light to being completed, since David Byrne actually has words in addition to the melody, plus an alternate "Burning Down the House" that isn't as lively as the finished version; the DVD contains videos for "Burning Down the House" and "This Must Be the Place." Little Creatures contains an early version of "Road to Nowhere" that is much tamer and simpler than the finished version, and an early version of "And She Was" that lacks the pre-chorus and sounds like a rough demo; there's also an extended mix of "Television Man" that was released as a 12" single, plus vidoes of "And She Was" and "Road to Nowhere" on the DVD side. True Stories has an extended mix of "Wild Wild Life" that was originally issued on the original CD version of the album, plus "Papa Legba" and "Radio Head" taken from the film True Stories -- they contain the original Talking Heads backing tracks but are sung by Pops Staples and Tito Larriva, respectively; the DVD has videos for "Wild Wild Life," plus "Love for Sale." Finally, Naked, perhaps appropriately, has the least amount of bonus material, containing just the outtake "Sax and Violins," which was released on the Until the End of the World soundtrack, and the DVD contains the video of it as well.
It's a lot of material to get through, and many fans may prefer to wade through it as individual releases, particularly since the bonus material does get less interesting around Speaking in Tongues. They also may feel a little burned because the unreleased songs and alternate takes here are much more compelling than the unreleased material on Once in a Lifetime, and they also may feel burned that not every music video the group did is here, when there clearly was space to fit them in. So, there's plenty to complain about, but there's also plenty to celebrate, since despite it all, this set does deliver the basics: it has the albums in glorious remastered sound, plus good bonus material. The packaging and presentation could have been better, but fans who want to shell out for this very expensive set will at least be satisfied that their desire for improved sound and bonus tracks has finally been fulfilled.
MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD
Tracklisting
01 - Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
02 - With Our Love
03 - The Good Thing
04 - Warning Sign
05 - Girls Want To Be With The Girls
06 - Found A Job
07 - Artists Only
08 - I'm Not In Love
09 - Stay Hungry
10 - Take Me To The River
11 - The Big Country
Bonus tracks
12 - Stay Hungry (1977 Version)
13 - I'm Not In Love (Alternate Version)
14 - The Big Country (Alternate Version)
15 - Thank You For Sending Me An Angel (Country Angel Version)
allmusic.com wrote:
The title of Talking Heads' second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, slyly addressed the sophomore record syndrome, in which songs not used on a first LP are mixed with hastily written new material. If the band's sound seems more conventional, the reason simply may be that one had encountered the odd song structures, staccato rhythms, strained vocals, and impressionistic lyrics once before. Another was that new co-producer Brian Eno brought a musical unity that tied the album together, especially in terms of the rhythm section, the sequencing, the pacing, and the mixing. Where Talking Heads had largely been about David Byrne's voice and words, Eno moved the emphasis to the bass-and-drums team of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz; all the songs were danceable, and there were only short breaks between them. Byrne held his own, however, and he continued to explore the eccentric, if not demented persona first heard on 77, whether he was adding to his observations on boys and girls or turning his "Psycho Killer" into an artist in "Artists Only." Through the first nine tracks, More Songs was the successor to 77, which would not have earned it landmark status or made it the commercial breakthrough it became. It was the last two songs that pushed the album over those hurdles. First there was an inspired cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River"; released as a single, it made the Top 40 and pushed the album to gold-record status. Second was the album closer, "The Big Country," Byrne's country-tinged reflection on flying over middle America; it crystallized his artist-vs.-ordinary people perspective in unusually direct and dismissive terms, turning the old Chuck Berry patriotic travelogue theme of rock & roll on its head and employing a great hook in the process.
FEAR OF MUSIC
Tracklisting
01 - I Zimbra
02 - Mind
03 - Paper
04 - Cities
05 - Life During Wartime
06 - Memories Can't Wait
07 - Air
08 - Heaven
09 - Animals
10 - Electric Guitar
11 - Drugs
Bonus tracks
12 - Dancing For Money (Unfinished Outtake)
13 - Life During Wartime (Alternate Version)
14 - Cities (Alternate Version)
15 - Mind (Alternate Version)
allmusic.com wrote:
By titling their third album Fear of Music and opening it with the African rhythmic experiment "I Zimbra," complete with nonsense lyrics by poet Hugo Ball, Talking Heads make the record seem more of a departure than it is. Though Fear of Music is musically distinct from its predecessors, it's mostly because of the use of minor keys that give the music a more ominous sound. Previously, David Byrne's offbeat observations had been set off by an overtly humorous tone; on Fear of Music, he is still odd, but no longer so funny. At the same time, however, the music has become even more compelling. Worked up from jams (though Byrne received sole songwriter's credit), the music is becoming denser and more driving, notably on the album's standout track, "Life During Wartime," with lyrics that match the music's power. "This ain't no party," declares Byrne, "this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." The other key song, "Heaven," extends the dismissal Byrne had expressed for the U.S. in "The Big Country" to paradise itself: "Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens." It's also the album's most melodic song. Those are the highlights. What keeps Fear of Music from being as impressive an album as Talking Heads' first two is that much of it seems to repeat those earlier efforts, while the few newer elements seem so risky and exciting. It's an uneven, transitional album, though its better songs are as good as any Talking Heads ever did.
REMAIN IN LIGHT
Tracklisting
01 - Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
02 - Crosseyed And Painless
03 - The Great Curve
04 - Once In A Lifetime
05 - Houses In Motion
06 - Seen And Not Seen
07 - Listening Wind
08 - The Overload
Bonus tracks
09 - Fela's Riff (Unfinished Outtake)
10 - Unison (Unfinished Outtake)
11 - Double Groove (Unfinished Outtake)
12 - Right Start (Unfinished Outtake)
allmusic.com wrote:
The musical transition that seemed to have just begun with Fear of Music came to fruition on Talking Heads' fourth album, Remain in Light. "I Zimbra" and "Life During Wartime" from the earlier album served as the blueprints for a disc on which the group explored African polyrhythms on a series of driving groove tracks, over which David Byrne chanted and sang his typically disconnected lyrics. Remain in Light had more words than any previous Heads record, but they counted for less than ever in the sweep of the music. The album's single, "Once in a Lifetime," flopped upon release, but over the years it became an audience favorite due to a striking video, its inclusion in the band's 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, and its second single release (in the live version) because of its use in the 1986 movie Down and Out in Beverly Hills, when it became a minor chart entry. Byrne sounded typically uncomfortable in the verses ("And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife/And you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?"), which were undercut by the reassuring chorus ("Letting the days go by"). Even without a single, Remain in Light was a hit, indicating that Talking Heads were connecting with an audience ready to follow their musical evolution, and the album was so inventive and influential, it was no wonder. As it turned out, however, it marked the end of one aspect of the group's development and was their last new music for three years.
SPEAKING IN TONGUES
Tracklisting
01 - Burning Down The House
02 - Making Flippy Floppy
03 - Girlfriend Is Better
04 - Slippery People
05 - I Get Wild,Wild Gravity
06 - Swamp
07 - Moon Rocks
08 - Pull Up The Roots
09 - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
Bonus tracks
10 - Two Note Swivel (Unfinished Outtake)
11 - Burning Down The House (Alternate Version)
allmusic.com wrote:
Talking Heads' most immediately accessible album, Little Creatures eschewed the pattern of recent Heads albums, in which instrumental tracks had been worked up from riffs and grooves, after which David Byrne improvised melodies and lyrics. The songs on Little Creatures, most of which were credited to Byrne alone (with the band credited only with arrangements) sounded like they'd been written as songs. Perhaps as one result, the band had been streamlined, with extra musicians used only for specific effects rather than playing along as an ensemble. Byrne, who was singing in his natural range for once, frequently was augmented with backup singers. The overall result: ear candy. Little Creatures was a pop album, and an accomplished one, by a band that knew what it was doing. True, Byrne's lyrics were still intriguingly quirky, but even his subject matter was becoming more mature. "I've seen sex and I think it's okay," he sang on "Creatures of Love," and suddenly the geek had become a man. Where he had once pondered the hopes of boys and girls, he was now making observations about children. And even if his impulses remained strange — "I wanna make him stay up all night," he declared about a baby (presumably not his own) in "Stay Up Late" — he retained his charm and inventiveness. Little Creatures was, in a sense, Talking Heads lite. It was hard to think of this as the same band that produced "Psycho Killer." But for the band's expanding audience, who made this their second platinum album, that was okay. And their popularity was being accomplished with no diminution in their creativity.
LITTLE CREATURES
Tracklisting
01 - And She Was
02 - Give Me Back My Name
03 - Creatures Of Love
04 - Lady Don't Mind
05 - Perfect World
06 - Stay Up Late
07 - Walk It Down
08 - Television Man
09 - Road To Nowhere
Bonus tracks
10 - Road To Nowhere (Early Version)
11 - And She Was (Early Version)
12 - Television Man (Extended Mix)
allmusic.com wrote:
Talking Heads found a way to open up the dense textures of the music they had developed with Brian Eno on their two previous studio albums for Speaking in Tongues, and were rewarded with their most popular album yet. Ten backup singers and musicians accompanied the original quartet, but somehow the sound was more spacious, and the music admitted aspects of gospel, notably in the call-and-response of "Slippery People," and John Lee Hooker-style blues, on "Swamp." As usual, David Byrne determinedly sang and chanted impressionistic, nonlinear lyrics, sometimes by mix-and-matching clichés ("No visible means of support and you have not seen nothin' yet," he declared on "Burning Down the House," the Heads' first Top Ten hit), and the songs' very lack of clear meaning was itself a lyrical subject. "Still don't make no sense," Byrne admitted in "Making Flippy Floppy," but by the next song, "Girlfriend Is Better," that had become an order -- "Stop making sense," he chanted over and over. Some of his charming goofiness had returned since the overly serious Remain in Light and Fear of Music, however, and the accompanying music, filled with odd percussive and synthesizer sounds, could be unusually light and bouncy. The album closer, "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)," even sounded hopeful. Well, sort of. Despite their formal power, Talking Heads' preceding two albums seemed to have painted them into a corner, which may be why it took them three years to craft a follow-up, but on Speaking in Tongues, they found an open window and flew out of it.
TRUE STORIES
Tracklisting
01 - Love For Sale
02 - Puzzlin' Evidence
03 - Hey Now
04 - Papa Legba
05 - Wild Wild Life
06 - Radio Head
07 - Dream Operator
08 - People Like Us
09 - City Of Dreams
Bonus tracks
10 - Wild Wild Life (Extended Mix)
11 - Papa Legba (Pops Staples Vocal Version)
12 - Radio Head (Pops Staples Vocal Version)
allmusic.com wrote:
Time hasn't been kind to Talking Heads' ancillary soundtrack to David Byrne's oddball directorial debut. Though it generated one of the band's biggest radio hits ("Wild Wild Life"), both the film and its songs were dismissed as self-consciously quirky retreads of other, better material; and it's well-known the quartet was beginning to splinter apart around the time of the sessions. Byrne himself has said that he regretted the whole notion of releasing True Stories with his own vocals, a decision made at the behest of the film's financial backers: All along, he intended for the lyrics to be sung, in character, by Pops Staples, John Goodman, and the rest of the cast. (Some of these alternate-vocal versions were eventually released as B-sides.) Despite its perfunctory nature, however, True Stories is not without its charms. Though an obvious swipe at consumerism, "Love for Sale" boasts one of the band's best hooks, and it's easily their hardest-rocking tune since the Fear of Music days. "Radio Head" is a successful continuation of some of the regional-American motifs Byrne explored on Little Creatures (and bears the distinction of inspiring Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and company to name their band after it). Free from the movie's weird patina of irony, "Dream Operator" is one of the most affecting tunes Talking Heads ever recorded; the closing-credits theme "City of Dreams" is similarly touching. Elsewhere, there is filler -- touching upon gospel, country-western, zydeco, and sundry other Byrne influences -- but the band's skill at arranging an album and maintaining a mood remains intact. So while True Stories may remain a regrettable chapter in the band's history, it's certainly not an embarrassing one.
NAKED
Tracklisting
01 - Blind
02 - Mr. Jones
03 - Totally Nude
04 - Ruby Dear
05 - (Nothing But) Flowers
06 - The Democratic Circus
07 - The Facts Of Life
08 - Mommy Daddy You And I
09 - Big Daddy
10 - Bill
11 - Cool Water
Bonus tracks
12 - Sax And Violins
allmusic.com wrote:
Talking Heads' last proper studio album before their protracted breakup finds them returning to the dynamic that produced their best work, with inspired results. As swan songs go, Naked proves to be a pretty good one: Alternately serious and playful, it once again allows frontman David Byrne to worry about the government, the environment, and the plight of the working man as it frees up the rest of the band to trade instruments and work with guest musicians. It's closest in spirit to Remain in Light — arguably too close: The first side is a collection of funky, syncopated, almost danceable tunes; the second, a murky, darkly philosophical rumination on identity and human nature. The major difference is a Latin influence replacing Light's African rhythm experimentation, most evident on the album openers "Blind" and "Mr. Jones," as well as in drummer Chris Frantz's decision to use brushes and softer percussion instruments (as opposed the big beat sound he offered up on Little Creatures and True Stories). With the venerable Steve Lillywhite behind the boards and such luminaries as Johnny Marr, Kirsty MacColl, and Yves N'Djock punctuating the credits, the album sounds technically perfect, but there's little of the loose, live feel the band achieved with former mentor Brian Eno. It's quite a feat to pull of a late-career album as ambitious as Naked, and the Heads do so with style and vitality. But no matter how much the liner notes may boast of free-form invention and boundless creativity, the album's elegiac, airtight tone betrays the sound of four musicians growing tired of the limits they've imposed on one another.