New feeling (Talking Heads) (LP 4048 - 4051)

Talking Heads  77 (Vinyl, Sire Records, 1977) *****  

Talking Heads  Remain in Light (Vinyl, Sire Records, 1980) ***** 

Talking Heads  Speaking in Tongues (Vinyl, Sire Records, 1983) ****

Talking Heads  Little Creatures (Vinyl, EMI Records, 1985) *****  

Genre: New wave, Alt pop 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Once in a Lifetime (Remain in Light)

Gear costume: No Compassion (77)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Regular readers of Goo Goo G'Joob will know that I have broad, eclectic, musical tastes but as a teenager it was either hard rock, heavy metal, or Beatles inspired pop. So, when punk arrived in 1976 I was on board. When the initial explosion of British punk gave way to 'New Wave' bands I was suspicious. It seemed on the surface an arty farty genre. Overly intellectual even.

Ironically, I was starting an arts degree at Auckland University in 1977 and trying to be intellectual. As part of Roger Horrock's American poetry paper he had a weekend retreat scheduled and I was out of my comfort zone - all of these smart people!!

During the weekend (I think it was a camp in Titirangi), while helping out with domestic chores (doing the dishes actually), someone put on this album. Here was a nervy intellectual lead singer singing about being a nervy intellectual. YES!! I got it instantly. This wasn't some impenetrable heavy idea. Instead, 'what are you, in love with your problems?... there's nothing cool about having a problem'.

I immediately bought the single and then the album. Talking Heads' 77 was THE album of 1977. Just as Remain in Light became the album of 1980. I had bought Fear of Music but it didn't hold the same interest for me as 77 (I'd eventually trade it) and I hadn't gone for More Songs About Buildings and Food.

Then, working at Marbecks I fell deeply in love with the groovy, sinuous, beguiling, confident, eclectic, layered Remain in Light. Once in a Lifetime is the amazingly catchy single - a wildly inventive new sound for Talking Heads. Remarkably, they sustain that feeling over the whole album.  

Speaking in Tongues is their fifth studio album and a rare thing - an album from the eighties that still holds up in 2025. Deservedly, it became their most commercially successful album to this point thanks to Burning Down the House - a top ten hit.

Little Creatures replaced Speaking in Tongues as their most commercially successful album. That was thanks to pop hits And She Was, The Lady Don't Mind, Road to Nowhere. The more organic, Americana leaning sound made Little Creatures their most accessible album. Although I missed the edge from earlier, there was no denying they deserved their success.

Where do they all belong? A seminal band that provides music that lives on and still feels relevant.