Showing posts with label Talking Heads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Talking Heads. Show all posts

January 28, 2021

Published January 28, 2021 by ad-vinylrecords with 0 comment

Talking Heads - Remain In Light (1980) - €10,00



Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by American new wave band Talking Heads, released on October 8, 1980 through Sire Records. It was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia between July and August 1980 and was produced by the quartet's long-time collaborator Brian Eno.
Following the release of Fear of Music in 1979, Talking Heads and Eno sought to make an album that would dispel notions of the group as a mere vehicle for frontman and chief lyricist David Byrne. Drawing on the influence of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, the group experimented with African polyrhythms, funk, and electronics, recording instrumental tracks as a series of sampled and looped grooves, an innovative technique at the time.
Recording sessions also incorporated a variety of side musicians, including guitarist Adrian Belew, singer Nona Hendryx, and trumpet player Jon Hassell.
Byrne initially struggled with writer's block, but soon adopted a scattered stream-of-consciousness lyrical style inspired by early rap and academic literature on Africa. The artwork for Remain in Light was conceived by bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, and was crafted with the help of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computers and design company M&Co. Talking Heads expanded to nine members for a promotional tour, and following its completion the band went on hiatus for several years, leaving the individual members to pursue a variety of side-projects. The album was the last of the band's collaborations with Eno, though Eno and Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts would be released the following year.
Remain in Light was widely acclaimed by critics, who praised its sonic experimentation, rhythmic innovations, and cohesive merging of disparate genres. The album peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200 in the US and at number 21 on the UK Albums Chart. Two singles were released from Remain in Light: "Once in a Lifetime" and "Houses in Motion". The record was certified Gold in the US and in Canada during the 1980s. It has been featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 1980s and the best albums of all time, and it is often considered Talking Heads' magnum opus.


Side A
A1.  Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)   (5:46)
A2.  Crosseyed And Painless   (4:45)
A3.  The Great Curve   (6:26)

Side B
B1.  Once In A Lifetime   (4:19)
B2.  Houses In Motion  (4:30)
B3.  Seen And Not Seen   (3:20)
B4.  Listening Wind   (4:42)
B5.  The Overload   (6:00)


Notes
Released: 1980
Format:  LP
Genre:  Post-punk, Art Pop
Label:  Sire Records
Catalog#  WBN 56867

Vinyl:  VG
Hoes:  VG

Prijs:  €10,00
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October 27, 2020

Published October 27, 2020 by ad-vinylrecords with 0 comment

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense (1984) - €10,00



Stop Making Sense is a live album by Talking Heads, the soundtrack to the film of the same name. It was released in September 1984 and features nine tracks from the movie, albeit with treatment and editing. The album spent over two years on the Billboard 200 chart. It was their first album to be distributed by EMI outside North America.

While there's no debating the importance of Jonathan Demme's classic film record of Talking Heads' 1983 tour, the soundtrack released in support of it is a thornier matter. Since its release, purists have found Stop Making Sense slickly mixed and, worse yet, incomprehensive. 
The nine tracks included jumble and truncate the natural progression of frontman David Byrne's meticulously arranged stage show. 
Cries for a double-album treatment -- à la 1982's live opus The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads -- were sounded almost immediately; more enterprising fans merely dubbed the VHS release of the film onto cassette tape. So, until a 1999 "special edition" cured the 1984 release's ills, fans had to make do with the Stop Making Sense they were given -- which is, by any account, an exemplary snapshot of a band at the height of its powers. 
Even with some of his more memorable tics edited out, Byrne is in fine voice here: Never before had he sounded warmer or more approachable, as evidenced by his soaring rendition of "Once in a Lifetime." Though almost half the album focuses on Speaking in Tongues material, the band makes room for one of Byrne's Catherine Wheel tunes (the hard-driving, elliptical "What a Day That Was") as well as up-tempo versions of "Pyscho Killer" and "Take Me to the River." 
If anything, Stop Making Sense's emphasis on keyboards and rhythm is its greatest asset as well as its biggest failing: Knob-tweakers Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison play up their parts at the expense of the treblier aspects of the performance, and fans would have to wait almost 15 years for reparations. 
Still, for a generation that may have missed the band's seminal '70s work, Stop Making Sense proves to be an excellent primer. 

The album was ranked number 345 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2000 it was voted number 394 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2012 Slant Magazine listed the album at #61 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".


Side A
A1. Psycho Killer 4:28
A2. Swamp - 3:50
A3. Slippery People - 3:35
A4. Burning Down the House - 4:14
A5. Girlfriend Is Better - 3:32

Side B
B1. Once in a Lifetime - 4:34
B2. What a Day That Was - 5:08
B3. Life During Wartime - 4:52
B4. Take Me to the River - 5:59


Notes
Release: 1984
Format:  LP
Genre:  Art Rock, Post-punk
Label:  EMI Records
Catalog#  1C 064-240243-1

Vinyl:  VG+
Cover:  VG+

Prijs: €10,00
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September 26, 2020

Published September 26, 2020 by ad-vinylrecords with 0 comment

Talking Heads - True Stories (1986) - €10,00


True Stories is the seventh studio album by American rock band Talking Heads. It was released on September 15, 1986, by Sire Records, around the same time as lead singer David Byrne's film of the same name.
The album does not contain the actors' performances from the film. Instead, this is a Talking Heads studio album featuring recordings of songs from the film. While an intended original cast recording from the film was not released at the time, several of the film performances did appear on single releases of several songs from the album. Later that year, Byrne released the album Sounds from True Stories containing incidental music from the soundtrack. In 2018, a complete film soundtrack album was finally released, combining tracks from the two released albums (though only the three performances by Talking Heads from the first True Stories album that were actually heard in the film were included) and the cast performances heard in the film.
Time hasn't been kind to Talking Heads' ancillary soundtrack to David Byrne's oddball directorial debut. Though it generated one of the band's biggest radio hits ("Wild Wild Life"), both the film and its songs were dismissed as self-consciously quirky retreads of other, better material; and it's well-known the quartet was beginning to splinter apart around the time of the sessions. Byrne himself has said that he regretted the whole notion of releasing True Stories with his own vocals, a decision made at the behest of the film's financial backers: All along, he intended for the lyrics to be sung, in character, by Pops Staples, John Goodman, and the rest of the cast. (Some of these alternate-vocal versions were eventually released as B-sides.) Despite its perfunctory nature, however, True Stories is not without its charms. 
Though an obvious swipe at consumerism, "Love for Sale" boasts one of the band's best hooks, and it's easily their hardest-rocking tune since the Fear of Music days. "Radio Head" is a successful continuation of some of the regional-American motifs Byrne explored on Little Creatures (and bears the distinction of inspiring Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and company to name their band after it). 
Free from the movie's weird patina of irony, "Dream Operator" is one of the most affecting tunes Talking Heads ever recorded; the closing-credits theme "City of Dreams" is similarly touching. Elsewhere, there is filler -- touching upon gospel, country-western, zydeco, and sundry other Byrne influences -- but the band's skill at arranging an album and maintaining a mood remains intact. 
So while True Stories may remain a regrettable chapter in the band's history, it's certainly not an embarrassing one. 


Side A
A1.  Love For Sale - 4:30  
A2.  Puzzlin’ Evidence - 5:23  
A3.  Hey Now - 3:42  
A4.  Papa Legba - 5:54  

Side B
B1.  Wild Wild Life - 3:39  
B2.  Radio Head - 3:14  
B3.  Dream Operator - 4:39  
B4.  People Like Us - 4:26  
B5.  City Of Dreams - 5:06 


Notes
Release: 1986
Format:  LP
Genre:  Art Rock
Label:  EMI Records
Catalog#  1A 062-240612-1

Vinyl:  VG+
Cover:  VG+

Prijs: €10,00
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