Fear of Music

March 11, 2008 at 7:22 pm
filed under music
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If you consider what bands are doing these days with disparate influences (including the one I’m in), the amount of recording technology and equipment available very cheap, and the sheer amount of music you can find for free on the Internet, then there ought to be at least one other album out there as diverse and consistently mind-blowing as Fear of Music. There isn’t. There can’t be - most bands who even cite Talking Heads as influence will lift a quirk from Byrne’s vocals, or a particular rhythm or keyboard sound. The real key here though is the bullet-proof songwriting.

Talking Heads - Memories Can’t Wait

There’s the hit (”Life During Wartime”) and the song that every jam band loves to cover (”Cities”), and for a little while I only considered the album from the vantage point of these two songs. Yet everything else on here is just as consistent - methodically written great songs thrown into a blender and warped, delivered in a leaping yelp or deadpan. For example, “Memories Can’t Wait” could have been delivered straight but it’s all screwed up with processed tape. “Air” for all intents and purposes a shuffling disco tune, marred by an odd vocal delivery, poltergeist keyboards, and lyrics like “What is happening to my skin?”. Yet it is made all the more enjoyable to listen to because all of this.

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