Talking Heads Remain In Light by: Justin Pearsall Fri:02-Feb-07 Label: Year: 1980 WB rating 85 out of 100

Unlike the oh-so-many acts that opened with a flush of originality only to be reduced to a melted-down carbon copy of their old sound (see The Strokes and the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Talking Heads always chose the high ground and became the model for re-creation. Inspirational to many, including Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Radiohead, who took their name from one of the band’s tracks, and influential to even those who don’t know it; Talking Heads were ahead of the beat.

Integrating complex world rhythms with funk-laden bass, Remain In Light reflects the desire of the band to fuse the groove of black music with the sensibility and hooks of white pop. The results are a pulsating rhythm and percussion section (that is lucky to deviate once per track) that is coloured with the textural wanderings of David Byrne and Brian Eno. Eccentric effects, inter-weaving melodies and the nervous and frenetic vocal styling of Byrne (the music of the album was sped up via the tape loop to intensify its feeling of paranoia) stamp the Talking Heads’ logo on these borrowed rhythms. The resulting brilliance is Remain In Light.

Opener ‘Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)’ establishes the dishevelled and chaotic mood of the record. Typical of the band’s adventurous approach to composition, the song smashes styles together until the result can only be the Talking Heads. Vocally, Byrne shines as a man on the verge of losing it. His prose combines cynicism, paranoia and a fear of rapid change that proved to be well founded. ‘Born Under Punches’ is a multi-layered jungle of sound.

‘Crosseyed And Painless’ proves to be a smoother incarnation of the Talking Heads.  A cross-section of James Brown’s rhythm section with the chorus harmonies from Cream’s ‘I Feel Free’, the flow of this song slowly bores into your subconscious. Production-wise, the Heads push certain vocal sections into the back of the mix, which creates the illusion of Byrne in dialogue with himself: “Facts all come with points of view/Facts don’t do what I want them to.” This inner conversation is consistent throughout the record and is partly reflected in the lyric sheet which is bolded and italicised to emphasise the conflict and contradictions of the different personas.

While many groups become insular and scared to experiment, Talking Heads take the old jazz thinking of allowing ‘sit-ins’ to contribute to the record (Adrian Belew, Robert Palmer and even Brian Eno were never official members). This collaborative approach is another aspect of Remain In Light that contributes to the energy of the Heads and meshes well with the eccentricity of Byrne and Eno’s arrangements. The musicians on Remain In Light are like a revolving door, with percussionists and bassists floating in and around the groove of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz.

‘Once In A Lifetime’ is the definitive song for the everyman. Amid a sea of questions, unsure of where he has been and how he got there: “And you may ask yourself/ What is that beautiful house? And you may ask yourself/Where does that highway go?” The ultimate mid-life crisis, Byrne’s restlessness in the verses is countered by the communal approach to the chorus, which brings a feel of redemption and baptism to the track. Byrne’s offers no easy answers, just a realisation: “Same as it ever was.”

‘Houses In Motion’ is similarly packed in contradictions. An almost expressionless Byrne is walking a line in which he notices, “There’s nothing around you, around you”. Musically, the Heads stretch out courtesy of some Miles Davis-esque, percussive trumpet lines from Jon Hassel and a funk-infused rhythmic groove that was a forerunner for early Red Hot Chili Peppers (compare the wah-wah-laced guitar of the song with the title track from BloodSugarSexMagik). In ‘Houses In Motion’, reggae, funk and world chic are moulded together and churned into a pop song.

‘Seen and Not Seen’ is the Heads moving into Hip Hop and pushing the boundaries. Hand claps replace snare drums and the bass is stripped back to bare necessity (ala Prince). More spoken word than melodic, this song sees the album heading towards a dark conclusion.

‘Listening Wind’ feeds on this feeling as it documents the eerie tale of the Indian Mojique, who takes arms against the profiteering and obliteration of his race. Byrne’s withheld vocal phrasing, which is at times reminiscent of early 70s Bowie and the swell of guitars convey the confusion of the character who is hurt by injustice to his people but unsure of the rightness of his actions. The supernatural mood of ‘Listening Wind’ is only made creepier by its prophetic look at what may now be deemed as a ‘terrorist act’: “Mojique buys equipment in the marketplace/Mojique plants devices in the free trade zone.”

‘The Overload’ echoes Pink Floyd circa Dark Side Of The Moon. The dramatic swing of Remain In Light, from the dance-driven opening of the album to this gloomy and turgid ending, can be seen as Byrne and Co narrating the collapse of society. Weighty and lacking the tribal backing of the preceding tracks, ‘The Overload’ is out of place with the first half of the album and ends the journey on a deflating note.

The Talking Heads’ desire to reflect alternate styles of music has made the band impossible to pigeonhole and ridiculously influential. It was David Byrne’s phrasing that foreshadowed Ben Gibbard’s (Death Cab for Cutie) train-of–thought writing style. John Frusciante’s treble staccato sound must be partially credited to the Heads and if you cannot hear the influence of Byrne’s use of clattered effects, vocal delay and paranoia-filled lyrics on Thom Yorke then you do not have Kid A and Remain In Light in your collection. 

Labels never encapsulated the music, and genres never defined the band. The Talking Heads were a peerless group and Remain In Light is a ‘Once In A Lifetime’ album.