5 ms·

I'm exactly the opposite, I think they jumped the shark after this album .. ;)

nobody9999 3y ago
>I'm exactly the opposite, I think they jumped the shark after this album .. ;) I don't know about that, While Stop Making Sense was brilliant, Naked[0] is a pretty darn good album too. And their older stuff is somewhat hit or miss, e.g., More Songs About Buildings and Food[2] and Speaking in Tongues[3] had bright spots, but also some crappy songs too. But Fear of Music[1] is mostly spot on, IMHO. I'm pretty excited about the re-release, as it's a fabulous album and an excellent movie (right up there with The Last Waltz[4] and other concert movies) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_(Talking_Heads_album) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_(Talking_Heads_album) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_Music [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Songs_About_Buildings_and_Food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Songs_About_Buildings_and... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_in_Tongues_(Talking_Heads_album) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_in_Tongues_(Talking_H... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Waltz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Waltz
- P_I_Staker 3y ago
  Aren't most of those before "the album" (Stop Making Sense)? Only Little Creatures, True Stories, and Naked really came after. All of these albums have their moments, but there's an argument that the quality is in the early years, and later on they didn't have "full album quality". > Speaking in Tongues[3] had bright spots, but also some crappy songs too I was shocked by this statement, and looked back at the track list. I only found one song that I didn't remember as top notch. Their early albums were known for being great from start to finish, but this is an insanely high bar for an album. Many talented artists never get one album like that. They certainly go for years and years, decades even, releasing albums with 1-3 good songs. I feel like there's quite a large number that only release one good song for album, and basically seem to know it.
  - nobody9999 3y ago
    >I was shocked by this statement, and looked back at the track list. I only found one song that I didn't remember as top notch. I hope my assessment didn't cause a myocardial infarction. I'm a big fan of Talking Heads and have been for at least forty years. As for Speaking in Tongues, except for Girlfriend Is Better, Making Flippy Floppy and This Must Be The Place, the rest is rather pedestrian IMHO. That said, I'm sure our tastes differ somewhat and that's great. Life would be really boring if we all liked the same things the same amount. That said, my comment was mostly responding to GP's comment[0] that said: "I'm exactly the opposite, I think they jumped the shark after this album .. ;)" They were referring to Stop Making Sense of course. And I just wanted to point out that, at least IMHO, the band's trajectory didn't follow that path. I'm sure that reasonable people can disagree. And, shockingly, we do. I'm glad we're having this conversation, as it encourages me to go listen to more Talking Heads. Thanks for that! [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37609786 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37609786
    - eweise 3y ago
      You've set the bar pretty high if Burning Down the House is rather pedestrian. I can't think of another funk album that is stronger than this all the way through.
      - HelloMcFly 3y ago
        Completely agree, I almost couldn't believe Burning Down the House would be described that way. BdtH is an absolute 10/10 banger for me, it adds color to my day when I hear. That, Girlfriend is Better and This Must be the Place are my favorite three Talking Heads songs, though I love most of their work.
        P_I_Staker 3y ago
        Even the filler is contributes to the spirit of the album, and is quite pleasant. The whole album has a sound and a feel that is quite distinctive stylistically. This is the kind of stuff musicians dream of creating.
- pjmorris 3y ago
  Anecdata of one: In my most recent (~5-6 years ago) TH phase, I listened to all the albums multiple times (one nice thing about streaming services) but the ones I kept coming back to were 'Fear of Music', 'Remain in Light', and, thirdly, 'Speaking in Tongues.' For me it's a coin-flip between FoM and RiL as their best album front-to-back. Hoping to catch the movie while it's playing again.
  - bullfightonmars 3y ago
    Don’t sleep on Little Creatures. That and Remain in Light have been my gotos for TH. I have also been deeply taken by David Byrne’s solo albums Growm Backwards and Everything that Happens have some really great tracks.
MontgomeryPi2 3y ago
Agreed. Peak studio album was Speaking in Tongues imho. I remember seeing Stop Making Sense at the theater originally and it had everyone dancing in the ailses (hadn't seen that before nor since).

>I'm exactly the opposite, I think they jumped the shark after this album .. ;) I don't know about that, While Stop Making Sense was brilliant, Naked[0] is a pretty darn good album too. And their older stuff is somewhat hit or miss, e.g., More Songs About Buildings and Food[2] and Speaking in Tongues[3] had bright spots, but also some crappy songs too. But Fear of Music[1] is mostly spot on, IMHO. I'm pretty excited about the re-release, as it's a fabulous album and an excellent movie (right up there with The Last Waltz[4] and other concert movies) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_(Talking_Heads_album) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_(Talking_Heads_album) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_Music [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Songs_About_Buildings_and_Food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Songs_About_Buildings_and... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_in_Tongues_(Talking_Heads_album) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_in_Tongues_(Talking_H... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Waltz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Waltz

P_I_Staker 3y ago
Aren't most of those before "the album" (Stop Making Sense)? Only Little Creatures, True Stories, and Naked really came after. All of these albums have their moments, but there's an argument that the quality is in the early years, and later on they didn't have "full album quality". > Speaking in Tongues[3] had bright spots, but also some crappy songs too I was shocked by this statement, and looked back at the track list. I only found one song that I didn't remember as top notch. Their early albums were known for being great from start to finish, but this is an insanely high bar for an album. Many talented artists never get one album like that. They certainly go for years and years, decades even, releasing albums with 1-3 good songs. I feel like there's quite a large number that only release one good song for album, and basically seem to know it.
- nobody9999 3y ago
  >I was shocked by this statement, and looked back at the track list. I only found one song that I didn't remember as top notch. I hope my assessment didn't cause a myocardial infarction. I'm a big fan of Talking Heads and have been for at least forty years. As for Speaking in Tongues, except for Girlfriend Is Better, Making Flippy Floppy and This Must Be The Place, the rest is rather pedestrian IMHO. That said, I'm sure our tastes differ somewhat and that's great. Life would be really boring if we all liked the same things the same amount. That said, my comment was mostly responding to GP's comment[0] that said: "I'm exactly the opposite, I think they jumped the shark after this album .. ;)" They were referring to Stop Making Sense of course. And I just wanted to point out that, at least IMHO, the band's trajectory didn't follow that path. I'm sure that reasonable people can disagree. And, shockingly, we do. I'm glad we're having this conversation, as it encourages me to go listen to more Talking Heads. Thanks for that! [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37609786 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37609786
  - eweise 3y ago
    You've set the bar pretty high if Burning Down the House is rather pedestrian. I can't think of another funk album that is stronger than this all the way through.
    - HelloMcFly 3y ago
      Completely agree, I almost couldn't believe Burning Down the House would be described that way. BdtH is an absolute 10/10 banger for me, it adds color to my day when I hear. That, Girlfriend is Better and This Must be the Place are my favorite three Talking Heads songs, though I love most of their work.
      - P_I_Staker 3y ago
        Even the filler is contributes to the spirit of the album, and is quite pleasant. The whole album has a sound and a feel that is quite distinctive stylistically. This is the kind of stuff musicians dream of creating.
pjmorris 3y ago
Anecdata of one: In my most recent (~5-6 years ago) TH phase, I listened to all the albums multiple times (one nice thing about streaming services) but the ones I kept coming back to were 'Fear of Music', 'Remain in Light', and, thirdly, 'Speaking in Tongues.' For me it's a coin-flip between FoM and RiL as their best album front-to-back. Hoping to catch the movie while it's playing again.
- bullfightonmars 3y ago
  Don’t sleep on Little Creatures. That and Remain in Light have been my gotos for TH. I have also been deeply taken by David Byrne’s solo albums Growm Backwards and Everything that Happens have some really great tracks.

MontgomeryPi2 3y ago

Agreed. Peak studio album was Speaking in Tongues imho. I remember seeing Stop Making Sense at the theater originally and it had everyone dancing in the ailses (hadn't seen that before nor since).