Fearless

Rip It Up, Issue 26, 1 September 1979, Page 13

Fearless

George Kay

Talking Hejads . Fear of Music Sire Talking Heads were part of the -New Work underground that centred around the Country, Bluegrass and Blues Bar. (CBGB’s) three years ago or more, and like their contemporaries, Mink de Ville, Ramones and so on, they made it aboveground on their own terms. No compromise. Byrne has emphasised in the past that if he couldn’t be,successful. the way he wanted then he wasn’t interested in becoming entangled in the rock’n’roll idiot dance. This single-mindedness coupled with his natural music-as-anguish obliqueness has resulted in three albums thus far, each one unique and each one sharply different from its predecessor but all three unified by Byrne’s darting neuroses and nervous angst. So if you’re expecting and/or hoping to find that Fear of Music is a duplicate or even an obvious extension of what has gone before'then you're mostly out of luck. Let’s re-track: 77 was virtually non-produced lean bare-assed songs but was one of the best albums ,of that very memorable year, and More Songs was the band rocking sweetly with Eno having produced a pretty close "approximation , to their live sound. And now Fear of Music: “There's a lot of songs that are really dense sounding on the new record. A lot of. them sound pretty psychedelic, not like the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane,’.’ but they sound, weird with funny sounds and things like that,” Byrne said earlier this year. Actually this description accurately accounts for only part of the diverse musical structure/tone of this excellent album. Perhaps •only the more spacious textures of “Mind” and "Paper”, on the one hand, and the stomping frustrations of ‘.'Animals” and “Cities":on the other, would have been at home on the two previous albums. Elsewhere the band,' again under Eno’s guidance ..and contributory "treatments”, are trying new arrangements. ‘‘Electric Guitar” is a drone-like,metaphorical dirge with Tina Weymouth’s Eno-treated bass up front, and the knotted disco platforms of “I Zimbra” and ‘.‘Life During Wartime” are departures from the band’s often slight funk of the past. But it’s over to “Drugs” and “Memories Can’t. Wait”, to provide the album’s most harrowing and overtly phychedelic moments. Using echo and desired sound effects both songs register Byrne’s momentary mental aberrations in convincing style. “Drugs” was originally entitled “Electricity:’, and was recorded last year for inclusion on More Songs, but it was rightly considered by the band to be out of step . with the mood of that album, so, after a couple of re-workings it saw the light of day on Fear.

The song is reminiscent of Pere Übu, a band Byrne has some time for, in its racked use of space and omission. “Heaven" is worth mentioning if only for its loping Byrd’s quality using the same rolling guitar sound Eno produced on Devo’s “Gut Feeling”, it gets you every time. Talking Heads have also been successful in the single’s market, "Love Goes To a Building On Fire" and of course “Take Me To the River” haven’t gone unnoticed, and “Air” opening the second side of Fear and boasting a sighing girlie back-up vocals, would make an ideal forty-five.

Fear of Music, once dissected, is an even more varied album than the others yet it still has a feel of unity. There are no key, focal tracks, no “Psycho Killers” or “Big Countries” to hang your hat on, instead there's a consistent excellence. It also goes without saying that lyrically Byrne retains his weird perspective of the world, stringing his disconnected thoughts and feelings-into eccentric often shouted emotions. And these are emotions you should hasten to examine now.