My Amazon Reviews: Talking Heads "Fear Of Music"

[blackleatherbookshelf]

What Are You Afraid Of,
5 Out Of 5 Stars

Kicking off with the celebratory "I Zimbra" and closing with the haunting spaciness of "Drugs," "Fear Of Music" was the first album where Talking Heads managed to mix all their influences for the first time as a whole. The funkiness that seemed buried under the surface of the previous two albums comes to fruition on the classic "Life During Wartime," and the experiments that just seemed like art-school JO came into musical fullness. This was the Talking Heads' ode to New York City, and it still holds as one of their finest albums.

There's a lot of rumbling claustrophobia ("Cities") wonder at the outside world ("Animals") and general anxiety ("Memories Can't Wait," "Heaven.") I always thought that this was the album where David Byrne stopped thinking about inner city paranoia and actually started seeing bodies dangling from hooks on the walls; hence his fear of "Air" and dread of "Life During Wartime." Even with Byrne's more pointed mindset, this would be for nothing if the rest of the band wasn't pulling their weight. Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz score points for their rhythm chops. It is their propulsion that takes "Wartime" and "I Zimbra" into dance turf, and Jerry Harrison's guitar and keyboards add the the enigmatic swirl.

This is obviously a bridge album given how the danceable throb of muscle that was "Fear Of Music" would ultimately give way the the polyrhythms of "Remain In Light" (and the Byrne/Eno project "My Life In The Bush of Ghosts"). But for this moment, the Talking Heads took their NYC Arthouse Groove and served it up to a mainstream audience in the quirkiest form of anxiety ridden pop. Next to the friendly accessibility of "Little Creatures," my favorite Talking Heads album.

     

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Comments

[mark-shutterbug.livejournal.com]

Some people never had experience with air.

Their loss. ;-)

Great review, Tim. This album is one of my favorites.

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

I guess the album title says it all :)

[zbear20.livejournal.com]

From 77 to More Songs, through this and into Remain in Light, I thought David Byrne was God. He was up there with Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan in my mind then. I remember seeing them for the first time in a small theater in San Luis Obispo live on the More Songs tour in '78 or '79, and then the next two times I saw them was at Red Rocks in 1982 and again in 1983, and it was then that I realized how much he needed Chris and Tina and Jerry. His solo work has been too academic, too pretentious and pretty self-indulgent, without heart and soul.

As an aside, the oldest T-shirt I own is a red t-shirt I made 35 years ago with iron-on green letters that read "Talking Heads: 77", I made it right after hearing 77 for the first time and it's only one of 5 band shirts I have ever worn. ( Ramones, Dead, Stray Cats, Gang of Four and Moth Wranglers are the others).

[tbrough.livejournal.com]

Moth Wranglers?

I saw Byrne on one of the solo tours (Rio Momo had just come out) and it was pretty exciting. He was onstage with a twelve piece Latin combo, but only played "Mr Jones" and "Nothing But Flowers" for Heads selections. He also signed my Stop Making Sense book.

[zbear20.livejournal.com]

Moth Wranglers - Chris Xefos and LD Beghtol. This user pic is from the t-shirt, from a small tour they did after SXSW coming back to SF.

[tbrough.livejournal.com]

When King Missle played Nashville, Chris Xefos joined me and some friends to go bar hopping. One of the more memorable evenings in TN.

[zbear20.livejournal.com]

He's a nice guy.