1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 410. Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings And Food (1978)

 

Talking Heads team up with Eno, but to be honest evidence of his collaboration is sparse – I think he’s relegated purely to production and so there are no weird sounds or electronica, at least no more than before. One thing I did find with this album is that David Byrne’s voice seems quite low in the mix and so while these may very well be songs about buildings and food, I couldn’t tell you how true that is. 

The final track The Big Country, is certainly about urban development, with the refrain that “I wouldn’t live there if you paid me”. Like Nothing But Flowers on the album Naked, this is a kind of role reversal where the urban-dwelling narrator is repulsed by the clean air and fresh food of the country. Okay, so there’s buildings and food in a song, we’re good. 

Probably the best known song, repeated on live and compilation albums, is their cover of Al Green’s Take Me To The River, slowed down to a sluggish tempo that still manages to fit in some great bass work from Tina Weymouth. She shines on this album, perhaps Eno wanting to raise her contribution in the mix. From lock-step tempo to complex funk-like beats, Weymouth along with Chris Frantz really drive the songs. This is notable at the end of Found A Job – about Bob and Judy making their own TV programs, predicting YouTube – which becomes a lively jam much like many of the songs.  

Some of these feature frenetic guitar, which I’m not sure is Byrne or Jerry Harrison, or maybe both, but a seemingly mundane song becomes a thing of great joy by the end.  

The sound overall is more commercial and less arty, without losing some of the fun experimentalism of the previous album. I think this is one to come back to; it doesn’t instantly grab me, but it also leaves me wanting more.