The Name of this Band is Talking Heads

Talking Heads are an American new wave/rock band which operated from 1975 to 1991. The band comprised of frontman David Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth, guitarist Jerry Harrison, and drummer Chris Frantz. Originally evolving out of the New York CGBG punk scene, their music often features lyrics about societal dissillusionment and paranoia. They saw their greatest success in the early 1980s with singles such as Once in a Lifetime and Burning Down The House, along with a stellar concert documentary directed by Jonathan Demme titled Stop Making Sense, which saw a rather high profile rerelease by A24 in 2023.

TH has been my absolute favorite band for years. I find the sentiments which they express in their songs, particularly in their more pop-oriented albums (though this persists through their entire discography), to be both resonant and comforting in a sense. The ways in which they play with sounds are creative and genuinely so much fun to listen to. Part of it is probably just familiarity at this point, but their music always stays so fresh and interesting to me. They exist in this space in popular music that is both fringe and mainstream. I've heard them played on classic rock stations, I've heard references to Once in a Lifetime in my mother's romantic comedy movies, and yet they also exist as somewhat of an oddity with their mix of polyrhythms, punk ethos, and Byrne's yelpy and dischordant affect. There's something incredibly universal about their expression, and yet oxymoronically deeply personal.

Albums

Talking Heads have released 8 studio albums and 2 live albums. I'm not going to talk about the live albums because the first one isn't that spectacular is the second one is the soundtrack to a film that is much easier to discuss within that context. Here's all the studio albums and how I feel about them.

Talking Heads: 77: The band's debut album, comprised largely of songs they were playing at the CBGB nightclub in NYC around the mid 70s. As such it definitely has that sort of trashed and strained sound associated with the New York punk scene, though they definitely lean into the more artsy side of that. You can already see the start of their gravitation towards instruments that aren't typically associated with rock music; the steel pans in opening track Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town really exemplify this. The paranoic and manic tone that is everpresent through the band's work is on full display here, emphasized through repetitive lyrics, sharp percussive beats, and a tenseness to the strings arrangements. Leading single Psycho Killer perfectly combines all of these elements and saw a decent deal of critical success. Another standout to me is Don't Worry About the Government, which features a rather unsubtle deconstruction of the monotony of middle-class corporate America, a theme that would become very common in Byrne's lyricism. Overall I think '77 is a fairly solid album, particularly for a debut, but I don't find myself returning to it very often.

More Songs About Buildings and Food: In my mind, this album serves as a bit of a continuation of the ideas expressed in '77. While it's a lot more polished and easier to distinguish individual instruments rather than feeling like a huge wall of sound, I think most of the tracks on this album feel less punchy. I don't think it's bad by any means, but it does sort of blend together. This might just be a symptom of the way I listen to albums though (all at once in my car or walking around or working on creative projects). I greatly enjoy the occasional use of sounds associated with country music, but I think they go on to do this better in some tracks from Little Creatures onwards. Favorite songs include Found a Job and Artists Only.

Fear of Music: This is where it gets serious. I think this is the band's first proper continuously great and memorable album. It still has that punky edge to it, but with a more liminal and spacy soundscape and some dance-oriented tracks. Lyrically, it's even more paranoid than the previous two albums. Each song is anchored around a fear of something, be it nuclear war (a common theme in music of the late 70s and 80s for sure) or more abstract concepts. Tina's basslines on this album are incredible, incorporating much more groovability than on previous albums. Lead single Life During Wartime is easily one of my favorites from their entire discography, featuring an incredibly strong disco rhythm and crisp crescendos. This album also marks the beginning of TH's work with producer Brian Eno, notable for his work with Roxy Music and David Bowie. As such, Fear of Music is just the right level of polished and brilliantly showcases the rhythm skills of the band. I adore the entire album, but I think some standouts are Animals and Cities.

Further reviews coming soon... aka I'm super lazy but if I don't put this up now then it'll never get done.

Films

Talking Heads have featured prominently in two major film projects: the aforementioned concert documentary Stop Making Sense and David Byrne's True Stories, a vignette-style musical about the complex and occasionally nonsensical lives of the citizens of a small town in Texas.

Stop Making Sense (1984): I absolutely adore this movie. I recently (as of November 2024) got a copy of it on VHS, which looks absolutely gorgeous. It's widely cited as the greatest concert film of all time, but even that feels like underselling it in my opinion. It's so moving, constructed in this meticulous and perfect way which invites the audience to feel part of something larger. I particularly love the way it builds upon itself into this giant spectacle. It begins with a stripped-down acoustic version of the band's first hit, Psycho Killer, with just David Byrne in a simple gray jumpsuit, an acoustic guitar, and a boombox providing a simple percussive beat. Over the course of the next few songs, more members of the band and their touring ensemble congregate on stage. The touring members themselves are incredible; backup singers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt bring so much energy to these renditions of the songs. This choice creates such a sense of fullness, made even more potent by the amazing sound mixing. It also has incredibly joyful choreography that is super fun to dance along to. A personal favorite moment is in Life During Wartime, when David does this odd wiggle maneuver (provided on right). I also love when he slowdances with the lamp. And of course, this film is the origin of the big suit. Nothing has ever spoken to me more directly than this giant fucking suit. Awesome.

True Stories (1986): There's something really electric about this movie. It's like if Robert Altman's Nashville was silly, technicolored, equally satirical, and a musical comedy. There's a lot to be said about the way it presents consumerism and capitalistic dependence sapping the life and individuality from communities in a way that you only really get in counterculture of the Reagan era. Its accompanying album is definitely one of the weakest of Talking Heads' discography, but some of the songs are very potent within the context of the film. John Goodman gives a really good early performance, and there are all sorts of character actors that feature in just a scene or two but are super memorable. I adore the usage of bright colors throughout the film and its meandering pace. Byrne himself appears as a constant presence, an outside narrator of sorts guiding the audience through the town, which is a very fun detail and a sort of thing that I greatly enjoy in films. While it didn't see much mainstream success, especially compared to Stop Making Sense, I greatly enjoy it and think it's a pretty fun film to share with people. The entire band also appears at a couple of points through the movie, which is awesome considering how tense their working relationships allegedly were by the late 80s.