Talking Heads - 'Best Of' (Sire)
4/5
By: Toby L
Dogs Die In Hot Cars. Scissor Sisters. The Zutons. Hot Hot Heat. The Futureheads. Stellastarr*.
No, Talking Heads pioneered being a freak in music long before our present gang o' contemporaries. Offbeat, off-kilter, off-the-beaten-track, new wave, only slightly-post-US-punk fluidity, with groove, dashings of soul, and - in David Byrne - an unrivalled, seventies/eighties eccentricity that forged intelligent arrangements in Pop becoming The Done Thing. Commend them for it.
There was also an air of anything being on the agenda. Certainly, perusing the latest cash-in, tax-paying 'Best Of' suggests this. Even today, Talking Heads sound pathetically awry. And it's a charm. After an original eleven years in music-craft, the result being ten albums (prolific as sin, in others words), their mark resides to this day - untainted, gripping, and menacingly infectious.
The creeping organ-thrust of 'Take Me To The River' - 'Psycho Killer's enthralling rasp - the yelping desperation of 'Found A Job' - still-marvelling, spoken-word/anthemery of 'Once In A Lifetime' - ferocious combustion of 'Burning Down The House' (forget the fact Tom Jones once covered it, and you'll be alright) - and belligerent wooziness of 'Road To Nowhere'. All: charismatic, shamelessly camp, and deeply subversive splices of unquestionably influential chart-bothering.
For those already accustomed and awaiting a touch more obscurity (you hipsters, you), however, the inspired inclusions of matter numbering the 'Rock The Casbah'-paced (and still-relevant) 'Life During Wartime' or rolling, country twangs of 'Heaven' should provide cause for merriment, while the casuals will probably prefer the drunken revelry to be afforded to the scuffling rockabilly of 'And She Was', or latter-day hi-jinks of 'Wild Wild Life'.
Whichever the preference, though - obscure, or allure - testament to the NYC force, the endurance lives on. Those namechecked earlier will certainly vouch for that.
Artists in this article: Talking Heads
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