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.
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