As funky as hell

More Songs About Buildings And Food sees the Heads moving away from their poppier first album and, under the guidance of Brian Eno, discovering that there had always been a dance element to their music. It's an inspired move - whereas before Byrne had been the focus of the band, the formidable Weymouth / Frantz rhythm section relly makes its presence felt here: from With Our Love through Found A Job up to Stay Hungry, they just keep churning out those grooves. Retrospectively, this was an element of their music that was already there just waiting to be expanded upon: several of the songs featured on the album had already been written, sometimes as long as two years before the release of the record, and were already (I think) part of the band's live repertoire. Byrne's lyrics and way with a chorus are not forgotten, however - Good Thing has an absolute monster of a chorus. Another excellent feature of the album is that many of the songs crescendo at the end with an absolutely storming vamp that you want to continue forever.
The Big Country deserves special mention because it showed that the band still had much more to explore - it's a melodic, country tinged, slightly balladic (although not actually a ballad - they didn't do one of those till their seventh album) song about an idealised American heartland; although in typical Byrne style the narrator of the song doesn't seem to find the vision particularly appealing ('I wouldn't live there if you paid me'). They wouldn't really travel in this direction again until Little Creatures, although nothing on there is as good as The Big Country.
Overall, the album is excellent. As with Fear of Music, Remain In Light and Speaking In Tongues, if you're a music fan of any sort you should consider getting it. If you scroll up you'll find some preview links - I suggest you click them.

Fantastic

My favourite Talking Heads album. This is a real gem that deserves more adoration than it gets.

Thank You For Sending Me An Angel, The Girls Want To Be With The Girls, The Good Thing, Take Me To The River and With Our Love are my favourite tracks.

Grade "A" Tenderloin

The musicianship on this - the Heads' second release - is amazing. Perfect, really. By the time you're into the second song - "With our Love" - you know these guys mean business:



"Forgot the trouble, that's the trouble -

forgot the trouble, that's the trouble -

forgot the trouble and that's the trouble,

With our Love, With our Love."



An achingly painful sentiment, expressed in the confines of an intense wall of guitar chops and a bone-jarring refrain. Eno synth sounds are lurking around the second verse, too. Sort of makes you feel ... nervously happy - nervous because music shouldn't be so intense, happy because the perfectly punctuated bass, percussion and guitars deliver the goods. It's a toe-tappingly cool song.



The first six songs are without flaw. Each different from the other - different sounding vocals, synthesizers, reverb, percussion. And Great Lyrics. It makes for unbelievably intriguing music. "Girls Want to be with Girls" is a hoot - with a sort of an electronic choir of angels forming the refrain. Goofily irresistable.



"Found a Job" then smacks you in the face.



"Damn that television, what a bad picture -

don't get upset, it's not a major disaster."



The raunchy guitars repeatedly jab your ribs. And they don't let up. Get up and DANCE YOU FOOL!!



Side Two (on vinyl) - beginning with "Artists Only" - misses the mark with a few throwaway songs. Redeemed by "Stay Hungry" and "The Big Country." ("Take Me to the River" has been way overplayed).



Overall this is solid stuff that has - truly - stood the test of time. This release is now 26 - that's 26 (!!!) years old. Eesh. Though the gray hairs have multiplied, this album of my youth retains its sinewy strength. A tasty cut of Grade "A" Alt-Rock.



Four Starz **** - check it out Holmesqueeze.