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.