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Comment by nobody9999 | Hacker News Reader

>I'm exactly the opposite, I think they jumped the shark after this album .. ;)

I don't know about that, While Stop Making Sense was brilliant, Naked[0] is a pretty darn good album too. And their older stuff is somewhat hit or miss, e.g., More Songs About Buildings and Food[2] and Speaking in Tongues[3] had bright spots, but also some crappy songs too. But Fear of Music[1] is mostly spot on, IMHO.

I'm pretty excited about the re-release, as it's a fabulous album and an excellent movie (right up there with The Last Waltz[4] and other concert movies)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_(Talking_Heads_album)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_Music

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Songs_About_Buildings_and...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_in_Tongues_(Talking_H...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Waltz

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Anecdata of one: In my most recent (~5-6 years ago) TH phase, I listened to all the albums multiple times (one nice thing about streaming services) but the ones I kept coming back to were 'Fear of Music', 'Remain in Light', and, thirdly, 'Speaking in Tongues.' For me it's a coin-flip between FoM and RiL as their best album front-to-back.

Hoping to catch the movie while it's playing again.

Don’t sleep on Little Creatures. That and Remain in Light have been my gotos for TH. I have also been deeply taken by David Byrne’s solo albums Growm Backwards and Everything that Happens have some really great tracks.

Aren't most of those before "the album" (Stop Making Sense)? Only Little Creatures, True Stories, and Naked really came after.

All of these albums have their moments, but there's an argument that the quality is in the early years, and later on they didn't have "full album quality".

> Speaking in Tongues[3] had bright spots, but also some crappy songs too

I was shocked by this statement, and looked back at the track list. I only found one song that I didn't remember as top notch.

Their early albums were known for being great from start to finish, but this is an insanely high bar for an album. Many talented artists never get one album like that. They certainly go for years and years, decades even, releasing albums with 1-3 good songs.

I feel like there's quite a large number that only release one good song for album, and basically seem to know it.

>I was shocked by this statement, and looked back at the track list. I only found one song that I didn't remember as top notch.

I hope my assessment didn't cause a myocardial infarction. I'm a big fan of Talking Heads and have been for at least forty years.

As for Speaking in Tongues, except for Girlfriend Is Better, Making Flippy Floppy and This Must Be The Place, the rest is rather pedestrian IMHO.

That said, I'm sure our tastes differ somewhat and that's great. Life would be really boring if we all liked the same things the same amount.

That said, my comment was mostly responding to GP's comment[0] that said:

"I'm exactly the opposite, I think they jumped the shark after this album .. ;)"

They were referring to Stop Making Sense of course. And I just wanted to point out that, at least IMHO, the band's trajectory didn't follow that path.

I'm sure that reasonable people can disagree. And, shockingly, we do.

I'm glad we're having this conversation, as it encourages me to go listen to more Talking Heads. Thanks for that!

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37609786

What are you talking about? Who cares how long you listen to them?

Someone else mentioned burning down the house, and there's others that I find great additions to the themes of the album, like slippery people and moon rocks. Pull up the roots is quite nice.

That leaves like 1-2 tracks that I honestly just can't remember much about. That doesn't fit the description "some bright spots, and some crappy songs too"... you're talking about an iconic album jam packed with brilliance.

This would be like saying that pink floyds "the wall" has "a few bright spots but some crappy songs too", that the era from "meddle" to "animals" was hit or miss, and you really prefer division bell and a momentary lapse of reason... just not any of the early/middle stuff.

Yeah, you can have whatever opinion you want, but this one is just absurd. Pink Floyd isn't for everyone, but if you like them, you're being a pretentious ass acting like 1971-1979 weren't peak years.

P.S. I actually do think the wall is kinda shit, but that's a story for another day

>Yeah, you can have whatever opinion you want, but this one is just absurd.

As can you. But unlike you, I won't make personal attacks on you for yours.

That's not a personal attack, your argument is absurd, however I'm certain you are a person of the highest caliber.

>you're being a pretentious ass

Thanks. I didn't realize that was a compliment rather than nastiness and a personal attack. Good show.

Have a nice day.

You've set the bar pretty high if Burning Down the House is rather pedestrian. I can't think of another funk album that is stronger than this all the way through.

Completely agree, I almost couldn't believe Burning Down the House would be described that way. BdtH is an absolute 10/10 banger for me, it adds color to my day when I hear. That, Girlfriend is Better and This Must be the Place are my favorite three Talking Heads songs, though I love most of their work.

Even the filler is contributes to the spirit of the album, and is quite pleasant. The whole album has a sound and a feel that is quite distinctive stylistically.

This is the kind of stuff musicians dream of creating.

>You've set the bar pretty high if Burning Down the House is rather pedestrian. I can't think of another funk album that is stronger than this all the way through.

My bad. Yes, Burning Down The House is pretty darn good too.

It was buried between cover photos when I skimmed the file list of the folder on my hard drive containing the album.

That said (after looking again, more carefully this time), I stand by the rest of what I said.

I'm pretty sure I've had this exact conversation with someone else, except the argument was about 77.

Talking Heads somehow manages to get people agree that they're great, but keep them divided about why, exactly.

On the other hand, I think they're all largely good. After a certain point some of their albums started only have a couple songs that I remember, some of them still great.

It's absurd that they can put out a string of 2-5 near perfect albums and still get criticism.

There's huge, beloved bands that don't really have a single album that has that many great tracks on it.

I think basically everything they did was great, maybe with the exception of Naked (which I should give another shot). What's great about the Talking Heads is that they grew and evolved. The only core essence is change.

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