Speaking In Tongues

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All four band members had taken a break to do side projects: Singer David Byrne wrote a solo album, <i>The Catherine Wheel</i>, guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison did the same with <i>The Red and the Black</i>, and drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth formed Tom Tom Club and had a massive hit, “Genius of Love.” When Talking Heads regrouped for their fifth studio album, <i>Speaking in Tongues</i>, there were plenty of new ideas to integrate. “Slippery People” could almost be a <i>Remain in Light</i> outtake, thanks to background vocals by Nona Hendryx and Dolette McDonald. But working without producer Brian Eno for the first time in year, the band chose a less layered sound. Byrne later called it “a lighter record,” and there isn’t even one song about a terrorist. The arrangements largely swap guitars for synthesizers and other keyboard. Keyboardist Wally Badarou added some fun but ghostly sounds to “Burning Down the House,” Talking Heads’ first (and, it turned out, only) single that reached the Top 10. The title derived from a chant Frantz heard at a concert by the ecstatic funk group Parliament-Funkadelic: “Burn down the house! Burn down the house!” The music is more playful and expansive than before: “Swamp” is a trip downriver into the blue, “Making Flippy Floppy” features the Indian violinist L. Shankar, and “Moon Rocks” offers a touch of reggae. The lyrics are often giddy, which is new: “Some things sure can sweep me off my feet,” Byrne declares in “Burning Down the House.” They’re also often imagistic and hard to fathom—if you think you know what “Watch out/Touch monkeys” mean, please tell the rest of u. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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