remain in light

Talking Heads 1980 Remain In Light is like no other album ever made, before or since. And it was a huge hit, and a massively influential record. And Talking Heads have little idea how or why.

Remain In Light is full of solid grooves, all piled on top of one another. It all begins with David Byrne and Brian Eno's very white version of The Funk and they are assisted in their explorations by the other Heads - Chris Frantz's superb drumming - which isn't African in it's origination (despite what the press releases at the time said), it's simply rock hard, on The One, funky drumming - Tina Weymouth's equally assured bass playing - Jerry Harrison's often overlooked mastery of textures and always appropriate keyboards. Plus there are a number of extra excellent musicians, including Adrian Belew on some astonishingly elephantine guitar solos and atmospheric squeals and Jon Hassell, who adds extremely eerie trumpet. The backing vocals are delightfully complex, layers and layers of vocals creating choirs of chanting. It's far beyond anything the Heads had ever done before. 

Remain In Light is one of those albums you either like or you don't - there's no middle ground on this one. It was actually the first Heads album I heard, but I loved it.

Stuff to listen out for - 

Born Under Punches - the weird percussion, the jumpy, nervy delivery - "don't you miss it, don't you miss it, some of you people just about missed it...", the glorious backing vocals, the sheer funky feeling despite the somewhat bizarre rhythm.

Crosseyed and Painless - that loopy 'facts' rap, the glorious backing vocals again, Eno all over this one. Again it's uplifting, joyful and utterly danceable.  

The Great Curve - Adrian Belew's guitar work is breath-taking. There are literally hundreds of vocal lines, all tumbling over one another, interlocking weaving in and out vying for the listener's attention. The choruses are hugely infectious and totally uplifting. I must have played this song hundreds of times and yet I still discover something new every time.  

Once In A Lifetime - how on earth was this a hit single? It's seriously odd when you think about it. The video is fabulous too. The song has that great "water dissolving" bit that gets the vocals all jumbled up, the bass line is superb, and the mad preacher vocals are just the icing on the cake.

Houses In Motion - the brilliant title, the weird feeling of hopelessness in the lyrics, Hassell's wheezy arabic trumpet, Eno's matter of fact vocals.

Seen and Not Seen - "He wonders if he too might have a similar mistake", Byrne's spoken hesitant delivery is superb, the mysterious backing track with pseudo handclaps etc is great too.

Listening Wind - the whispering backing vocals ("Mojique...") and Byrne's lead vocals are both brilliant. There's a great moment when the double tracked Byrne sings something different: "He feels the power of the wind around him" - but the double tracked vocal sings "beside him". For no good reason I adore this bit. The song has a delightful dreamy quality and some cool Belew sounds.

The Overload - Byrne wanted to write a Joy Division type song. But he'd never heard anything by them. So he wrote what he thought would sound like Joy Division. When he later heard some of their music he was disappointed, they sounded more like a conventional rock band than he had been led to believe. Anyway I love this - the slowed down drums, the ponderous keyboard / guitar whirls, the spooky vocals.

Talking Heads would never be as inventive or as unusual again.