Talking Heads - Talking Heads: Fear of Music
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Free Music Notes for Talking Heads: Fear of Music
Free Music Review: The 5.1 mix, I fear, is not the genuine article
Hit: 4 Stars
"Gestalt": "A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts."
Everybody who already knows that this is a great album already knows that this is a great album.
I just want to fire off a warning to potential buyers, however: the 5.1 mix restores startling clarity to individual instruments, but stymies the overall impact of the complete songs, which Brian Eno sculpted into their definitive form in 1979.
Not only is there a hard to define difference in "Feel" to the tracks, but some Eno embellishments (I dare say MOST Eno embellishments) have been left entirely out of the 5.1 equation (Some omissions are as shockingly obvious as the absence of bird song leading into "Drugs").
Some parts of the arrangements that Eno fittingly pushed to the background, or "flattened" so as to render them textural, find their way back to the foreground. As far as I can tell, they find their way back just "because": just "because" we have the technology, just "because" such technological advances invariably make us hunger for purer and purer detail at the expense, in this case, of a unique and particular artistic vision.
In other words, I seriously doubt that "make sure that every nuance of every instrument is equally pronounced at every moment" was high on Eno's list of aesthetic concerns. "Composition" entails arranging disparate parts into a harmonious whole.
So know this: if you'd dropped by Frantz's and Weymouth's loft on the two Sundays in 1979 on which the album was recorded, essentially live we are told, the 5.1 might well replicate that experience.
But this mix is simply not "Fear of Music".
Free Music Review: Mastering Great, but can't play it well on my iMac or CD Player
Hit: 4 Stars
Nice job with the mastering. The fat disk has a hard time fitting into my iMac slot. The first few songs don't play well. On my CD player I can't play the first song at all.
I had exactly the same experence with "Speaking in Tongues". It must be a problem with the DualDisc format.
Free Music Review: A five-star album in a rather poor reissue
Hit: 3 Stars
Talking Heads, one of the greatest, most innovative rock bands ever, are not well represented by Rhino's new series of expanded reissues on DualDisc.
For my money, Fear of Music was Talking Heads' peak and is as close to perfect as an album can be. The "CD" side of this DualDisc does offer a nice mastering job that's equal to the analog original (minus the vinyl crackles). If you're lucky, your CD player will play it, because a lot of the Amazon reviews for the new Heads DualDiscs indicate that people are having problems playing them. The four bonus tracks are interesting for a fan like me who has loved this album for 25 years, but they really aren't something to listen to more than a couple of times.
The "DVD" side of this DualDisc is disappointing and points to the poor choices that Rhino has made with the Talking Heads catalog. There's a "surround-sound" remix of the original LP. Personally, I couldn't care less about a remix 25 years after the fact. There's also some skimpy video content, two performances of Fear of Music songs from a 1980 German TV concert. The footage is great, but it really belongs with Remain in Light, as it features the expanded lineup that toured that LP. And if Rhino did these reissues the right way (separate CD and DVD discs, which the European market is getting for these issues), we could have gotten the full-length concert.
To top it off, these reissues are packaged in digipaks. Digipaks might be OK for standard CDs, but these DualDisks have information on both sides, and the digipaks offer pretty poor protection for whichever side of the disc is facing out.
Free Music Review: Talking Heads don't hold up
Hit: 3 Stars
Back in the day (college, late 70s, early 80s), I loved Talking Heads. The music was infectious new wave pop with a heavy R&B influence. David Byrne's artsy vocals seemed deep and creative.
It's interesting how some bands that one loved in one's youth hold up to the test of time, while others don't. Talking Heads don't. My vinyl Talking Heads LPs have been sitting on my shelf, unlistened, for years. The transition LP, "Fear of Music," where they moved from quirky new wave pop of the first two LPs to Eno-fied worldbeat of their remaining career, was probably my favorite. I saw it for sale at a decent price -- with bonus tracks! -- always a sucker for bonus tracks -- and decided to give the Heads a spin.
The CD side sounds great. The instrumentation is clearer, more distinct, more professional sounding with the new remix. David Byrne's quirky vocals, however, do not benefit from the remixing. The vocals are too upfront. They don't blend with the music anymore. And Byrne's quirky vocal style, and his weird-for-weirdness's sake lyrics, don't hold up 25 years later. In college, when we heard the line "look over there! / Dry ice factory / Good place to get some thinking done," we thought Byrne was deep and creative. Now, my attitude is: "what the ---- ???"
There's a lot of music from the new wave era -- the Golden Age of Rock 'n Roll! -- that I still listen to. That era dominates my mp3 player. But, in my opinion, Talking Heads doesn't hold up to the test of time. Your milage may vary.
Free Music Review: Great album, lousy disc. Buy the UK edition instead.
Hit: 3 Stars
This is one of the best albums of the 1970's, an absolutely brilliant combination of new wave and psychedelia that still sounds startlingly original today. Most critically-acclaimed indie bands of the past 20 years sound drab and ordinary compared to what Talking Heads were doing in their prime.
Also, the remastering is excellent. I've heard few CD's that sound as good as this.
So why'd I give it only three stars?
The trouble is the dual-layered discs that Rhino decided to use. I've tried to play the CD side on three different CD players, including a brand new Onkyo and a brand new Sony. Both had trouble reading the disc and skipped on the last track. All the other Talking Head dual-discs had the same problem.
There is good news: in the UK, Rhino released all the Talking Heads records as two disc CD and DVD sets. I'd strongly recommend going to amazon.co.uk and getting those versions instead.