Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
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CD Details
Artist: Talking HeadsEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Soundtracks:
- Burning Down the House
- Making Flippy Floppy
- Girlfriend Is Better
- Slippery People
- I Get Wild/Wild Gravity
- Swamp
- Moon Rocks
- Pull up the Roots
- This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
Music reviews of Speaking in Tongues
Music Review: Strange But Not A Stranger: The Talking Heads Are Burning Down The House
Rating: 5 Stars
Variously described as punk rock, art rock, alternative rock, and new wave, The Talking Heads originally formed in 1974 and became one of many cutting-edge bands to emerge from New York's legendary CBGB'S, the proving ground of such diverse acts as Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, and Mink DeVille. By 1977 the band had sufficient momentum to get a record deal and within a few years the band began to register on both sides of the Atlantic--but although they were well known to fans of alternative music, it wasn't really until 1983 that Talking Heads truly crashed the music charts. The release that did it was SPEAKING IN TONGUES.
According David Byrne, the lyrics were originally ad libbed nonsense phrases--but these ad libs gradually developed a life of their own, and while each phrase in each song doesn't necessarily make any sort of narrative sense they do make a sort of emotional and kinetic sense in tandem with the band's sonic extremes, which range from borderline out of control to meticulously detail work--and often within the same song.
It's an odd thing to say about an "art band," but most music by The Talking Heads is very danceable--and the selections from TONGUES is no exception. Everything has a strong beat, a solid drive, be it the opening and prickly-sounding "Burning Down The House" or the closing and surprisingly delicate "This Must Be The Place." But what really sets The Talking Heads apart from every other band of the era is the way it fiddles with musical ideas. You find a bit of everything here: African rythmns, pop riffs, growly rock vocals, sweet glosses.
"Burning Down The House" is the cut that everyone knows (it was the band's only top ten American hit), but this is a case where it's all good and personal favorites are simply that: personal favorites. Returning to the recording after some years, I did not necessarily link a title with a particular song... until I heard the first few notes and was instantly as into the piece as I was in 1983. It's hard to select a favorite, but if I had to do so I'd give to either "Swamp" or "This Must Be The Place."
Some Talking Heads fans dismiss SPEAKING IN TONGUES as a case of the band beginning to sell out to industry demands for a more pop-inflected, more radio-friendly sound. It is true that the album is more pop-inflected than most of the band's work, but the inflection is comparative; it's not anywhere within the mainstream of popular music. It was, however, the beginning of the end of the band, for it focused public attention on David Byrne who thereafter began an effort to artistically dominate bandmates Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth--which effectively split the band after a few more releases. But whatever the case, they were on the cutting edge in their day and that edge hasn't dulled in over twenty years. Still unlike any other band, still same as it ever was. Recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Description of Speaking in Tongues
Observe as David Byrne finally learns to dance. Non-Western sounds and funky rhythms had infected Talking Heads music prior to this 1983 pop breakthrough, but Speaking in Tongues is where the beat truly gels. The band's quirky, nerdy persona somehow blends easily with music borrowed from the African Diaspora on "Stop Making Sense" and "Burning Down the House." The album also marks one of the last true band collaborations, before Byrne reduced his partners to mere sidemen. If their edgier early albums now sound more challenging and unique in hindsight, Speaking in Tongues at least documents the New York quartet's singular blend of World Beat, art school rock, and the always irresistible dancefloor. --Steve ApplefordGeneral CDs
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