Talking Heads #3- Stop Making Sense (Live)

Stop Making Sense- 1984

Rating: 13

Hi. I got an album I wanna review.

Best Song: Crosseyed And Painless

Worst Song: Genius of Love (Tom Tom Club)

             This album just continues to drive home the point that the Talking Heads are spectacular when they are live. I mean, the studio albums can be really great, but I think they truly shine on their live albums. For instance, this one and The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads are probably among my favorite live albums. Although this one is technically the audio from the concert movie (that is excellent as well, by the way), it still counts as a live album to me.

Anyway, on the Talking Heads live albums, sometimes they do different renditions of their songs. Sometimes they add more energy to it, expand sections, make them faster (ELP did this as well a lot on WBMFTTSTNE: LAGELP), and other ideas. Also, Byrne's singing can vary just due to how interesting and amusing he can be to listen to, so each rendition is uniquely different.

For example, this album opens with "Psycho Killer", except it features David Byrne just saying, "Hi. I've got a tape I wanna play," before a beat comes in and he just plays guitar and sings. It is a fascinating rendition of the song that really pays off, and little touches like that make Talking Heads live albums so great: They aren't just the same renditions live, and actually have little different touches. "Heaven", which comes after "Psycho Killer", also just has guitar (as well as bass I believe) and a female singer backing Byrne up. I'm not quite sure if it is better than the original (as they both get across the monotonous, never-ending idea of heaven shown in the lyrics), but for the sake of variety, it is quite nice to hear.

"Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" has a lot of energy that the original had, but I think this live version is a little better just for how raw and pure the sound and singing sounds. Either way, both versions sound great. "Found a Job" comes after it, which honestly has never been one of my favorite tracks. It is played pretty standard here with not much variation on the original track, but since that original song is still pretty great, I have no problem here. Personally, the album starts to kick in even more once they get to the material from Speaking In Tongues (which was the album before this one). "Slippery People" is a significant improvement over the original just on the amount of energy put into it. That brilliant part where the instruments cut out closer to the end of the song just for the singers to yell their words yet still sound amazing was definitely the highlight, as it is wonderfully engaging.

"Burning Down the House" is pretty much as good as the studio version, and I honestly don't have much to say about it. It is a great rendition of a great song, and while it is a little faster, I don't think it really improves on the material much or really adds too much new. Either way, I enjoy it. "Life During Wartime", however, is a lot more keyboard-based, which I actually do like. I still think I may prefer the version on The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads just because it was a bit more solid and I wasn't a big fan of the keyboard solo on this version, but I still think this song worked really well while still bringing something new. The part where a lot of the noise cut away, like "Slippery People", was probably my favorite moment just because I find those absences and sudden changes very interesting to hear. "Making Flippy Floppy", which I feel is a bit overlong on Speaking In Tongues, gets sped up a little with improved vocals and is shorter by over a minute. Therefore, I definitely think this version is marginally better than the one on that album, even if the song still isn't exactly a great classic. "Swamp", on the other hand, is one I found myself really getting into on Speaking In Tongues, and the same goes for this album. The vocals are a little different than the ones on that studio version, but they are still quite similar so there isn't much to say here. Great rendition, sounds like the studio one, I like the song a lot, moving on.

"What a Day That Was (Live Edit)" apparently comes from a David Byrne studio album, and I surprisingly like this song a lot. Maybe on the album it is weaker (as it probably lacks some of the power and energy displayed here), but here it sounds pretty good. My only gripe is that it could have been a little shorter, but no matter that, it has piqued my interest in Byrne's solo work. Following that up with one of my favorites from Speaking In Tongues, "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" elevates beyond the original studio version by just seeming a lot tighter. The instrument playing seems more confident (for good reason, as the one on Speaking In Tongues was the song in which all the members of the band played different, uncomfortable instruments), but what really sold it for me were the vocal performances. They are just incredible and the melodies are perfect. The choruses sound magnificent, honestly. Also, I prefer this ending where the singers repeat the "ooh" lyric rather than just David Byrne singing it once before it kind of awkwardly plays for a bit before fading out. Anyway, this is a lovely version that can only be matched by an amusing version of "Once In a Lifetime". As per usual on this album, it places emphasis on keyboards. It has plenty of momentum and raw power to it, but I do kind of feel that later on the keyboards kind of drown a lot of noise out towards the end of the song, so I prefer the The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads version more.

This album might have received a 14  if the rest of the album went so smoothly with only a couple other little things, but unfortunately, "Genius of Love" by the Tom Tom Club had to come in (as Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz founded it as a side-project) and contribute a really terrible song. Yeah, this song is awful, cheesy, dated 80's crap. The singing is pretty poor, the lyrics are cringe-worthy, and it doesn't even really have a good beat to dance to. Fortunately, they go through "Girlfriend Is Better" and "Take Me to the River" in order to restore order. Neither are spectacular renditions (I'd actually say the version of "Take Me to the River" is a lot weaker than the studio one), but they are much better than the unspeakably bad Tom Tom Club song so it isn't a big problem at all really.

Fortunately, they saved the best for last. "Crosseyed And Painless" starts off with a really cool, slower groove version of the song before it goes insane. I mean, literally insane. It goes incredibly fast, but what sells it all is the electric guitar screeching. Honestly, I love Adrian Belew and I believe he played live with them on The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, but whoever plays guitar here just knocked it out of the park. However, the fast pace allows the most extreme ENERGY to emote from the band and Byrne. Byrne kills the vocals, particularly the semi-rap section that he does with alarming and impressive speed. It concludes this live album with a huge bang, and I can't imagine it ending any other way.

In total, this is one of my favorite live albums and although I gave it a 13, it is the highest possible 13 I can give it (so yes, it is better than Works Live). Enjoy it, watch the movie, and have fun, because there is plenty of things to have fun with here.

Talking Heads #2- Little Creatures

Little Creatures- 1985
Rating: 12
Accordions finally put to good use
Best Song: Road To Nowhere or Television Man
Worst Song: Creatures Of Love

           Well, I'm rather surprised. This whole album is surprisingly upbeat (for the Talking Heads). I mean, it has a couple songs with darker lyrics, but even those songs sound cheerful enough. Regardless, it calls back to the simpler times of the first Talking Heads album, and since I love that album, I have no problem with this one.

The song on here that everybody seems to know is "And She Was", which definitely deserves it. The focus is a little bit less on the beat itself than previous albums (and Naked), which works well because this song stands very well by itself. The chorus is catchy, the singing is still quite like Byrne but not too insane, and even without the focus on the beat, not grooving or dancing to it is close to impossible (still possible though; a couple later songs are definitely impossible). "Give Me Back My Name" doesn't evoke the same thing and is much weaker than the previous song, but I still find some enjoyment in it. The pure sound of it adds a lot of atmosphere, even though I think that the tune isn't actually that memorable.

Unfortunately, we do reach a lower point after that, but even then, it is a pretty decent low-point. "Creatures Of Love" is not a bad song, as it has a good chorus part and the lyrics are kind of clever (even if they sound initially a little stupid). It just has a very country-like feel that I don't really like that much. However, it is still okay due to that chorus as well as great playing, just in a style I'm not a big fan of. "The Lady Don't Mind" brings everything back to the quality of the first song though by having an amazingly catchy choruses, but still remembering to make the verses interesting. The beat actually does have a lot of focus on the song, so it ends up working quite nicely. Also, the horn section helps give the whole song a more unique feel. "Perfect World" is also great in a different way, with the chorus using an interesting keyboard sound to draw listeners in before going back to the groove of the beat throughout the verses. It may help in addition that Byrne makes more weird vocal noises before returning to the verses sometimes. They don't really add too much in actuality, but they are in the song so might as well mention it.

"Stay Up Late" follows, which has really dumb lyrics (not the beginning of "The Facts Of Life" bad still though), but is much too catchy and fun to not be at good. Nothing great, but I still like it. "Walk It Down", on the other hand, has good lyrics and an excellent groove through the verse, but I'm not a big fan of the chorus. It just doesn't really sound that great and isn't very memorable, but since that song still has likable elements, I still consider it above average. 

However, compared to all of those songs, the last two songs are what really cement the rating of 12. "Television Man" not only has a great beat, not only keeps the interest of the listener throughout the verses, and not only has catchy choruses, but also manages to go two minutes into the song before almost abandoned the early, pretty good segments to go into perhaps the catchiest and definitely most energetic segment on this whole album. Once Byrne starts the "Na na na NA na na..." part, the song truly rocks and even once that part goes away, the song just builds and builds up to this amazing ending. Honestly, it is fairly incredible until you hear the song after it, "Road To Nowhere". It takes the instrument of the accordion and actually makes it sound good, no joke. Really, after an amusing vocal-only introduction, the accordions really kind of dominate this song and add to the wonderful singing throughout the verses and choruses. I'd probably say the lyrics are the strongest on the album, and, a bit like the song before it, it ditches the verses and chorus structure in order to just move onto another ridiculously catchy segment ("There's a city in my mind..." and on) as, once again, the song builds up to a phenomenal ending before the instruments cut out and they sing, "We're on a road to nowhere" one more time. I consider it the best ending track of all the other ending tracks on the other Talking Heads studio albums, and for very good reason.

So, in total summation of everything, this album has mediocre songs and some weaker spots, but completely makes up for it with some fantastic, very catchy tracks to balance things out.

Talking Heads #1- Naked

Naked- 1988

Rating: 9

Chilly, chilly-willy

Best Song: (Nothing But) Flowers or Mr. Jones

Worst Song: The Facts of Life

             I'll explain "Chilly, chilly-willy" later, because it does actually tie in to one of my problems with this album. For now, I'll say that as far as final albums go, this isn't a bad one. It has a bit of a reputation as being not very good, but to be honest, I found a lot of merit in some of these songs. Some of the others ones, not so much.

Apparently David Byrne did spend a lot of time on this album, which is a little surprising, as there aren't exactly many songs on here that could compare to some of the tracks on earlier works such as Remain in Light or Fear of Music. Regardless, the first song, "Blind", grew on me quite a bit. At first, I was kind of annoyed by the fact that it wasn't too much like the Talking Heads and how Byrne kept yelling, "BLIND! BLIND! BLIND, BLIND, BLIND, BLIND, BLIND!" throughout a large majority of it, but as I am a huge fan of Byrne and his vocals, I did grow more accustomed to it. The playing of the instruments themselves is well-done, and the verses/choruses are memorable enough, working in their own right. Nothing really amazing, but I'd consider good. It happens to be outdone by the next song, "Mr. Jones". It is probably less like the Talking Heads than the previous song, but I find the overall vibe and a great chorus really make this song quite great. Byrne's singing is also a bit more normal (for Byrne, that is) than the previous song. It kind of has a salsa feel (especially with the horn section being there), and while it probably isn't for everybody, I thought it was an excellent idea.

"Totally Nude" has an almost Hawaiian feel to it, but if you can get past some more mediocre lyrics ("Nature boy, nature man, take me along" always sounds a little weird to me), you might enjoy it. Nothing really too great, but good if you take it for what it is. "Ruby Dear" isn't too memorable, but does have some interesting playing and a decent chorus. I'd consider it the weakest of the first four songs (well, actually maybe first six, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it). After that is my other favorite from the album, "(Nothing But) Flowers", which was released as a single from this album (as well as "Blind"). The lyrics are kinda silly, but to be honest, I can't say that are exactly stupid. They are still kind of clever and the idea behind the song (in which a man living in the modern world wakes up in a world of nature and reminiscences of all the fast-food and other places he loved) is quite creative. Also, it helps that the chorus is the best on the album (as well as the bridge before it). Of course, following it with "The Democratic Circus" wasn't the best idea, but I still find enjoyment in it. It has a bit of an atmosphere, but I feel it starts a little too slow and it isn't until a little more than two minutes in when I really start to like it a lot. Byrne demonstrates more brilliant singing, by the way.

Unfortunately, as good/decent as all of those songs were, "The Facts of Life" had to appear to ruin it. This song has a bad reputation, and I'm not going to defend it. The beginning synth line gets annoying, Byrne's singing towards the second half is falsetto and not very nice to listen to. The chorus (?) isn't even really defined and only slightly better than the verses. One of my big problems is that the song is so slow that you can't even find some enjoyment dancing or grooving to it unless you are a huge fan of really, really slow beats. I also take problem with the lyrics, particularly right at the beginning, in which Byrne sings:

"Mon-key-see and mon-key-do

Ma-king ba-bies, ea-ting food

Smel ly things, pu bic hair

Words of lo ve, in the air." 

I'm sorry, but these are just stupid lyrics that I can't imagine singing. Do you ever think you will wake up singing a line such as, "smelly things, pubic hair"? Of course not, because that would be really dumb. The lyrics improve a bit later on, but that beginning is just cringe-worthy, and this is a problem consistent throughout several songs on this album (such as "Totally Nude" from earlier). In addition, the drumming is robotic, and while the second half is slightly better, it isn't enough to save the song at all.

However, "Mommy Daddy You and I" makes up for it a little bit by having a really good chorus. Of course, it still has the line, "Chilly... chilly willy", but because I think the song grooves well by itself (I actually think the accordion helps drive the song, reminds me of "Road to Nowhere" from Little Creatures a bit), I can disregard it. "Big Daddy", however, isn't quite so good. The lyrics are rather below average (although not quite the beginning of "The Facts of Life" bad), and while it does kind of groove, it goes on too long that I get tired of it by the end. It doesn't help that "Bill", which follows it, is completely forgettable. It isn't memorable, but it also isn't bad, so I suppose it just sits in the mediocre middle. Fortunately, I believe "Cool Water" sort of makes up for some of the flaws. It takes a little too long to build up, but I feel that once it reaches the peak, it works nicely. Byrne sings well, and while the verses aren't great, the chorus actually works well when all the instruments come in towards the end. I see a lot of people who aren't fans of this song, which kind of surprises me, as I view it as a pretty good way to end the album.

So, despite the flaws, is Naked a great album? No, but I'd consider it above average still. I find a lot of songs in the good range, with some of the mediocre ones and one pretty bad one dragging it down. To be honest, if you are a fan of the Talking Heads, I'd still say to check this one out after you've checked out their other albums. You might surprise yourself.

Introduction to Talking Heads

Back to reviewing albums, but this time, I think I'll move on from ELP. I've reviewed all the albums from their classic period, and while I could go on to Emerson, Lake, and Powell or maybe their two-album reunion, not only are those albums not exactly great or good, but a bit of a waste. The classic ELP line-up and albums will always be my favorite, and I'd much rather review and take a look at those albums than anything that came afterwards.

Therefore, with that out of the way, I can move onto the Talking Heads, another one of my personal favorite bands. A lot different from ELP, they are led by David Byrne, who has a very unique vocal style that I don't really know of any other singers who are like him. Regardless, it was him who gave the band a lot of personality. It also helps that he could actually sing quite well.

Of course, we also have Chris Frantz on drums, Jerry Harrison on guitar/keyboards, and Tina Weymouth on bass. They sometimes get a little overlooked (likely overshadowed by Byrne being a bit of an enigma), but they all contribute towards the band's overall efforts anyway.

The interesting thing I will do when reviewing their albums is start backwards (skipping True Stories, as that was more of a soundtrack and the only album by them I don't own). Therefore, the first review will be of Naked, then Little Creatures, then Stop Making Sense (Live Album), and so on. Enjoy.