Agreed. It doesn't matter how many times I listen to it, I still get goosebumps throughout the whole thing. Same for Crosseyed and Painless. Just wish he had talked a little more about Listening Wind, it's my personal favorite along with the two I just mentioned.
It is very good, however if you love The Great Curve, you will probably love Afrobeat (the main influence on this track). Fela Kuti's Colonial Mentality is a great start.
Isn't it based on an African tribal myth about how the world rests on a woman's back? The mountains and valleys are the "swivels and bumps" on her hips.
An interesting thing to note is that "The Overload" was meant to be Talking Heads' attempt at making a Joy Division-esque track. The thing is, nobody in the band had heard a JD song before; they went by what they read in magazines. I think they did a bang-up job of it, actually.
That’s actually not true. David Byrne and Brian Eno were reported to have listened to Closer during recording, and made The Overload as an intentional pastiche to I Remember Nothing and Heart and Soul. But, it’s a damn incredible one at that!
Cory Goodman if I'm not wrong, I'm pretty sure a while back he said there would be two classics weeks a year now. One at the beginning of the year and one halfway through the year.
Idiots I'm not sure which video he said it in, but there's proof since there was two classic weeks in 2016. The one during the summer had like in utero and ziggy stardust among others remember?
Tbh, the last kickass party I went to was 15+ years ago. We had a retro-industrial DJ. Good times. In the last great "daze" of the house party, where there was no incentive to appeal to mass music consensus.
David Byrne says in his book “How Music Works” He was inspired for the lyrics on Once in a Lifetime by a preacher on the radio that he was listening to when writing them. the “YOU MAY FIND YOURSELF” is directly quoted from the preacher
Adrian Belew has to be on of the most underrated guitarist of all time. Sometimes it feel like it's a conspiracy how little recognition he gets. Played with Zappa, Bowie, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, King Crimson, NIN, and that's before getting into his stellar solo discography. Big Electric Cat, Big Electric Cat, Big Electric Cat
Having just listened to this album it does remind me a lot of '80s King Crimson. Or I guess chronologically it's the other way around. So yeah, Belew being involved makes a lot of sense
can't get over how influencial this album is. Trent Reznor and the guys in Radiohead have both referred to it's aggressive use of loops and samples. The worldbeat influences would predate a lot of what came later including David Byrne's solo work. And the album captured the sound a New Wave that we would see again later in the 80s; you hear it in Devo, the Police, the Eurythmics, just so forward thinking. Best album of the 80s for me.
Talking about Talking Head's influence over Radiohead, besides the fact that their name comes from Radio Head by TH, I've always thought that Go To Sleep's solo is heavily based on Born Under Punches's solo.
though the bands that came out of there weren't all big so much for the reason that there was all this talent in one place - so much as the fact that it was easy pickin's for lazy record labels ...
I maintain Remain In Light is a masterpiece, its easily one of my favorite albums ever. The first time I heard The Great Curve I was like "Holy shit this is incredible! So many layers!"
This album was musical-life changing for me. I still remember the first time I heard it at a friend of mine's apartment. I just sat there amazed at where this was taking me. And Adrian Belew's work on The Great Curve is some of his best and pretty much my favorite. This was a powerhouse of creativity...from both Eno and Talking Heads. And you can't really appreciate this album without also listening to it's parent "My Life In The Bush of Ghosts" which Eno and Byrne recorded prior to Remain In Light. You can see where the lyric ideas came from as well as how deep they got into African rhythms and world music in general.
Amen!!! Can’t begin to talk about Remain In Light without talking about My Life In The Bush of Ghosts... huge King Crimson and PFunk fan which are also major influences
'Seen And Not Seen' isn't often mentioned among the Talking Heads's best songs. Absolutely brilliant spoken-word lyrics behind the haunting and beautiful melody tempts me to put it in personal top 5 of TH songs. Heretic thinking, maybe, but I'll burn on a pyre for this.
I cannot thank my Dad enough for introducing me to Talking Heads. Listening Wind and Once in a Lifetime are and will continue to be some of my favourite songs ever. Thank you Dad.
I would like to see Homogenic or Vespertine, my personal favorite of her is Vespertine, but I think Homogenic was such a huge milestone for electronic music that it deserves more attention
Zemeckis Lebowski I was listening to it this morning for the first time in a while, and when it showed up on RU-vid recommendations, I was so freaked out
@@jonasmaxwell2540 Especially after mentioning how much he liked the guitar solo, which I wouldn't be surprised if Belew played it after the track was finished exactly as we hear it. I mean, Eno probably messed with it, but I'm not positive. Belew is a wizard.
Adrian Belew is the cause of all the guitar freakouts. Not studio stickery, not a crushed tape. That's Belew crushing his guitar. I find it wild that over that incredible groove is a beatless guitar noisescape. Transcendent!!
This is quite possibly my all-time favorite record. I really try not to pick favorites, but like... that's like how I feel without even trying to feel it. I love music, but this album is the only one that takes it to such a level that it's like I am the music. Like this record is me. Not just emotionally, but mentally I feel like the mathematics of my brain's operation are the same as the music on this album. Ive listened to the whole album at least a couple hundred times in the 7 years since I first heard it, and it has always, since day one, felt like it was made for me. It gets better every time. I dont think I could ever get tired of listening to it.
Chad Quallo He's given nods to The Smiths in his review for Morrissey's 'World Peace…' album. He says they're great and that 'Meat is Murder', 'The Queen is Dead', and 'Strangeways Here We Come' are great records
Mikkel Nørlund Ulvsgaard Pretty sure you've never listened to the Talking Heads if you think The Smiths are more experimental. The Smiths are basically Joy Division with worse lyrics.
As much as I'm love with the wonderful groove carrying on from _Fear of Music,_ my favourite is "Listening Wind", an outlier on this album which always makes me really melancholic.
Houses in Motion, The Overload and Once in a Lifetime are my faves on this album. This band was so different from everyone else. One of the standout bands of that time.
I used to start my radio show out with "Born Under Punches". Remain In Light is a phenomenal album from one of the best bands of all time. Thanks for the review!
Listening Wind is probably my favorite TH song ever. Although my fav album is More Songs About Buildings and Food, the instrumental beat, the story telling & the relaxation of Listening Wind will take me EVERY time!
"Listening Wind". Everytime I hear this song, I feel like I'm in the desert listening to a Shaman. It has a tribal/Native American feel to it. It's gives me a foreboding, yet optimistic feeling simultaneously. How is that possible? No one knows. I dont know. But I like it
Awesome! Thanks for reviewing this! Even though I wasn't alive at that time it was released, it's one of my dad's favorite records so I kind of grew up with this!
this is the band's peak, but I find "Fear of Music" just as good. Actually many of the ideas that are fleshed out on this one are also found on the previous album, which I think shamefully doesn't get enough attention.
No sampling was done on this record. The band "looped" riffs and sections by playing them. You know, like James Brown or Afrobeat, where players sit on one riff for a long time. It's a bit before samplers were a thing.
One of my all time favorites. I have great memories playing this at college parties and having borderline out of body experiences with it, and now as I'm closer to 30 now my favorite time to listen is on road trips. No better way to boost the energy on a long car trip than to jam out to these tracks.
I got this album from a used CD shop when I was around 19. All I can remember was that I had heard Once in a Lifetime on some music channel and dug it enough to give the album a go. It had my attention from the first track, all the way to the brilliantly haunting The Overload. I really was blown away by the record, and I've come to admire it so much more as time has gone on. This is one of those seminal, essential albums that truly belongs in every collection.
tarquinnff3 Remain in Light, then Fear of Music for me are two of my favorite 25 albums. Speaking in Tongues is actually my second least favorite Heads album (True Stories being the least if that even counts) but I still like that one as well. Hope to own all the Talking heads albums, got two already
No mention of Adrian Belew on guitars for this album. I love how you can tell it's Adrian as well because the guitars on this album sound so similar to his guitar work on King Crimsons Discipline. Absolutely amazing.
Pure 10 ...hits on B side , and three afro- funk -world - hot -rock crossovers on a side A . Brian Eno production . Masterpiece - 4 place for best album of 80' by Rolling Stone magazine .
This review doesn't even come close to doing this album justice. Please if you havent listened to it, if you like music, this should be the next thing you listen to. There is nothing in the world like this album that isnt directly imitating it. And it is some of the catchiest music, like ever. It makes my brain so happy.
The Talking Heads 1980 Rome concert (featuring Adrian Belew playing the Strat that according to legend was once set on fire by Jimi Hendrix then restored by Frank Zappa) is all available on RU-vid. I highly recommend watching. I think that even though it's not as theatric, musically it's even better than Stop Making Sense, as is the album that the material is drawn from.
I adore Seen and Not Seen. I love the way it ends. So open ended and it leaves you with a sense of dread almost, for this character Byrne is speaking about
Without a doubt this album is in my top ten of all time. I've listened to this album dozens of times and I still don't get tired of it. Glad to see you're giving it some press, and helping people discover these great tracks!
Gotta get a grip No, he's reviewed this album years ago, before this patreon thing. I don't know why he's trying to pass this off as a new classics week review... weird.