Talking Heads – Speaking in Tongues – 1983
It took a couple years (probably for egos to cool) for Talking Heads to give us some new music. The result was their most audience friendly to date.
One of the things I love about doing these reviews is that it has really allowed me to pull out old records, cassettes, CDs that I haven’t given any attention to in ages. If I don’t have it, I’m pretty sure I can hear it on Rhapsody or the like (makes me miss LaLa, however….)
I don’t think I’ve listened to my copy of Speaking in Tongues in about 15 years. Maybe more. What I’m really impressed by, in context of these reviews, is how much power Frantz and Weymouth seem to be exhibiting over the proceedings. “Making Flippy Floppy” sounds like a Tom Tom Club song fronted by David Byrne. And that’s a pretty big compliment since the weakest thing about TTC was the wispy vocals.
Of course there’s the monster track, “Burning Down the House”. We all know it. We all saw the video, but I forgot just how aggressive it is. It opens the album with a statement: This is not the ambient Talking Heads you might have gotten used to. These guys are loaded for art-rock bear.
The tribal rhythms continue with “Girlfriend is Better” but it’s a sexy track, with a catchy as hell groove. Who knew you could sing along to a Talking Heads song again? It’s been ages. The album continues the groovy funkfest with “Slippery People”, a song that, if you’ve heard the Stop Making Sense version, will seem vastly inferior, but is still a dynamite song.
With every successive track it’s obvious that the band has come together to do something they had long abandoned since becoming the darlings of the alternative music scene: write songs that people, normal people, can like. they haven’t completely forsaken their weirdness. But now it enhances a song like “Slippery People” or “Moon Rocks” instead of being the only thing that matters.
Whereas songs like “Swamp” and “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” would never be found anywhere on the previous Eno-produced Talking Heads records. In a sense, I kind of feel like Eno was an enabler for Byrne’s more esoteric leanings and the lesson of Tom Tom Club brought him back to earth. “Swamp” is more reminiscent of “Psycho Killer” than anything on Remain in Light while the latter is prettier and sweeter than anything in the band’s previous catalog.
Speaking in Tongues was a bit hit for a band that no one really thought had it in them. I sure didn’t. But I’m glad they made it cause it’s fantastic.
Grade: A
ASide: Burning Down the House, Girlfriend is Better, Swamp, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
BlindSide: Making Flippy Floppy, Slippery People
DownSide: Moon Rocks
