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From: asente@Cascade.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Record review:  Talking Heads' "Little Creatures"
Message-ID: <9@Cascade.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 17:09:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: Cascade.9
Posted: Fri Jul  5 17:09:08 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 20:13:05 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Stanford University CIS Apple Orchard
Lines: 44

One thing Talking Heads isn't is predictable.  The newest album,
"Little Creatures", is a departure from "Speaking in Tongues" in almost
every way.

A little history, first, to put this in perspective.

The first two albums were musically very lean.  Outside contributions
were kept to a minimum.  Along with the influence of Brian Eno came
more elaborate arrangements, more musicians, and more obscure lyrics.
African rhythms and unusual percussion became staples of the music.
When Eno was (I understand) dumped, the result was "Speaking in
Tongues", which cut back a lot on the outside contributions while
keeping the African influences.  "Speaking in Tongues" also ended with
the song "Naive Melody", a fairly simple love song that presented love
as an alternative to the usual themes of oppressive society and
alienation.

The musical style of "Little Creatures" is a lot closer to "Talking
Heads 77" and "More Songs about Buildings and Food" than it is to
anything that came after them.  The arrangements are simple with almost
no extra musicians and nary an African rhythm in sight (sound?).  Even
the lyrics make more sense while still being far from simplistic.  And
the promise of "Naive Melody" is realized throughout the entire album.
One might even suspect that David Byrne is in love.

While themes of oppression and alienation are still present, especially
in "Television Man", but the feeling is much more optimistic and
cheerful.  "Creatures of Love" is a country-western song complete with
steel guitar about conceiving babies.  In "Perfect World" the singer
concedes that his girlfriend's rosy view of the world may be more true
than his own.  The road to nowhere described in the song by the same
title is viewed more as a place to get lost with someone you love than
as the dead-end I originally thought the song referred to.

Final rating:  *** (out of ****) if you prefer early Talking Heads to
recent, **1/2 if you don't.

	-paul asente
	    asente@Cascade.ARPA		decwrl!Glacier!Cascade!asente

"From the sleep of reason
    A life is born.
We are creatures of love,
we are creatures of love."