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Every Talking Heads album feels equally like an ending and a beginning. With the possible exception of their first and last few albums, none of their releases seem surmountable. How could they top "More Songs About Buildings and Food?" With "Fear of Music." And how could they possibly top that album? With "Remain in Light." They kept re-inventing themselves to such a fervent extreme that no one could possibly predict the next progression. "Remain in Light" seemed like the culmination of aggregating afro-rock and western pop with enlightened stream of consciousness. How would they top that? Some may argue that the follow up to "Remain in Light," arguably their most critcally acclaimed album, doesn't completely measure up. "Speaking in Tongues," released three years later, fully embraced synth pop and the same electrified african rhythms that graced its predecessor. But it contains a different and more subdued kind of energy, not quite as explosive as "Born Under Punches" or "Once in a Lifetime," but a more accessible and subversively quirky aura that feels murkily spontaneous despite its very precise electronic rhythms and sound. It somehow managed to make the Talking Heads a household name while simultaneously solidifying both their artistic and commercial aspirations. Even today it still sounds equally popular and subversive with lines such as "and I don't know what you expect staring into the TV set" and "our president's crazy, did you hear what he said?" "Burning Down the House," a massive hit in its day, now defines the band for the mass of people who tilt their cochleas towards popular music sources. One can still hear the song vibrating air molucules out in the great big world over thirty years later. The elliptical but addictive music video found voluminous play on the then only two years old MTV (which, surprising as it probably seems today, once stood for "Music Television"). At the time, this album felt like the culmination of the band's four previous albums while sounding like yet another re-invention. Its subsequent commercial success seemed well deserved. But cracks began to fracture in the foundations even before this album appeared. Following the equally successful "Stop Making Sense," which filmed the tour that supported this album and the band's final tour, not everyone appreciated what came afterwards or the sometimes puerile and openly public back stabbing between band members that ensued over the next few years.
"Speaking in Tongues" arose out of improvisation. The band sat in the studio and played together and tightened the lyrics and the music and released an album. It probably sounds far easier than the reality. This also accounts for the change in song writing credits for this album and "Remain in Light." All songs now get credited to every band member rather than just David Byrne. Byrne sang the vocals extemporaneously during the sessions and some of his original ramblings remained on the final mix. The album's title then provides an apt analogy for at least the lyrical methodology. Though the new approach and credits suggest more collaboration, the individual members had gone their separate ways during the three year gap between albums. Byrne had recorded two solo records, Frantz and Weymouth formed "The Tom Tom Club" and scored a hit of their own, and Harrison had even recorded a solo album. They finally came together again to create a fetchingly danceable album.
"Making Flippy Floppy" contains an ethereal violin solo by Shankar that reaches in and grabs something primordial. Razor slices and gurglings punctuate the incomprehensibly comprehensible lyrics of "Girlfriend is Better." The lines "we're being taken for a ride again" and "nothing was lost, everything's free, I don't care how impossible it seems" still resonate today. They may even prophetically define our current times. "Slippery People," we've all known some, includes an infectious groove and more profoundly dadaist lyrics. The skippy "This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)" seems to provide a rare bittersweet moment of consolation in the Talking Head's catalog, but something sinister bubbles beneath the surface, again revealed by the lyrics, "the less we say about it the better, make it up as we go along" and "It's okay, I know nothing's wrong, nothing." Though some genuinely touching moments peek through, such as "Out of all those kinds of people, you got a face with a view" and "and you love me till my heart stops, love me till I'm dead." A great mellow album closer.
Many of these songs received new, sometimes more frenetic, treatments for the concert film "Stop Making Sense," which may make the original albums versions feel slightly more lax for those who experience the concert before the album. The movie also featured a sampling of songs from the album, leaving some truly great tracks slightly obscured. "I Get Wild/Wild Gravity" contains a hearty mix of juicy groove. "Moon Rocks" opens with the classic line "Flying saucers, levitation, yo, I could do that" and doesn't let up through "talkin' transubstantiation, any version will do" and "Moon in the rock, rock in the moon, there's a moon in my throat." Its angular funky beat evokes the rage of "Remain in Light." One wonders just how awesome "Pull Up the Roots" would have sounded in the "Stop Making Sense" set list. The fiery chorus provides one of the most powerful moments on the entire album. Of course immensely evocative stream of consciousness lines permeate the entire number: "Well I have a good time when I go out of my mind," "towns that disappeared completely, pull up the roots, pull up the roots," "I don't mind some slight disorder" and "and I hear beautiful sounds coming outta the ground, gonna take us a while but we'll go hundreds of times."
"Stop Making Sense," the film and the soundtrack, re-invented the band yet again, but this time also visually. Sadly, things fell apart and the band never toured again. "Speaking in Tongues," though not the end by any means, does seem like the end of the heightened creative progression and innovation that evolved during their first five albums. The next two albums put Byrne back in the writer's seat exclusively and furthered the band's commercial exposure, though some critics and long time fans found the new "for the people" direction regressive, despite many admittedly strong songs. Regardless of diverse personal opinions, the Talking Heads were never the same after "Speaking in Tongues." The "bad blood" Byrne later spoke of seemed to start during "Stop Making Sense" and then climaxed a few years later as the band members openly defied and betrayed each other. One can feel some of this tension on a 1983 David Letterman appearance (now easily accessible via the new museum of television called "YouTube"). After finishing a rousing live version of "Burning Down the House" only Byrne runs forward to Letterman's desk for an interview. The remaining band members, who share equal writing credits with Byrne, fade into blackness in the background. Then Byrne appeared by himself on the cover of Time Magazine. The other band members appeared almost parenthetically on the inner pages. Then, as if to even the score, a scathing Rolling Stone article featured other band members excoriating Byrne. It was sad. Wounds that apparently won't heal continue to the present day. It happens. Regardless of depressing personal politics, no one can deny the freshness and vitality that the Talking Heads brought to popular music during their insanely provocative run on the pop music scene. Their voluminous contributions still feel unprecedented and unsurpassed today.
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It skips
I really like this album so I decided to order it. When I first played it, the opening track was skipping terribly and it was unlistenable. I set up a return on that one and in the meantime, got a replacement. when the replacement arrived and I played it, it also skipped and made the record unlistenable. As of writing this, I still have not found the time to return the first one so now I have two unlistenable copies of speaking in tongues.
