This collection of tracks comes a couple years after the last part of the trilogy, of albums recorded with Brian Eno, the last part “Remain in Light” is still this bands “zenith” in my humble option, at no other time since have they been so inventive and groundbreaking, ... Read review
infected Talking Heads' music prior to this 1983 pop breakthrough, butSpeaking in Tonguesis where the beat truly gels. The band's quirky, nerdy persona somehow ble...
infected Talking Heads' music prior to this 1983 pop breakthrough, but Speaking in Tongues is where the beat truly gels. The band's quirky, nerdy persona somehow b...
infected Talking Heads' music prior to this 1983 pop breakthrough, but Speaking in Tongues is where the beat truly gels. The band's quirky, nerdy persona somehow blends easily with music borrowed from the African Diaspora on "Stop Making Sense" and "Burning Down the House". The album also marks one of the last true band collaborations, before Byrne reduced his partners to mere sidemen. If their edgier early albums now sound more challenging and unique in hindsight, Speaking in Tongues at least documents the New York quartet's singular blend of World Beat, art school rock, and the always irresistible dance floor. --Steve Appleford
infected Talking Heads' music prior to this 1983 pop breakthrough, butSpeaking in Tonguesis where the beat truly gels. The band's quirky, nerdy persona somehow blends easily with music borrowed from the African Diaspora on "Stop Making Sense" and "Burning Down the House". The album also marks one of the last true band collaborations, before Byrne reduced his partners to mere sidemen. If their edgier early albums now sound more challenging and unique in hindsight,Speaking in Tonguesat least documents the New York quartet's singular blend of World Beat, art school rock, and the always irresistible dance floor.--Steve Appleford
A review by Miles13 on Speaking In Tongues - Talking Heads February 4th, 2004
Author's product rating:
Originality
Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics
Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks
Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Outstanding
Value for Money
Advantages:
The Heads go pop
Disadvantages:
Nothin'
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
This collection of tracks comes a couple years after the last part of the trilogy, of albums recorded with Brian Eno, the last part “Remain in Light” is still this bands “zenith” in my humble option, at no other time since have they been so inventive and groundbreaking, no with this album the lessons learned with their former producer have been taken in another direction, the only repeating theme is the use of “African” percussion as with the previous 2 albums “Fear of Music & “Remain in Light”.
The possible reason for this with this album is that the band have taken the duties of producer as a collective between themselves, don’t get me wrong this is not a bad album but without the inventive genius that is Eno there is something missing, but what they have done with this album is bring the mixing skills of the late Alex Sadkin who worked with Grace Jones and men known as the “Rhythm Twins” better known as Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare.
With Mr Sadkin’s experience with reggae music he brought to the table a sense of pop music that paid off, for this is Talking Heads most commercial collection they ever released in my option.
From the opening track of “Burning Down the House” that has been so badly covered in resent years as to make me cringe every time I hear it.
To he wonderful song that is “This must be the Place (naïve melody)”, the album as a whole is just so easy to listen to, not to say that it falls into the “easy-listening” category, no far from it the words are as surreal as always.
As with most of the bands output the lyrics where written by the lead vocalist and front man of the band David Byrne, as always only David knows what all his words are about. But where the words have hidden meaning the music on the whole album is very accessible. Another element that made this recording funkier than before was the use of the keyboard player Bernie Worrell from “Funkadelic” & “Parliament “and the choppy guitar work of Alex Weir doing his best to sound like Nile Rodgers of “Chic” fame.
Another possible reason in my option for the more commercial sound of this recording is, this would turn out to be their last studio recording for the label “Sire” and they wanted their swansong for that label to be less experimental in nature to impress their new label “EMI”.
In the decades that have passed since the release of this album and the others in bands back catalogue no one at “Sire” has thought to re-issue this album or any other Talking Heads album I find this to be criminal oversight on their part, the bands whole collection on that label should be all re-mastered and restored for the 21st century post haste…
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Back to basics Review ofSpeaking In Tongues - Talking Headsby
dave27
Advantages: Some strong stuff Disadvantages: Bit patchy
...Heads with a new album, Speaking In Tongues. Although it featured many of the musicians they had worked with before, during their experiments with African and funk music, it was in many ways a return to their original stripped down style.
While it lacked some of the impact of their earlier, bolder developments, it contained some strong songs: the heavy, bluesy Swamp, the surprisingly unambiguous love song This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) and ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Two demi-gods of the pop avant-garde flirt outrageously with accessibility Disadvantages: There's still probably too much excellence on display for the mass market. Dammit!
...://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkGAltttzFc
And after that, Eno and the Heads/Byrne didn't work together.
Mea Culpa
The reasons for this are fuzzy. It would seem that Eno's presence had started to amplify the internal friction that always existed in the Heads (the constant description of Eno as the 'unofficial fifth Head' rankled some internal parties, one suspects). Songwriting credits became a serious sore point (especially when the Remain In Light tracks, largely created from band jams, were credited to 'David Byrne/Brian Eno/TalkingHeads' on the liner notes, as though TalkingHeads were Byrne's backing band). So when the next Heads album, 'SpeakingInTongues' came around in 1983, Eno was nowhere to be seen: perhaps he'd been used as a method by which Byrne, Frantz, Weymouth and Harrison absolved themselves of blame for their troubles in order to find a way to keep working...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - David Byrne & Brian Eno
Product details
Title: Speaking In Tongues
Performer: Talking Heads
Genre: Rock & Pop
Sub Genre: New Wave
Release Date: 1983
Recomended Retail Price: 7.99 GBP
Original Release Year: 1983
Label / Distributor: Sire / Cinram Logistics
Engineer: Butch Jones; Alex Sadkin
Producer: Talking Heads
Pieces in Set: 1
Studio / Live: Studio
Stereo: Stereo
Format: Performer
EAN: 75992388320
Catalogue Number: 7599238832
SPAR code: AAD
Additional notes
Album Notes: Talking Heads: David Byrne (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion); Tina Weymouth (guitar, keyboards, bass, background vocals); Jerry Harrison (guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Chris Frantz (drums, keyboards, background vocals). Additional personnel: Alex Weir (guitar); Shankar (violin); Richard Landry (saxophone); Wally Badarou, Bernie Worrell (synthesizer); Steve Scales, David Van Tieghem (percussion); Dolette MacDonald, Nona Hendryx (background vocals). On REMAIN IN LIGHT, the Heads fused their twitchy, intellectual geek-rock sensibilities with an organic, spiritual funkiness that catapulted them into a new artistic realm, virtually unfettered by the shackles of their "new wave" past. SPEAKING IN TONGUES picks up where that album left off, expanding on the band's newfound funk aesthetic and even upping the danceability quotient a notch or two. The Heads let their hair down a bit more here than on REMAIN IN LIGHT, but while the tone is a bit less serious (as on the party-starting "Burning Down The House,") the highly developed conceptual sensibilites of Byrne and company are still at work, even without the assistance of former producer Brian Eno. Some of the previous album's airy abstractions are stripped away here, to make more room on the dance floor. Tunes like "Girlfriend is Better" attack both the feet and the mind, in typically quirky Talking Heads style. "This Must Be the Place/Naive Melody" stands out as a pretty, affecting ballad about finding a sense of belonging (it's melodic charms were so pervasive it was eventually covered by folk-rocker Shawn Colvin).
Album Reviews: Rolling Stone (11/89) - Ranked #54 in Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums Of The 80's survey. High Fidelity - Highly Recommended
Titles on disc 1
1.: Burning Down The House
2.: Making Flippy Floppy
3.: Girlfriend Is Better
4.: Slippery People
5.: I Get Wild/Wild Gravity
6.: Swamp
7.: Moon Rocks
8.: Pull Up The Roots
9.: This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
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14.09.2008
