Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings And Food ( 1978)

Actually their second album, but my first of theirs, this is a very different sounding record.  Pretty rocking but combining a feeling of punk and rebellion, but also and especially in the vocals a sense both of paranoia and ordinariness.  It is Social Comment too and reflects a dissatisfaction with the boring lives of most Americans.  The band had met at Art college and became the pioneers of ‘New Wave’ music in the late Seventies and Eighties, combining all earlier forms of ‘pop’ music into a new and remarkably melodic form; catchy tunes and most important quite meaningful lyrics.  Vocalist Davis Byrne had a deadpan expression but just as important were Chis Frantz on drums and Tina Weymouth on bass and guitarist Jerry Harrisson.  The band were always innovative and looking for new sounds.  This album was their first to be produced by Brian Eno and he was an instigator and collaborator as much as a producer.   This was their breakthrough album and my favourite of theirs; it has a wholeness and fifty years later it still sounds fresh.  Best songs are ‘The Girls Want To Be With The Girls’, ‘Take Me To The River’ and @The Big Country’.