Album of the Week: 3rd Edition

The album of the week this week is:



Speaking in Tongues - The Talking Heads

Fortunately, I spent time this week cleaning up. As I was looking for my dusted old copies of Sim Tower and the Sims Hot Date (in order to pass time, of course!), I stumbled upon a nice little stack of CD's in my parent's computer room. It was the last of the CD piles I had checked out (that were scattered around numerous parts of the house) and I found an album with an interesting cover, such as you see above.

I had always liked the earlier Talking Heads I owned. Their debut, '77 was sublime and their More Songs About Buildings and Food had several classics.

A background on the Talking Heads is such: David Byrne, an intellectual songwriting genious, gathered together a few of his fellow students at the Rhode Island School of Design and created a band that was the first of many to be labeled as "New Wave." The band showed an eccentric side with Byrne's edgy, out-of-range-singing style and agressive instrumental playing.

When first popping the CD on my long drive to baseball practice, I heard the faint noises of an acoustic guitar. I was oddly surprised, as it was the polar opposite of the Talking Heads' style. My worries were negated when I heard Byrne's solid "eeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEHHHH..." into the opening song "Burning Down the House," a classic among fans of the band.

Throughout the course of the album, I was bobbing my head to the agressive beats, solid playing, and angry singing. There was no sense in trying to make sense of the lyrics on this album, such that I went with the flow and ended up participating in the nonsense banter of each song. Skillfully, the band avoides self-indulgent concepts or hard to access melodies in such listenable music.

Highlights included "Girlfriend is Better" and "Swamp". These overlooked songs were immediately catchy. In the former I was shouting with Byrne about my girlfriend who was better than this, and listening to David quickly yelping, "Is it!?" after each line in the chorus. The song started out with an infectious beat and Byrne asking who took the money. In the latter song I was screaming at the top of my lungs "HI! HI HI HI HI HIIIIIIII!" and looking to my right to see a transfixed (and shocked) gaze from the driver on my right. "Burning Down the House" is so catchy, it's no wonder that it was the Head's first Top 10 hit.

All the members on this album contribute amazing, layered synthesizer textures, solid guitar tracks, and choral backround vocals. The guitars are twangy, the drums solid, the bass plucky, the voices excited and energetic and the songwriting superb. The feel of the music is assured, and surprisingly sophisticated, and completely singable (if you're willing to go hoarse for the rest of the day).

The album made for great driving music, keeping me awake and energetic, and made for a great reason why every driver on the road can gawk at me.