Remain In Light

Weird, unconventional, but so damn groovy and fun

Talking Heads - Remain In Light Staggering when I first heard it in the 80s, still staggering now. The making of something foundationally so simple - just a couple of chords, a deceptively simple sound bass line - into something so multi-layered, ever reinventing and, ultimately, so bloody danceable....well that takes some doing. From the 'grab you by the hand' first second of the opener, to the Joy Division inspired drone of the closer, this is such a unique experience, and one that I can enjoy tirelessly over and over again. Any negatives? Honestly, not really. But live is where these tracks came even more alive once they were free from the overseeing Brian Eno and the rest of the band got a look in again. So it can lose half a mark for that...maybe. Best Track - The Great Curve Worst Track - Seen and Not Seen 9.5/10

I did indeed find myself in another part of the world. Still waiting on the wife and automobile.

I've been a big fan of the Talking Heads since my youth, and this album was a pretty big reason why. Experimental, non-conformist, and just plain cool, they pushed my early musical boundaries more than any other artist I can think of. Byrne's voice always struck me as an accompanying instrument more than just a vehicle for lyrical delivery on a good number of their tracks, and their international influences shine through more and more the older I get. Not my personal favorite of their albums, but still rounds up from a 4.5/5 in my estimation.

225. Remain In Light - Talking Heads (1980) 10.4.26 Variety: 5 Adequacy: 5 Listenability: 5 Uniqueness: 5 Emotionality: 5 = 5.0 "Same as it ever was/ Same as it ever was" It seems like at any given time the mainstream public consciousness only has room for a small handful ( or less) of professional weirdos in the arts. In the 1950s you had Little Richard, in the 1960s you had Andy Warhol, in the 70s David Bowie, etc... Sometimes these people had more of a cultural footprint, sometimes less. And of course this all varied according to region. The ones that were able to straddle that line between artsy experimentation and mainstream acceptability often tend to be some of the more lauded ( often in retrospect) artists of the 20th century. Whether they lean more to the avant-garde side or the mainstream side I think moved that eventual cultural acceptance along at a different pace. Warhol, for example, still remains controversial, though I think he's more appreciated now than he was at the time. The U.S. was a bit behind on getting fully behind Bowie, but even he was relatively mainstream by the early 80s. The Talking Heads I think are one of the few American bands ( certainly the biggest example I can think of) from the 80s that seem to exemplify this phenomenon the best. They were making consciously measured, and intelligent, artsy music in the period that the dinosaurs of the genre were cementing what would become Classic Rock, and were doing it without the unfriendly, sometimes aggressively weird attitude that a lot of their peers 9 see Devo) had, and which made it so hard for those bands to build any broad cultural capital. The Talking Heads were just a bit strange, but they were by all accounts relatively normal people who enjoyed making danceable rhythms, and filling their songs with catchy melodies. In other words they made extremely listenable and enjoyable content that you didn't necessarily have to think to much about. But you could if you wanted to. And while I would not exactly call any of them founts of charisma ( though Byrne himself is much more canny about his image and persona than people give him credit for) they didn't go out of their way to rock the boat and become magnets for bizarre, cliched, rock star theatrics. In retrospect they seem incredibly normcore compared to a lot of their peers, and until they broke up seemed relatively unhampered by anything in the press that didn't pertain to their music. You could even argue that they had an almost negative public persona as a band. I've was well familiar with the and when I was a child in the 80s via their constant MTV presence, and don't remember hearing them on the radio until maybe my teens. The iconic video for "Once in a Lifetime" is still burned into my brain, and they remain a pretty visual band for me. The Stop Making Sense concert film probably helped reinforce this. But it was not until my late teens or early 20s that I listened to any of their albums all the way through in full, and I remember being damn impressed that not only did these guys have killer hit singles, their albums were chock full of awesome deep cuts as well. I think if I had come to this album any earlier than that, I would have clocked the one hit song, been unimpressed, and kept flipping through the bin until I found the greatest hits CD. I bring all this up to hammer home the fact that I never saw the band as some art school project, just as a group of people who made some really catchy, great songs. And as a result, that has colored how I now think of them. They weren't trying to make unapproachable, intellectual music I don't think. They just happened to be intellectual, artsy people who wanted to make fun, entertaining music, and it just so happened that a lot of their influences would be ones that would stand the test of time, and would inform their work so much that it too would go on to become just as influential, maybe more so as it likely reached a larger audience. And in turn, people like me have been able to go back and look at their influences and discover a lot of cool shit. I'm fairly certain that reading about this album in particular is how I even know about Fela Kuti, for example. I'm glad to listen to this one again even though it hasn't been that long since my last listen anyways, and while my rating has already been predetermined, I'm wondering what interesting thing I'll notice this time around. THE TRACKS Side one "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" - Immediately we're into the afrobeat inspired beats and we get a sort of mish mash of bouncy rhythms, funky bass, scratchy and nervous guitars all under Bryne's yelpy delivery. I can't really make much literal sense of the lyrics, but you've the imagery of a government man, with bloody hands, ready to do his dirty business, and the atmosphere is one of paranoia and maybe more than a little "that's just the way things are" matter of factness. Almost 6 minutes just soar by in a blink. "Crosseyed and Painless" - Even more nervous energy here as Byrne delivers manic and confused vocals, and you feel like whoever is speaking is losing their goddamn mind, and at an incredible clip. What's real? Am I who I think I am? This is like a Philip K. Dick short story in song form, with reality constantly slipping out of your hands. Not sure they ever did a video for this, but Byrne in a tin foil hat might have been some good imagery to start with. The chorus here is the best part with its too brief moments of calm in the storm of the constant barrage of percussion. "The Great Curve" - The pace is still up UP UP! But here there's measure and control where the last track felt rudderless. There's still some measure of danger and mystery though, but there's more awe and a narrator describing instead of experiencing. Adrian Belew's metallic and screeching guitar parts seems like they should be at odds with the energetic bongos and rhythm section, but they add even more dynamism somehow. There's urgency here, that's building towards something, but is it apocalyptic or transcendent? Both? This song makes me want to go running (not really I would die before I made it half a mile) or do something to expend the energy that seems to have transferred over to me like some sort of musical static electricity that I now have to burn off. I think I may even be typing faster, if not quite to the beat. My favorite track off the album, if not the best... Side two "Once in a Lifetime" - And here we have as good a candidate for an all-time top 10 list as any song we've had yet on the list. This is one that every time I hear it still hits me with a wave of emotion and fascination the same way it did when I probably first heard it, switching back and forth between those magical, almost religious ( dig Byrne's preacher man vibes here) verses, and the supremely catchy and oddly comforting choruses where the vocals summon a sort of feeling of acceptance of this strange place you've found yourself in . It's such a crossover hit that it's become shorthand in movie trailers now for existential crisis, and maybe the beauty that comes with not knowing any answers. I've quoted this once before ( I can't remember on which album) but it reminds me of the lyric from "Don't Let's Start" by They Might Be Giants that reads "Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful". That song as well has some of the DNA of this song in it I think. If Talking Heads are remembered for any of their songs, it's likely to be this ( "Psycho Killer" I think has been overtaken by this point). Everyone is on point here (to be fair it's rare that they are not) and the songs becomes a melodic engine, full of interesting hooks ( that crystalline electronic bit that bubbles under the verses might be the best representation of water in a song I can think of) and becomes much more than the sum of it's parts in a way that few songs can. "Houses in Motion" - This track seems to embody immobility while still moving forward, like someone who is walking in place but going nowhere. Things hang together by a thread, and there's constant motion but no progress. We stay in a funky groove for the duration and you get the feeling that James Brown haunts this one with his theory of "The One", Where every instrument melds together and functions as a single percussion instrument, anchoring them all to the heavy downbeat. This track felt oppressive and cynical in a way that feels like a polar opposite to the previous one, which made it hit even harder. We also get Brian Eno joining in on the fun and adding his voice to the chorus. "Seen and Not Seen" - Already at the lowest low point on the album, things stay down near the bottom and we get a more John Cale or Leonard Cohenesque spoken word delivery from Byrne over top what sounds like preview of the Tom Tom Club album, with it's roller skate jam beat. We get a narrative of a personality in some sort of dissociative identity crisis imagining forcing his facial features to change via some strength of will. It's more eerie than it is creepy, but the hypnotic groove keeps it from becoming any sort of horror story. "Listening Wind" - One of the few actual straight forward narratives, told in the third person about a man using violence against people encroaching in his homeland. The imagery is that of terrorism, but there's never any sense that the man in the story feels anything other than a sense of righteousness, and it feels fated or out of his control. This sort of thing would probably not fly nowadays in the way it humanizes and gives some sort of point of view that isn't the victims. Over all of this we have Adrian Belew's somber but aggressive guitar scratching and screeching like some seagull howling in pain. Or maybe like that wind in the lyrics. This song in particular feels like the blueprint for some Peter Gabriel stuff like "San Jacinto" or "The Rhythm Of The Heat" on his album Security or more thematically "Games Without Frontiers" off of his third album. "The Overload" - A fun fact about this one is that supposedly the band was prompted to make a song that sounded like Joy Division, without ever hearing anything from Joy Division, but instead basing it entirely on reviews they read. Not sure how legit that is, but sounds like a fun project, and if true they didn't land too far off the mark. There's maybe some Doors influence here. This is pretty doomy, and full of a dark atmosphere. The droning, and the growling and buzzing guitar work and synths ( I assume) almost sound like there's some chorus of Mongolian throat singers trapped at the bottom of a deep well. This was awesome, and I think would be the track that would most surprise someone coming to this new, who was expecting something more akin to "And She Was" or "Wild Wild Life". HIGHLIGHTS - EVERYTHING. MIDLIGHTS - LOWLIGHTS - FINAL THOUGHTS It's amazing that I never get tired of this thing. I'd be hard pressed to try and find a way to justify putting it into my top 10 or even 20 albums, but I do think it gets closer and closer with each listen. There's not an off moment the whole way through, and I even tried very hard to find anything to criticize. I thought about looking at it from the point of view of someone who wouldn't like the band, but even found that hard. Who doesn't like awesome rhythms, and catchy music? Byrne maybe has a reputation for being cold or deadpan in his delivery, but even within individual songs where this happens, its immediately contrasted with very emotive parts where he will provide his own call and response vocals that are anything but cold. It's all so perfectly formed and like an engine like I mentioned earlier. Maybe that's it then? Is it too designed and with too many flaws sanded away? Music like that is generally boring though, and this most certainly is not. If I really had to dig in and figure out why this stays out of my top 10 of all time, I think it honestly comes down to how many of their other albums I like almost just as much. It's the Paradox of Choice/ Analysis Paralysis. They can't all be in, so none of them are. That said I did give More Songs About Buildings And Food 4 -stars. A choice which has bothered my like a sore tooth for a while. I think on a relisten I'd be more charitable to the lack of massive hits on that one. We've still got two more after this though, and I think there's a good chance for a couple of more 5's, even if they're rounded up. And they still have a few albums afterwards that I think are great, and full of some of their best, most accessible stuff, but which did not make the list, which is a shame. Talking Heads are in the running as the best overall American band of the 20th Century ( of all time frankly) and they are pretty well represented here still. And that's not even considering that we have a Tom Tom Club album ( a perfect unicorn of an album, but we'll get there! Possible turn-Offs might include: - Deadpan vocal delivery - A polyrhythmic percussion bordering on the ridiculous - unconventional ( for rock) song structures - nakedly ambitious levels of borrowing from Afrobeat tradition You might enjoy this if you: - want to be able to dance to your post-punk rock music - love the funk, but wish it was WAY faster and more full of dissonant guitar work - prefer your rock music to be a bit more varied in its influences - want to hear what a band and producer team at their creative peak sounds like PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - Nope. FURTHER LISTENING Precursors: - Tago Mago by Can - Afrodesiac by Fela Kuti - Mothership Connection by Parliament - Lodger by David Bowie - Kurtis Blow by Kurtis Blow - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by David Byrne and Brian Eno Contemporaries: - Entertainment! by Gang of Four - Discipline by King Crimson - This Heat by This Heat - Duty Now for the Future by Devo - Exposure by Robert Fripp - Manifesto by Roxy Music Descendants: - Danseparc by Martha and the Muffins - Tom Tom Club by Tom Tom Club - Peter Gabriel by Peter Gabriel - Graceland by Paul Simon - Kid A by Radiohead - Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend - Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem - Total Life Forever by Foals - Remain in Light by Angélique Kidjo

(3/5) I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I **want** to like the Heads more than I do. This is our second one, and this one is very New Wave-ish, with Byrne's all-over-the-place lyrics. I love "Once in a Lifetime" and "Houses in Motion" was good too. The rest just passed me by..

"Same as it ever was" Let's begin by saying I enjoyed this album much more than the previous Talking Head album we had, "More Songs About Buildings and Food." I gave that album a "2" while this one gets a "3." Why? I think I was more forgiving of the weird delivery of the vocals. There doesn't seem to be any set style for this. The Wikipedia used the term avant-pop and that felt exactly right. An album of free association of words and sounds, sometimes shaped to resemble a pop song. If this is the best the Talking Heads have to offer then perhaps they are not a band for me. 3/5

not bad 3

Another classic Talking Heads album.

Listening on the remastered vinyl. Not a single bad song on this record.

Topper

i’m just so happy to get an album by a band i adore

Talking Heads can do no wrong

Not my favourite talking heads unfortunately but I am in a bad mood which may have coloured my experience.

Once In A Lifetime seems so different from everything else in the album, which is unfortunate because it’s the one I liked the most

yayyyy

yayy

Fine. Once in a Lifetime is great. Doesn’t feel timeless and requires a specific mood.

Outro disco legal do Talking Heads.. Não é nada tão wow, inovador, porem é o básico que funciona.

Very groovy and makes me wanna wiggle

Love the Talking Heads. Weird, innovative and fun. This is probably their best album. Debated between 4 and 5 for this one, but will give it a 4.5. There’s a couple songs here i personally didn’t care for all that much, but as a body of work - this is a great album.

Less rock than I thought TH was? Lots of sing talking, very 80s vibes. Jaunty and bouncy! *Crosseyed and Painless -- Cowbell Rulez. Once in a Lifetime -- a bop. Listening Wind -- FUN and spooky weird! The Overload -- can't tell if I like it, but it is cooooooooool.

Not my thing but I did enjoy it!

5/5

Now here’s a problem with rating some of these albums. Are we listening to an actual album or a deluxe edition with outtakes, remixes and what not. I was absolutely stunned by Remain in Light, especially after the hauntingly beautiful The Overload. What followed were a couple of long jams which were fine, but not up to the standard of the rest of the album and I now learn were not on the original record. So what do I rate? It really doesn’t matter in this case, cause it wll either be a 4+ or a 4-. I should have paid more ateention to Byrne and his gang. There’s a lot more to this band than Stop Making Sense.

I got another Talking Heads album less than a month ago and my opinion hasn’t changed. They still suck.

This album is a bit earlier than most of the music I know from Talking Heads. The only song I knew beforehand was Once In A Lifetime. I enjoyed it though. It was more period than I'd expected, but fun. Them towards the end they added in all the outtakes, which dragged on. Overall, it was an interesting listen. A 3 stars for me

First half was much better than I anticipated, deceptively complex over a simple foundation. I was enjoying the different style and ideas merging together. But then in the second half I found it a lot less inspired, which left a bit of an odd feeling, almost it was trying a little to hard... But I enjoyed it a lot more than the Buildings and food album. Overall a 3 and a bit

First time this has really clicked for me. Fantastic album

46 years since this album came out and it still feels ahead of its time.

Nearly a two star but couple of tracks tipped it over

Weirdo grooves meet massive hooks - gets very nervy and dark Favourite tracks: Born Under Punches, Once In A Lifetime, Listening Wind

Couple of bangers but probably 3rd fav TH album

A classic album with excellent writing and performance. Definitely a band that everyone should experience even those that claim "they don't get it".

I do love the Talking Heads. Cross eyed and Painless and Once In a Lifetime are great tracks. The rest of the album is solid and funky.

A classic album. I think its reputation as a singular achievement distorts somewhat its place in the TH discography. Each of their first four albums are really good. Their fifth is easily their strongest set of songs, though the self-produced sound of it is curiously underwhelming. The sound is a bit thin. In any case, it's a matter of preference as to which of those five albums to esteem most highly. They are each their own thing, and will strike different listeners differently. This album is really two albums -- side one and side two, and my sense is that when people talk about what a great album this is, they are thinking about side one. Which is a tremendous suite of hypnotic, wonderful music. Side two is more weird music, offkilter poetic speaker, "Mr. Bean fronts a VU-inspired funk rock band" type stuff. Very downtown, avant rock, part of the journey from Velvet Underground and krautrock to .... whatever. Stereolab, Yo La Tengo ... however the individual would finish that sentence. Also very good, but very different. And not, to my mind, the stuff of being named one of the 100 greatest albums of all time, which this was, by Apple Music, a couple years back, on a dodgy list that ... anyway. The making of this album has been described in a number of places over the years, with details varying, emphases varying, relying on various perspectives ... it was a chancy process, but ultimately very successful. The production is fascinating, the playing is very, very good. Listening to this album on a digital stream that has presumably been remastered at some point is very different from the cheap Italian import LP pressing I listened to in high school. You hear a lot more, and there's a lot more separation. Debates about the Afrobeat inspirations that went into this record are interesting, but when I listened to it this time I was struck once again by how much tight, I want to call it brittle, funk guitar is on this record. The music truly does achieve a fusion of many components. And Adrian Belew's guitar work at that time was not about genre -- it was about his inventive use of effects (all those wild sounds he was producing ... elsewhere, often making his guitar sound like various animals; idiosyncratic and brilliant). It is really interesting to see how TH took the very dense sound of these studio recordings and opened them up and made them so dynamic in live performance. There are two great documents of the Remain In Light tour: the performances on The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, and the film of them playing in Rome (it's on YouTube, and it's a treat). Very rewarding to hear that band playing live -- it's the same format as in Stop Making Sense, but the band is even better. The other place to look for recordings with a similar style would be My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, where the music is constructed in a similar manner. But for another album recorded around the same time with a similarly great batch of songs and a similarly dense, hypnotic, polyrhythmic sound, I associate together this album and Black Uhuru's Sensemilla. They both have music so dense and so propulsive it's delightfully overwhelming. Anyway -- side one of this album is among my favorite things of all time. Side two has the big single, Once In a Lifetime, and Houses In Motion, which is tremendous, and some weird stuff that is very good, but not nearly as fun as, say, The Great Curve, which is just ... so, so good.

I love this album. This seemed like it would be a slam dunk five star. I wasn't even sure I needed to listen to it again. But I did, and then I remembered The Overload. I wouldn't say The Overload is bad, exactly, but it's really long and it is not nearly as great as the rest of the record. And Listening Wind isn't my favorite either. Oh well. It's still an excellent record with some of my favorite T Heads songs.

It’s not often that you hear an album that is so obviously a display of a force of greatness at its absolute peak. Radiohead’s “OK Computer” is an example of this; so is “Hounds of Love” by Kate Bush. “Abbey Road” by The Beatles. “Songs in the Key of Life” by Stevie Wonder. This is one of the best and shining examples of that. The first side is full of energy that is unparalleled by most moments in music. David Byrne’s unhinged yells and nearly blown-out voice by the end of the tracks is truly a fucking wonder. He’s one of the greatest vocalists ever, I love it. “Born Under Punches” in particular is a song that has always particularly caught my fancy: one of the two songs that differ the most from the album’s larger themes of isolation and alienation from larger society, themes that were absolutely birthed from Byrne’s autism, something he and I share. The song is manic, scary, scared. A crazed lunatic song, in which you can’t quite tell what is happening around the speaker, but you can tell that the speaker is deeply unstable, and probably in some position of power, a government man. The other song to depart from the album’s themes the most is “The Great Curve,” my other favorite here. Driving, dancey, rhythmic, and so involved. It’s all I can do not to be turned into a twitching mess on the sidewalk whenever I listen to it. The rest of the album follows the themes previously stated, themes which the other two songs still hold on to in their own ways. The world has a load of questions. Lost my shape. What have I done. Other people’s faces. An overload. The world pressurizes the people who live in it until they cannot function. It’s deeply involved and incredible, and conceptually the implications of it slowly slowing down after the fantastic release of energy that is “Once In A Lifetime” are pretty devastating in a way. This is a fantastic album, and I really am going back and forth greatly on whether or not it’s a 10/10. I’ll give it a 9.9 for now. 9.9/10 DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES REASON: the zenith of one of the greatest rock bands ever. Must-listen.

Great o kick off the 80's. Strong, 10 out of 5

mostly not my kind of music

first album i didnt finish

One of the best albums of Talking Heads and one of the best from the 1980s

Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup. I saw Talking Heads 3 times between 1979 and 1983. I loved 77 and More Songs About Buildings and Food. By Fear of Music it was obvious that there was some inter-band dynamics that was shifting the band towards a more world music slant. I honestly blamed Eno who’s excess was legendary and thoroughly discussed in the music weeklys. Remain in light however was the bridge too far. While I get those people way smarter than me will say this is their zenith- in my estimation it is not. There are a couple of amazing tracks namely Once In A Lifetime and upon much reflection, Crosseyed and Painless. But the rest is jammy nonsense with really no recognizable lyric, melody, rhythm or structure. To the extent that is comes off as aping much of the music from the Caribbean Islands I think that criticism is a little overblown. I see it truly as a failed attempt to merge New York rock with African and Caribbean influences. If you ask yourself, after the days have gone bye, whether you can recall anything about the songs that come after Once In A Lifetime, I think many would not recall anything. There is no definition or shape to these and I believe it is because this was a band at a crisis point and Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth along with Jerry Harrison were all trying to contribute after finally being given a real opportunity to do so and the result shows all of their contributions but lacks the cohesiveness of a band. I get it. Bands are difficult systems to navigate because it’s not objective about the music. There is ego, biases, and each individual’s perception about the creative process. I still blame Eno as he was not helpful here about defining the vision. You have one song that is the heart but you were unable to help the band achieve clarity about what the rest of the record should sound like. I’ve played this album only a couple of times over the past 45 years or so. I don’t revisit it much because there are better versions of Talking Heads. Even Stop Making Sense which as a concert film blew my mind only has two songs from this record. Yup, the two I mentioned. So, if you can distance yourself from the hype around this record, I think you’ll find it beautifully performed and recorded but those performances and just not that interesting, mostly too long by a couple of minutes and far too busy to actually breathe. 3/5

Low-key poop

5/12 audible songs, low replay value, overall experimental instrumental that I like, but still the voice is too strange

Love the New Wave pioneers! Talking Heads album offers unique beats and structure that is always fun and interesting.

I had a lot of fun listening to this one.

I've always felt like a philistine in regards to the Talking Heads discography. The infamously emblematic album of the Onion headline "Cool Dad Raising Daughter On Media That Will Put Her Entirely Out Of Touch With Her Generation", it's an album that has resisted my shots at it over the years with a fierce veracity. But I can tell there's something hiding beneath the outrageous exterior of Remain In Light, so I listened to it thrice this time. Getting to better wrap my head around this album (and TH in general [and really all the -head bands: Radio-, Portis-, Lemon-, Motör- et al]) was something I was hoping to develop out of this list, and being forced through a new classic album a day has definitely been instrumental in developing that taste. I'm glad I did in the end. I have no idea how you could grok onto this for a virgin listen, unless out of some sense of morbid curiosity, but on my third it had its hooks in me so deep I couldn't pull them out. Remain In Light is excellent. Fav tracks: Once In A Lifetime, Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve

Fun album, starts off weird and maintains it throughout

Joya talking heads-Brian Eno-tom tom club…se siente la colaboración y eso enriquece mucho una obra

Great album!

There's way more talking heads than I thought possible.

Like I was gonna give this anything less than 5 stars.

In the 1980s manipulating portrait photos by means of a computer was groundbreaking. The idea came from Tina and Chris . "Wow, can you edit photos on the computer?" An acquaintance at MIT picked a random photo and manipulated it, that became the back cover. Their retouched portraits were chosen and Tibor Kalman designed this cover. The cover is great, the music better.

This is another one of those albums that I really enjoyed about 25 years ago. But like so many of those albums, I'm just so burned out on it now, and it doesn't hit the same way it used to. If I had been reviewing this album 25 years ago, it probably would have received a much higher rating. But listening to it now, I was mostly just trying to get through it. I probably could have written this review without even listening to the album again, but I wanted to go through the experience one more time so my review could reflect my current feelings toward it and where I'm at with the music today, and I would say I'm definitely burned out on this one. If you're unfamiliar with Talking Heads, I'd still recommend checking out this album and exploring their music because you can't deny the mark they've made on music history, and David Byrne is such an amazing musician and singer.

Sehr wuselig, aber viel groove. Zu wenig eingängige Stellen

Took like 2 songs to get into but became peak after, very good album Top 3: Once in a Lifetime, Houses in Motion, Seen and Not Seen

The sounds that come from this album are so indescribable. All while being so unique to one another. It is genuinely difficult to single out a favorite track between all of them. Fav Tracks: "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)", "Once in a Lifetime" and "Seen and Not Seen".

Damn, these some funky fools. I always forget how funky Talking Heads are. Problem is, despite having one of the best live albums of all time, I really don't think most of their actual LPs really hit the same bar. There's good stuff here, but the 2nd half of the album kinda falls off a cliff.

I really enjoyed the great curve on this listen. Honestly, no song is as fun as Once in a Lifetime! "LETTING THE DAY'S GO BY, LET THE WATER HOLD ME!" SAME AS IT EVER WAS!!!!! The overload makes me feel like I am in a post apocalyptic wasteland and am toiling away in a mine for a cultish leader whose goals are unclear. Good stuffs

Number: 290 Familiarity: Extremely (5) Rating: 4 Before: ======= I like Talking Heads a lot but there more of a tier 2 than tier 1 band for me. That being said, I do have a few of there albums on vinyl, including this one I think. Can't be sure though as it's been a long time since I've set eyes on them. Anyways, I think my favorite might be Fear of Music. After : ======= I'll give it a 4. Most songs were 4's for me, a couple of 5's, and I gave that last one a 3. Not sure about that one is it has a completely different vibe than the rest of the album.

Great album with interesting afrobeats. My favourite Talking Heads album will remain Stop Making Sense though

Kinda noisy, second half was ALOT better

Thought provoking. Has a couple of my favorite heads tracks. As a whole not their most engaging package.

beats lowkey more notesable then lyrics

Apt name. Didn't enjoy this outside of one song. Some cool guitar tones and that's about it.

To me, Talking Heads have always been THAT BAND that all my nerdy band friends worship while I'm over here in the corner like, huh? Kind of like prog rock friends, too. Like, you either get it or you don't. I don't, but the African-based grooves make it fun so I give it a 3.

I did try to like this. Just couldn’t get into it. Not really sure why

I knew that I would either really like this or hate it based on what I know about the Talking Heads. There are so many aspects of this album that are incredibly weird and off putting and they are placed so perfectly to make it interesting and impactful. You can hear the groove/funk influence in the music. The energy starts out so high and fizzles out by the end (only thing stopping me from giving this a 5).

Incredible

Good album, funky, unique. Not necessarily my vibe though, but would see myself listening to it once in a while when I’m feeling funky or roadtripping.

Just a wonderful and joyful time. Some real fun experimentation. Thought provoking and introspective at times, but also just silly. Maybe my favorite David Byrne vocals. My personal preference is still Speaking in Tongues, but this is right up there. Fizzles a bit at the end for me and is more like a 4.5 than a 4.

At times danceable and exuberant (OIAL), at other times brooding and dark (The Overload). One of my favorite TH albums. It's a solid 4.5/5.

Once in a lifetime really carries huh?

Incredible. Album of the fall perhaps

A 5 Star system that only I care about but let's test it: Influence: Absolutely five-star territory. The album's interlocking rhythms, looping arrangements, African musical influences, electronic textures and approach to the studio helped expand what art rock and pop could sound like. Its descendants are everywhere, even when artists don't sound directly like Talking Heads. The album itself: Remain in Light isn't just a collection of songs that became important. The whole record operates as a musical system. Individual parts keep repeating and shifting, the rhythms seem to have minds of their own, and David Byrne is somehow both the frontman and one more instrument inside the machine. My experience of it: I loved this listen (even the extended outtakes and the Fela nod). It starts strong and never stops. I could listen to this any day at any time. Not my easiest 5, but a 5.

Great album. Rhythm section are excellent and great hooks. Maybe short of 1 or 2 bangers for 5 stars. A very strong 4.

It’s a bit more electronic than the music I normally listen to, and at times it gets a little repetitive for me, but I really enjoyed it. I’m not sure I could really say why I like it more than other electronic leaning music. Maybe it’s the percussion? It definitely gives it great pace and energy. Maybe it’s just already having some familiarity with it? Whatever it is, I thought there were some fun guitar parts, and some great brass. I really liked the vocal style. Just felt like good fun all the way through, even when it was getting a bit repetitive for me. Fav song: Once in a Lifetime Least fav: Seen and Not Seen

Don’t know how to feel about this cover, but I actually think I like it. Some good somgs on this album also. Doesn’t have the real weirdness of other talking heads I feel. I’m choosing to ignore that Brian eno produced most of it. Specific rating - 3.9 Fav song- once in a lifetime Least fav - houses in motion

Decent enough - nothing special for me though

Heard it before. I was literally just complaining the other day about the fact that Stop Making Sense isn't on the list and now I get a Talking Heads album. I know to many people this is their best album but... not to me. I think the first half is quite good but then it's just whatever 2/5

This was my first time listening since hearing Fela Kuti and I can definitely hear the influence. Born Under Punches, The Great Curve and Once in a Lifetime were my favourites. I really enjoyed Once in a Lifetime I think it's a perfect song. I think ilthe album lost steam during the second half it felt a bit front loaded to me.

I quite liked this one

very interesting sounds. good first talking heads album

a textural delight, with a strong rhythmic drive underpinning a variety of weird and wonderful sonic adventures

This is nearly a 5 for me but the end is a little less interesting than what preceded. But it’s super cohesive, great funk grooves, so catchy. Epic album opener and then has once in a lifetime in the middle, one of their best songs ever. So much to like in a tight 40 minutes.

Great album. Very influential

When we tragically lost David Lynch a couple of years back, for a few moments, it didn't register with me. I genuinely saw "David" and thought Byrne had died. Not trying to say losing one is more heartbreaking than the other, but it'd be so disheartening to lose someone who gave us the beauty that is Remain In Light.

Remain in Light, what is there to say about this project that hasn't already been said? This project makes Fear of Music look like a warm up with how much harder Talking Heads came back to one up their experimentation and further commit to the funky electronics. Once again we wouldn't have this gorgeous masterpiece without the help of Brian Eno's production mixed with the quirky confidence of Talking Heads. It blows my mind how big of a step they made to go from the more minimal Fear of Music to the extroverted and bold sound here on Remain in Light. I don't think this album is as consistent as a lot of people think, yes the songs are too drastically different but it does feel like the sounds are jumping around a lot when comparing the beginning to the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and it really made me realize just how on their shit Talking Heads were for their time, but I don't think this stands as one of my favorite releases of all time. It is cool for what it is but I am not super crazy about it, but I can appreciate the influence it has and what they did for the industry as it still is shown even today, over 40 years later. It's a classic, what else can I say?

Kann ich nix mit anfangen ... . 80er, aber kein Highlight!

amazing

Weird, but it in all the best ways.

Meh. Had that one famous song once in a lifetime

groovyyyy

Nice treat to get one of my wife's favorite bands to finish off the week. I like this although stop making sense is a little better for me. The Fela Kuti influence is so cool and this is what got me into Fela Kuti in the first place.

Autistic people DO make the best music:)

Every song makes you want to nod your head. And yet every song sounds unique. Maybe their best album. 5/5

Decent.

Enjoyed.

The poly rhythm is neat, like James Brown or later Prince produced their album. But, other Talking Heads is better. Just give us Stop Making Sense. The generator has given me two Talking Heads records, neither has their hits