FEAR OF MUSIC

"I Zimbra" immediately gives any TH enthusaist the clue that their sound was a new one. Sure it is probably the most different track on the album but it definitely set the trend with strong percussion arrangements for the following two studio albums.

Fear Of Music was a very bold move by the band, a catalyst for their best future works to reach fruition and many will say that this is their best album. Hard to argue really although this reviewer feels that while it is an incredible work a couple of songs let the album down just a little. Namely the minimialist " Drugs", if ever there was a song to put you off drugs, this may have been it, I always felt Byrne did not need any anyway :-) and the mess around " Paper", which although has inane lyrics they are true! The album bears the characteristic of great crossover themes and some excellent guitar contributions from Robert Fripp. The albums reminds me at times of a nasty dog snarling and gnashing it's teeth trying to get up on all fours, it definitely has a dark side and it lies smack bang in the middle of TH's musical evolution or in this case, revolution. " Heaven" has some awesome lyrics like .." Heaven is a place, where nothing, nothing ever happens...", " Cities" one of the highlights showing that being urban is cool so get over it " Animals" a tongue in cheek below the belt aim at human behaviors again.' Air" has some great vocals by Tina Weymouth too and " Life During Wartime" it a classic TH release.

If you had the vinyl version it also came with a live 45' of " Cities", which became one of their biggest hits of the record. An excellent album, not quite their best but none of their best works would have happened had this monster not been released.