A couple of listens short of perfect...

It was very painful to realize that a collection one had been waiting for a long time did not come out the way it should have.

Yes, of course - Rhino and Atlantic did present this best of with its 19 gorgeous tracks - but they failed to give it a careful listen (or two) just before starting the press. Bob Ludwig was responsible for remastering and he did a decent job overall but there is a couple of unforgivable glitches:



- track 7 - 00:02 into the song - "dropout";

- track 8 - 2:02-05 into the song - "click" (right channel);



The question is why Ludwig did not have time to double-check his (un)finished remastering product? Probably, Rhino asked him to help them update their website with their (un)biased "Who to Vote for" guide, or probably he was out with the rest of the team campaigning for the one who was on the road to nowhere? Or the sound engineer simply had to follow the (in)famous Rhino's pattern: "Everything is dandy (except for a couple of small things)!"

Art meet punk

This is a magnificent collection of this unique band's most popular songs. Sure there are omissions, but these tracks are representative of their most accessible music and almost every one is a classic.



The opener, Love Goes To Building On Fire is a powerful song with an unorthodox arrangement and evocative imagery, whilst Psycho Killer is a prime example of David Byrne's innovative vocal style.



The omission of The Big Country is a pity, but their version of Al Green's Take Me To The River from the same album remains fascinating. Another highlight is the cinematic Once In A Lifetime with its multi-layered rhythms and gripping vocals.



Burning Down The House, And She Was and Road To Nowhere were huge hits, the last being very much like a flowing country ballad. And that is what made Talking Heads so special - their brilliant explorations of a wide variety of styles. In the process they extended the musical boundaries of rock and made an innovative contribution to the music of the punk revolution.

great cd

well, before getting this cd, i had only heard talking heads at a club where a talking heads cover band played. they were pretty good, and i remembered hearing "once in a lifetime" sometime before. so not knowing much about them, i picked up this cd. now i want more talking heads. not only did i find that "once in a lifetime" was great, but "this must be the place (naive melody)" is such a beautiful song to me for some reason. hah. well, me being only the casual fan, liked this cd, but it also made me want to get more talking heads stuff, so yeah i like this cd a lot