Remain in Light
Talking Heads
Score:86
Reviewer: Justin Pearsall
Label: Sire (USA)
Reviewed: Feb 1st '07, Released:1980
Inspirational to many, including Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Radiohead, and influential to those who don’t even know it, Talking Heads were always ahead of the beat. While previous collaborations with Brian Eno, namely More Songs About Buildings and Food and Fear of Music, established the band, Remain in Light was their real artistic breakthrough and fittingly the album they’ll most be remembered by.
Integrating complex world rhythms with funk bass, Remain in Light reflects the desire of Talking Heads to fuse the groove of black music with the sensibility and hooks of white pop. The results are a pulsating rhythm and percussion section coloured with the textural wanderings of David Byrne and Brian Eno. Eccentric effects, inter-weaving melodies and the frenetic vocals 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.
Unafraid of experimentation, Talking Heads used ‘sit-ins’ to contribute and colour the record. Adrian Belew, Robert Palmer and Eno all add their own sound to the brew of Remain in Light and it is this collaborative approach that contributes to the energy of it. The combination of the repetitive grooves laid down by bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, the eccentricity of Byrne and Eno and the contrasting styles of the collaborators and additional percussionists give each song variety. Byrne and Eno make it characteristically Talking Heads material with the vocal delivery and production nous.
With elements of hip-hop, funk, world music and electro all housed under Eno’s production, Remain in Light is a varied, thrilling listen. Whilst best known popularly for the albums only real hit, ‘Once in a Lifetime’, critically the album is rightfully regarded as one of the best of its time. As a fusion of styles it’s inventive, but more importantly it’s a great listen.
