Talking Heads Fear Of Music CD

Reissued; Remastered; Dual Disc CD/DVD

Talking Heads: David Byrne (vocals, guitar); Jerry Harrison (guitar, keyboards); Tina Weymouth (bass); Chris Frantz (drums, percussion).
Additional personnel: Robert Fripp (guitar); Gene Wilder, Ari (congas); Brian Eno (sound effects, background vocals); Julie Last, The Sweetbreathes (background vocals).
Principally recorded at Chris and Tina's loft, Long Island City, Queens, New York.
This is a DualDisc, which contains a CD on one side of the disc and a DVD on the other.
Talking Heads: David Byrne (vocals, guitar, synthesizer, percussion); Jerry Harrison (organ, keyboards, synthesizer, background vocals); Tina Weymouth (bass guitar); Chris Frantz (drums).
Additional personnel: Brian Eno (guitar, piano, synthesizer, background vocals); Robert Fripp (guitar); Gene Wilder, Ari (congas).
By titling their third album Fear of Music and opening it with the African rhythmic experiment "I Zimbra," complete with nonsense lyrics by poet Hugo Ball, Talking Heads make the record seem more of a departure than it is. Though Fear of Music is musically distinct from its predecessors, it's mostly because of the use of minor keys that give the music a more ominous sound. Previously, David Byrne's offbeat observations had been set off by an overtly humorous tone; on Fear of Music, he is still odd, but no longer so funny. At the same time, however, the music has become even more compelling. Worked up from jams (though Byrne received sole songwriter's credit), the music is becoming denser and more driving, notably on the album's standout track, "Life During Wartime," with lyrics that match the music's power. "This ain't no party," declares Byrne, "this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." The other key song, "Heaven," extends the dismissal Byrne had expressed for the U.S. in "The Big Country" to paradise itself: "Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens." It's also the album's most melodic song. Those are the highlights. What keeps Fear of Music from being as impressive an album as Talking Heads' first two is that much of it seems to repeat those earlier efforts, while the few newer elements seem so risky and exciting. It's an uneven, transitional album, though its better songs are as good as any Talking Heads ever did. ~ William Ruhlmann
FEAR OF MUSIC is the point of transition between the angular art-school new wave of the Heads' early work and the P-Funk-inspired modalism of their early-'80s output. While there's nothing as funky or visionary as REMAIN IN LIGHT here, the album represents a step in a new direction. At the same time, the Heads' white-knuckled neuroticism is pushed to the extreme here. Almost unrelentingly dark and paranoid-sounding, the tunes find Byrne at his most Anthony Perkins-like, and the interplay of the guitars, even more syncopated and thoughtfully arranged than on the previous album, provides a pointillistic landscape on which Byrne can let his twitchy persona run free. From the tense espionage tale of "Life During Wartime" to the global disaffection of "Cities," Byrne and company seem wound so tight you wonder when they'll snap. One of the only places to look for breathing room here is the funky, African-sounding "I Zimbra," with its highlife-influenced guitars and tribal chanting. This tune also points the way to the mind-blowing innovations that were just around the corner on REMAIN IN LIGHT.