Talking Heads - Fear Of Music (1979)

Before we get started, I feel the need to mention that the title and Jerry Harrison's embossed, industrial cover design are some of my all-time favorites.

I'd love to tell you the story about a hip 13 year-old living on the rural Texas coast, compulsively listening to Fear Of Music amid the rice farms while his polyester-wearing friends were listening to disco records. Alas, that wasn't to be. Like many kids my age, I discovered Talking Heads when I saw the video for Once In A Lifetime on MTV in the early '80s. I'd guess I didn't hear this album until 5 years after its release.

I love this thing - the quirkiness, Eno's production, the grittiness, the white-boy funk, the cautionary realism, the music-noir. I recently picked up a used copy of The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave (from the Chicago Public Library discard heap - eBay can be a wonderful thing sometimes), let's see what it says about this album. Welp, it only receives 3 of 5 stars and earns but one sentence in the band's section: "Eno's services were retained for the opaque Fear of Music, which included the popular Life During Wartime." Uh, ok then. Personally, I'm at around 4.5 of 5 stars and the following blurb quote: "The band's most consistently satisfying album to date." Let's check out some other retro review quotes, offered up like a lazy TV ad:

• "...its better songs are as good as any Talking Heads ever did." - allmusic
• "wildly and wonderfully varied" - Irish Times
• "There are no bad tracks or bad ideas present, only unique and thrilling post punk that helped define the upcoming decade of music." - Sputnik

And for what it's worth, I'm enjoying this album more today than I ever have before and just listened to it complete twice through.

Press of the time:

• Robert Christgau (A-): "David Byrne's celebration of paranoia is a little obsessive, but like they say, that doesn't mean somebody isn't trying to get him." 
• Rolling Stone: "rock music that warps and suspends time"
• Smash Hits (7½ out of 10): "Few musical developments here"
• Stereo Review: "I think it's just bloody mahvelous."
• Trouser Press: "so far beyond anything else they've accomplished"
• Roadrunner: "If I call this record a masterpiece will that make me hipper than thou?"
• Slash: "They are geniuses. I am jealous."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #21
• CashBox: #30
• Rolling Stone: #13

Tracks: My favorites are I Zimbra, Mind, Cities, Life During Wartime (the most successful single on the album, peaking at #80), Memories Can't Wait, Animals, and Drugs. While Heaven is a good tune and fits in perfectly in the album's sequence, I've never much cared for it nor Electric Guitar.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I recently read the following book:

Like most books in this series, the author goes to great lengths to point out that the book isn't about the album itself, but rather his experience of the album. Yawn. Thanks for spending 4 pages stating the obvious, guys. While I can't recommend this volume in the series, it does give us this great line: "...my identification was so complete that I might have wished to wear the album Fear of Music in place of my head so as to be more clearly seen by those around me." (p. x) Well put. I think we've all had albums like that at one time or another.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Best Of (2004)
Stop Making Sense (1984)
The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads (1982)