Haven't listened to any Talking Heads save a few singles including the (in)famous Psycho Killer on '77. I get Talking Heads a bit better now, even if I don't know if I'll double click on their discography after this listen. My initial impression of Byrne's voice is, well, it's unchanged - not for me, mate. Blasphemous and especially weird for a guy who's long loved Jello Biafra and Gordon Gano. It's a weird line to draw but you can't argue or reason with personal taste I guess. Still! It's interesting that the TH singles are the least interesting and representative of their albums so far. I wouldn't have written them off so fast if I had heard Born Under Punches or No Compassion first.
Update: Alright I've listened to this twice more since the review. My stance on Byrne's voice stands, but the instruments and melodies are getting under my skin. Moving on to Remain in Light while we get dinner ready.
I sighed when this popped up as today's #1001albums, but I was also a little hopeful. Was this listen-through going to redeem Van Halen the way yesterday's assignment fixed my appreciation for Talking Heads?
No. Sorry, I'm just not crazy about rock for jocks to do coke and air guitar along with, specifically with these kind of lyrics and vocals.
There's some incredible musicianship going on here. And if it could be nothing but technical breakdowns all the way through maybe I'd be more into it (drum break from Chorus to Verse and everything that isn't singing in Girl Gone Bad had me nodding along)..then again I'm not really a math rock guy either* so maybe there's no pleasing me with this kind of band.
*Technical speed metal excluded
Yes, I, too, had a folk and Wes Anderson phase in highschool which brought me to this album before today.
El Condor Pasa has a Renfaire quality to it, but the ratio of infectious bangers to inscrutable treacle is high. Love this.
How have I never heard of Joan Armatrading?
First song plays like if Nina Simone nicked Dylan's band from Blood on the Tracks, but only the first track. She doesn't stay there, she travels and blends so many genres through the 40 minutes of this album, just a versatile and interesting album with some tracks sounding 20 years early, like pop and R&B of the late 80s/90s.
Incredible album, wild talent, wonderful voice, I'm so glad I drew this one! And on the anniversary of its release no less.
I like the idea of ACDC a lot more than I like ACDC. I think it's the workman-like plodding of the standard ACDC song. They're all at very close the same tempo and that tempos never really connected with me. Bum, pop, dutiful driving without any real propulsion, I just get bored when it's not a solo (Bon Scott's perfect rock vocals notwithstanding). That said, when Young does do a solo, my interest increases exponentially, and the songs that run at a tighter clip are far more infectious (I wish there were more songs played at Beating Around The Bush's clip)
"poor man wanna be rich/rich man wanna be king."
If that don't just sum it up?
I have maybe 5-6 songs from Bruce that I love (I've always been more of a Zevon guy*). None of these rose to that level, but they're all, y'know, they're all good! They're all Bruce.
* That said, Springsteen's cover of Zevons "My Ride's Here" is up there for the best either of them sound to me.
Wasn't expecting the Sweet Dreams song to warrant a full album's worth of inspection. It's pretty good! GPT and Wikipedia tells me why this album is important and that's great context but I'd say it's an very danceable, pretty pleasant album. I don't know how much I'll revisit, but I enjoyed the once-through nevertheless.
Yep yep have the vinyl can confirm it's great
Some days #1001albums makes me dig to figure out what makes it special. Other days it's obvious. Not just fun to listen to but to play, too. It's physically impossible to play Just What I Needed and not air guitar along.
Not a Clash guy I'm afraid, and this listen didn't do much to change that (Rudy Can't Fail is a better tho).
Parents didn't listen to (much) secular music but they did listen to this album. Man I loved this thing.
"Good but not right now..."
Something I'm learning with this exercise is that music is as much about the mood you're in as it is objective quality. I hadn't really given Hendricks a shot. Weird since I started as guitarist but I think the opening of purple hay is just turned me off to the whole endeavor which is foolish. I listen to all of this, I found my head nodding along to most of it, it's obviously It's actually still a pretty transformative work. I mentally earmarked it, "this is great, why do I listen to this more?" And I realized chad I'm just not in a mood. All that often that's syncopatico with this type of work. Maybe that means I'm too uptight? But it's really interesting to find good music that's accessible and yet still a bit of a mismatch for where I am. Good but not right now.
Groovy, mellow, catchy hooks, pretty killer album I've completely overlooked.
