#39 Talking Heads, 'Remain in Light' (1980)

Previously #129

Quite a jump for Talking Heads’ fourth record and widely considered magnum opus, ‘Remain In Light.’ This was their final release to produced by Brian Eno and this album is as much his as it is the band’s. It just reeks of Eno! Following the tour supporting ‘Fear Of Music,’ the band took a bit of time off to regroup. Married couple and rhythm section of the band, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth had grown disillusioned with just being David Byrne’s backing band. Eno, too, was over working with the band. Eno’s mind changed when he heard the instrumental jams the band had demoed following their short break. They had templated their new sound on Fela Kuti’s ‘Afrodisiac,’ and also took their cues from the new genre of Hip Hop

Inspired by African music, the music is structured more around rhythms than it is multiple chords, often only using one chord in a song. The band would record jams, identify and isolate sections and learn to play them over and over as sort of human sampling machines as this pre-dated computers being able to perform this function adequately. Byrne’s lyrics are stream of consciousness, as inspired by Hip Hop, while not quite rapping. A form of rapping, I guess. The album broke new ground in its day, it was completely different to anything else being released by Rock/New Wave bands at the time. It brought African music into Western mainstream consciousness and spawned the massive hit, ‘Once In A Lifetime.’ Even to this day, Byrne continues to be innovative and interesting. An artist well ahead of his time, as is this record.

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