Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues poll

I feel like Shakey's post ignores that their previous records were more song-oriented than RIL too.

Like Byrne was already writing great song-qua-songs.

not denying that, just saying he was getting better. agree that RiL (and to a lesser extent Fear of Music) are sort of detours from the pop song format

This is a really bad album. I listened to it the other day and I couldn't stand any of it. I really loved it when I was younger, though... :(

girlfriend is better

its weird that the SMS versions of all of these are all better

girlfriend is better

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Thursday, April 4, 2013 4:42 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

remain in light is better

This is Talking Heads' 'Brighten the Corners', isn't it?

First heard Swamp via Risky Business, yet somehow never connected the song with the movie title for all these years. Strange oversight. I'd probably vote for Burning Down The House if I hadn't heard it so many times, but will stick with Swamp.

should point out that "Burning Down The House" sounded damn strange for a top ten pop hit in '83: all that space punctuated with bursts of instruments.

i always wondered about Risky Business, which only came out 3 months after Speaking -- i thought maybe the screenplay had had some other working title that was later named after the lyric, but i guess it was just a total coincidence that they already had the movie's title when the phrase was used prominently in a recent hit album they could use on the soundtrack?

Swamp was in The King Of Comedy too iirc? Before it was anywhere else too I think.

its weird that the SMS versions of all of these are all better

Not that weird considering that the Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads versions are better than the album cuts too

In the continuing Great-American-Songbook-ization of "This Must Be the Place," husband-and-wife cabaret stars John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey's recent show opens with a duet/medley of "TMBTP" and the Beatles' "Two of Us."

I voted 'slippery people,' but pretty much love 91% of this album.

Was never a huge fan of this band but I can never turn off "Burning Down The House" when it comes on. One of the most aggressively weird-sounding singles of its time.

i still can't stop imagining Tom Jones when I hear that song, hence why I just can't parse it.

In the continuing Great-American-Songbook-ization of "This Must Be the Place," husband-and-wife cabaret stars John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey's recent show opens with a duet/medley of "TMBTP" and the Beatles' "Two of Us."

this album does have a heavy pop sound, really like it.

i did a show a while back where one of our opening bands busted out "This Must Be The Place," their cover was pretty good so i couldn't really be like UGH WHAT A CLICHE. also, the song was on my own damn wedding playlist so i can't really knock it as an alt wedding staple.

I've never been to an alt.wedding.

i don't think i have really, either, mine was pretty trad and square aside from parts of my playlist

its weird that the SMS versions of all of these are all better

SMS is horrible, wtf is with these defenders of those awful overdubbed drums & etc. I vastly prefer the dry, meticulous Eno-less sound of the studio versions.

sorry

ha, no problem. I also have personal beef w/that record cause there was a point in the 90's where every baby boomer I knew thought that rec was like the coolest thing ever, and they also liked Sting, so there's some guilt by association there.

90s boomers otm

In the continuing Great-American-Songbook-ization of "This Must Be the Place," husband-and-wife cabaret stars John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey's recent show opens with a duet/medley of "TMBTP" and the Beatles' "Two of Us."

Wait when did this happen? Were you there to see it? Really like their Jon Hendricks/Sondheim medley, "Cloudburst/Getting Married Today"

In fact, they used the "Cloudburst/Getting Married Today" alternating-verses template for this medley too--Jessica's "This Must Be the Place" alternating with John's "Two of Us."

I saw them last fall in South Orange, NJ; Mom (a total Pizzarelli fangirl) and Dad had an extra ticket. I enjoyed the set more than I expected because it wasn't all standards; they did a lot of singer-songwriter material--Paul Simon ("Hearts and Bones"), Joni Mitchell (John: "Free Man in Paris", Jessica: "The Circle Game"), Billy Joel ("Rosalinda's Eyes")--alongside the Sondheim and Jobim.

if you listen to the Saratoga bootleg from the same tour, it has to be said that the band really did sound a lot like the movie and the overdubs are pretty minimal; more for added beef and rectifying mistakes than owt else. they were tight as fuck.

the live versions get me so pumpde and stoked. the studio versions are sedate and sound like buttholes that were made by sleepy people in a gross basement, but not in a cool way. i dont know what the words overdubbed, dry, meticulous, eno and studio mean

classic ade

u guys are 2 of my faves but I cannot get with you on this one. SMS is where the cracks appear, it's their New Jersey. gimme the bootlegs any day. I saw the tour and they were amazing, yes, but I don't think the record captures anything except Byrne's perfectionism. I'd be curious to know what the band members think about it in hindsight. maybe I should check out the movie, it might warm my cold dead heart.

ok if you haven't seen the movie, do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to youtube

No! Get the dvd, see it properly. Build your own cinema even.

"I Get Wild" needs more luv

love this album, prefer it to the SMS soundtrack (which is great, don't get me wrong). see little creatures and the true stories soundtrack as the NJ-style cracking point, though i have a lot of fondness for the former.

anyway, "burning down the house" for nostalgic reasons as much as anything else. was the first pop song i really tried to figure out, hunched over the tape deck with my finger on the rewind button, playing lines over and over again so i could transcribe them. didn't make much more sense after i was done.

voted for "moon rocks" because it's not reproduced on SMS and it's about eating moon rocks

"my tummy starts to talk"

swamp a close contender for evil cab calloway and for ALL THAT BLOOD... WILL NEVER COVER THAT MESS

yeah, swamp is great. great, funky-ass synth work, which i mostly attribute to worrell (perhaps unfairly).

great/great

"I Get Wild" needs more luv

It's amazing

See this album has everything - reggae, jump blues, funk, big pop numbers - songwriting-wise I'd say their most adventurous

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the loss of Eno is really felt in the generally flatter/thinner production, but Byrne compensates by demonstrating a more developed mastery of conventional song structures and well-deployed vocal melodies. A majority of the songs on SiT have more memorable choruses and sing-along-able call and response bits than those on RiL, but RiL on the whole SOUNDS better.

SMS is horrible, wtf is with these defenders of those awful overdubbed drums & etc. I vastly prefer the dry, meticulous Eno-less sound of the studio versions.

love this album, prefer it to the SMS soundtrack (which is great, don't get me wrong). see little creatures and the true stories soundtrack as the NJ-style cracking point, though i have a lot of fondness for the former.

This is spot on -- so is Xgau on both:

Speaking in Tongues [Sire, 1983]
With Eno departed, the polyrhythms no longer seem so portentous--this funk is quirkily comfortable, like the Byrne-produced B-52's or the three-piece of Byrne's earlier primitivist period. Unfortunately, the polyrhythms no longer seem so meaningful, either. Though God knows there's no rock and roll rule that says playfulness can't signify all by itself, the disjoint opacity of the lyrics fails to conceal Byrne's confusion about what it all means. Yet side two lights me up nevertheless, sandwiching the purest anticapitalist song he's ever written and the purest prolove song he's ever written around two pieces of typically ironic-optimistic futurism. A-

Stop Making Sense [Sire, 1984]
Always skeptical of live albums, I note that this is their second in a four-year period that has netted only one studio job while establishing them as a world-class live band. Number one was a useful overview; number two is a soundtrack, albeit for the finest concert film I've ever seen, that repeats three songs from the overview and four from the studio job. Buy the video. B+

Upon rapid reflection, "Slippery People" for me, tho "Making Flippy Floppy" made it a race.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

good christ

Weak saice

Or sauce even.

go Pull Up The Roots! best TH 'deep cut' ever.

no that would be "Creatures of Love" or "The Good Thing."