Album Review - Talking Heads - Fear of Music DUALDISC Reissue
John Metzger
In hindsight, the Talking Heads' Fear of Music can be viewed as a
transitional affair that bridged the gap dividing the distinctive, new
wave-meets-R&B jitters of Talking Heads: 77 and More Songs about
Buildings and Food from the funk-laced fury of Remain in Light and
Speaking in Tongues. It also happens to be the band's most daunting and
difficult album to embrace. The effort began invitingly with I Zimbra,
the ensemble's early foray into Afro-Cuban polyrhythmic textures, though
it quickly turned foreboding as an ominous chant infiltrated the fray.
Scattered elsewhere were a few other highly accessible moments, such as
the surreal serenity of Heaven or the strikingly conventional, punk-funk
structure of Life During Wartime. The bulk of the collection, however,
was fueled by the uncomfortable, quivering tension between its
repetitive dance beats and David Byrne's overly anxious vocals.
Despite the array of aural effects that filtered through Fear of Music,
however, its incarnation as a 5.1 surround sound DUALDISC isn't nearly
as enveloping of the listener as one might expect it to be. Part of the
problem is that remixing the effort proved to be fraught with
difficulties because it originally was recorded with a remote truck at
the loft in which Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth resided. The band's
lo-fi approach meant that the new version of the outing was destined to
contain less dimensionality and depth than it otherwise might have, but
the end result is that its subdued, but no less stellar, sonic spectrum
augments the sensation of constrained claustrophobia that pervades
endeavor. The CD side also contains alternate versions of Mind, Cities,
and Life During Wartime as well as an unfinished, David Bowie-esque
outtake titled Dancing for Money, while the DVD side features
performances of Cities and I Zimbra that were taken from a 1980
installment of the German television show Rockpop. Undoubtedly, all of
the extras, while enlightening, are geared towards avid collectors
rather than casual fans, but this is wholly appropriate for an album
that is as intensely challenging as Fear of Music.
This is an excerpt. To read the complete review, please visit:
http://www.musicbox-online.com/reviews-2006/th-fear.html
For a review of David Byrne's Grown Backwards, please visi