Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food
ARTIST.....: Talking Heads
TITLE......: More Songs About Buildings And Food
LABEL......: Rhino Records
URL........: http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=76450
RIP DATE...: Oct-16-2006
STORE DATE.: Jan-10-2006
GENRE......: Rock
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 10,1 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Found A Job 04:46
(Live At Entermedia Theatre, New York, NY,
02 - Warning Sign 04:07
(Live At Sproul Plaza, Berkeley CA 1978)
─────
08:53 min
Release Notes:
The title of Talking Heads' second album, More Songs About
Buildings and Food, slyly addressed the sophomore record syndrome,
in which songs not used on a first LP are mixed with hastily
written new material. If the band's sound seems more conventional,
the reason simply may be that one had encountered the odd song
structures, staccato rhythms, strained vocals, and impressionistic
lyrics once before. Another was that new co-producer Brian Eno
brought a musical unity that tied the album together, especially
in terms of the rhythm section, the sequencing, the pacing, and
the mixing. Where Talking Heads had largely been about David
Byrne's voice and words, Eno moved the emphasis to the
bass-and-drums team of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz; all the
songs were danceable, and there were only short breaks between
them. Byrne held his own, however, and he continued to explore the
eccentric -- if not demented -- persona first heard on 77, whether
he was adding to his observations on boys and girls or turning his
"Psycho Killer" into an artist in "Artists Only." Through the
first nine tracks, More Songs was the successor to 77, which would
not have earned it landmark status or made it the commercial
breakthrough it became. It was the last two songs that pushed the
album over those hurdles. First there was an inspired cover of Al
Green's "Take Me to the River"; released as a single, it made the
Top 40 and pushed the album to gold-record status. Second was the
album closer, "The Big Country," Byrne's country-tinged reflection
on flying over Middle America; it crystallized his "artist vs.
ordinary people" perspective in unusually direct and dismissive
terms, turning the old Chuck Berry patriotic travelogue theme of
rock & roll on its head and employing a great hook in the process.
[In the fall of 2005, Talking Heads' catalog was finally
remastered and reissued as DualDiscs, containing a CD on one side
and a DVD with 5.1 mixes, along with bonus video material, on the
other. Initially, the DualDiscs were only available as a box set,
but in 2006, the albums were reissued individually as digipacks
(the box set contained all white jewel cases). More Songs About
Buildings and Food has a spare version of "Stay Hungry" cut during
the 77 sessions, along with alternates of "I'm Not in Love" and
"The Big Country," which are lean, fairly rough, and exciting.
There's also a previously unissued "Country Angel" version of
"Thank You for Sending Me an Angel," which is built on acoustic
guitars and has heavy washes of organs; there are two live
performances from 1978 on the DVD side.]