FEAR OF MUSIC

To me, Talking Heads have always been a band that is fascinating. I have always found their music to be groundbreaking in a sense that they were taking the so called "new wave" music to a higher level. Unfortunately, a lot of bands at that time could not follow in their footsteps. They were stretching the boundaries of the music that would become popular in the 80s, and they took a lot of their inspiration seemingly from Bowie and Ferry. With the help of Brian Eno, they elevated their sound above and beyond the cookie cutter sound that the bands of that era were trying to make, usually only ending up with one song that would become a hit and then falling into obscurity.

There is a lot of people that would argue about their inclusion on the Archives. But those that say TH (and many others) don't belong here are not really understanding what the sub genre is that they are put under which is Prog Related. That term means that they are not prog, but they have some relationship to progressive music because of certain band members or because of the influence they had on progressive bands (and there is a long list of other reasons if you read the definition...click on the link in the PA header labeled in yellow "Prog Related" and you'll better understand why they and many other bands are included on PA).

So most of us know how TH is related to prog, but for those that don't just know that Adrian Belew played with TH for a while. He played for Frank Zappa for a short time (during the "Shiek Yerbouti" years) and with King Crimson for many years. Speaking of King Crimson, Robert Fripp (KCs creator and amazing guitarist) plays on this album, namely on "I Zimbra" which is the opener. This is a spirited opener with the rhythms based on a tribal rhythm which David Byrne would go on to explore more later. To me, the best TH songs are the ones with the straightforward "disco-like" beat. Now, I hate disco, I just want to make that clear. But it is those songs that I like best from TH. This particular album is built upon disco influenced rhythms and cinematic themescapes. But TH has been considered by many to be the anti-disco band, so go figure. I think the attractive thing to me is like I said previously, that they built upon the sounds that were prevalent at the time.

This particular album is pretty good, but has very little progressive music in it, so don't expect that. But you will hear some original sounds and timbres and explorations. This is what makes the band fascinating to me. They took quite a risk with messing around with the popular sound of their day, but it worked for them. They are one of the few really respected "new wave" movement bands that are around and currently still respected. When I find a band that beats the odds like this, I am interested in what made them that way. This shows a lot more in this album as TH searches and in this album, finds their sound. The originality and the way the pushed the barriers of the 80s new wave movement gives me respect for them. I don't consider them one of my favorites, but I do respect them and enjoy their upbeat music (especially the live album "Stop Making Sense") when I am in that kind of mood. Overall, I can't really seem to give this album more the 3 stars even though there are a few excellent songs here, I tend to lose interest in the album before it reaches the last 3 or 4 songs. It always starts strong for me, but weakens through the last half of the album.