“Words of nuance, words of skill
And words of romance are a thrill
Words are stupid, words are fun
Words can put you on the run”
Considering Sugarhill Gang released Rapper’s Delight in ‘79, and rap and hip-hop have been around since the end of the Seventies, it’s again funny that the first example we get are through this album. But then, there’s quite a close connection between this album and the hip-hop genre, not least through the other well-known track, Genius Of Love.
This has been sampled by many artists, but in its original form still has something of an R&B flavour – closest sound to me is Mark Morrison. It name-checks a lot of famous black musicians such as James Brown, Bob Marley, and Bootsy Collins. The track L’Elephant, sung by Weymouth and her sisters (Lani, Laura, and Loric) in the loose style of Althea and Donna is a French language track with Afro-beats about an elephant and a hippopotamus wondering why the humans are sad. The birds tell them it’s because of all the war. The Afro-French flavour makes it feel like it ought to be a West African traditional tune, I love it, it's so infectious and different.
Like Byrne and Eno on My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, Weymouth and Frantz borrow from non-Western cultures, and the resulting sound blend is glorious and unusual – I’d go so far as to say that this is the superior of the two Talking Heads spin-offs, perhaps because a lot of it is more immediately accessible. It’s close, though – the two albums take a different approach to the same ideas, each good in their own way. And don’t forget, from the track On, On, On, On that “On and on, here we come.There are more of us”. Worth remembering these days.
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