DarkRoomSite - Epic Rock, Piano, Guitar, Xylophone Instruments |
|
|
 | | | |
| Fear of Music | 
 enlarge | Artist: Talking Heads
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $7.98
Buy New: $4.45
You Save: $3.53 (44%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $4.29
Avg. Customer Rating:  (68 reviews)
Sales Rank: 2662
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 6076
UPC: 075992742825
EAN: 0075992742825
ASIN: B000002KNY
Release Date: October 25, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Tracks:
| • | I Zimbra - Talking Heads, Ball, Hugo | | • | Mind | | • | Paper | | • | Cities | | • | Life During Wartime | | • | Memories Can't Wait | | • | Air | | • | Heaven | | • | Animals | | • | Electric Guitar | | • | Drugs |
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
This disc represents the bridge between Talking Heads' first two herky-jerkier albums and the next two funky ones. Includes the song's 'I Zimbra', 'Memories Can't Wait' and comes with a bonus DVD (PAL Region 0). *Please note the you will need an ALL Code DVD player to view. Rhino. 2005.
Amazon.com essential recording
This disc represents the bridge between Talking Heads' first two herky-jerkier albums and the next two funky ones. Fear of Music is more than just a bridge, though. It's the water under the bridge, the air, the animals, the cities the river flows through, and the heaven on top of it all: "...a place where nothing ever happens." Plenty happens here, however. The CD starts out with its feet off the ground and both arms in the air: "I Zimbra" is all-out celebration. The rest of the songs are pretty much exercises in simplicity: one-word titles with music to match. (Witness the lightness of "Air," the trippiness of "Drugs," the "ooga"-ness of "Animals.") David Byrne's artful naivete ("Hold the paper up to the light/Some rays pass right through"), coupled with the whole band's musical playfulness (for example, the tuba on "Electric Guitar"), makes for fun fun fun. --Dan Leone
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 63 more reviews...
 Not their best, but its peaks are perhaps their most melodic. December 4, 2008
It could have been Talking Heads' best album. You have to admire the conceit, at the very least: 11 songs all about different sorts of fears, from the obvious ("Animals," "Drugs," "Life During Wartime," the insanity of "Memories Can't Wait") to the metaphysical (the indelible "Heaven"), to the paranoid ("Cities," and the hilarious "Air").
The lyrical themes are always important when considering the Talking Heads, but what makes this stand out from the rest of their albums is that several of the actual SONGS are better-written, catchier, and better-performed than any others they came up with. "Cities" (in particular the alternate version available on the new boxed set) witnesses David Byrne stretching his voice like a rubber band in the most gymnastic vocal performance he ever gave, while the deceptively relaxed ensemble playing of "Heaven" reveals layers upon layers of frustrated, achingly-calibrated tension hidden underneath the surface which only bubbles up during the last chorus (listen for Chris Frantz shouting in exasperation in the background). Plus, as an admirer of Robert Fripp, I'm naturally drawn towards his work on the opening "I Zimbra," which steps aside from the album's themes and looks ahead to the polyrhythmic, surrealistic future of the band lurking around the corner.
But alas, Fear Of Music is also saddled with more undistinguished filler than any of the other albums from the "classic quartet." Perhaps this is the price to pay for the new heights of melodic and conceptual inspiration on the best songs: by pouring all of their great ideas into the standout songs, they were left with some others whose main purpose is just to fill time on the album. "Mind," "Paper," "Electric Guitar," all fit the theme quite well lyrically, but musically? This stuff is distinctly second rate for the Heads. (You won't find anything this indifferently unmemorable on More Songs About Buildings And Food, for example.) "Animals" boasts an intriguing 7/8 meter and some hilarious lyrics (so true, so very very true) that get it across the finish line, but "Drugs" too is a bit of a disappointing bore as the album closer. (The alternate version on the boxed set, with Robert Fripp's queasy guitar overdubs, changes my opinion of this song RADICALLY, but that's not the version we have here.)
I want qualify my criticisms by pointing out that none of the tracks I object to are BAD. You won't hear these songs and think "dear god they've lost the plot." But you won't be blown away the way you were when you listened to "The Girls Want To Be With The Girls" seguing directly into "Found A Job" either. Buy Fear Of Music to experience its high points: you won't hear many Talking Heads songs better than "Air" or "Heaven" or "Memories Can't Wait" or "Cities." But also understand that, taken as a whole, this is a bit of a dip in between two giant peaks in their discography.
Something from nothing at all June 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A brief survey of the musical landscape from about 1963 until the present yields the following results:
1. There are a lot of people who write and perform songs that are about nothing;
2. There are some people who write and perform songs that are about something;
3. There are precious few people who can write songs that are essentially about nothing and in constructing and performing them, turn them into songs that are about something.
David Byrne's unique genius, as far as I can tell, is his ability to slot himself (with band in tow) into the third category. Now perhaps this isn't quite a fair, accurate assessment of his body of work, because in a sense the songs he wrote during this period are indeed about something, in fact they are about a lot of things. But the jumble of ideas is essentially nonlinear, and the stories these songs tell are more in the performance and arrangement of ideas than via a standard narrative. This was something almost unprecedented for the "pop" music world, and I think this album was where it reached its apex for Byrne and co.
On songs like "Air," "Animals," and "Drugs," for example, it's hard to determine what the message is. But the way these songs are performed is gripping and provides them a weight you'd never suspect from a cursory read through the lyrics. Take for example the absurdist lyrics to "Air":
Air...Air
Hit me in the face
I run faster
Faster into the air
(I say to myself)
What is happening to my skin?
Where is that protection that I needed?
Air can hurt you too
Air can hurt you too
Some people say not to worry about the air
Some people never had experience with...
Air...Air
It can break your heart
So remember when the weather gets rough
(You'll say to yourself)
What is happening to my skin?
Where is that protection that I needed?
Air can hurt you too
Air can hurt you too
Some people say not to worry about the air
Some people don't know s*** about the...
Air...
Ok what the - ? But give this a listen, Byrne's lyrics channeled through his one-of-a-kind high-pitched vocal performance and set against a tight, edgy guitar-driven white-boy funk workout. The paranoia and claustrophobia are virtually palpable. It's as if the air is pursuing, attacking the narrator. Or perhaps the narrator is only perceiving this to be the case? Is the danger all in the paranoid's head? Or is it real? The song offers no resolution.
This album is varied as well, some lyrics almost telling something of a semi-linear story ("Life During Wartime") or making a point about everyday existence ("Heaven"). The common theme is the examination of small things, details in our lives that we might miss if we weren't careful to pay attention to them. "I got some groceries, some peanut butter, to last a couple of days," intones Byrne about halfway into "Life During Wartime," and it's easy to believe that this mundanity would be of significant concern to a man hiding out in a building during a war. On "Animals," Byrne scolds non-human creatures for "living on nuts and berries," setting a "bad example" for the rest of us. I like to think of this as a statement of supreme irony (after all, the animals are surviving quite well but look at humanity!), however the lyric leaves a lot to the listener's imagination. It takes a mind like Byrne's to think of concepts like that, and enjoy it or not it does provoke a reaction from most people. That's art. The very definition.
The album is also a relentlessly edgy, herky-jerky tight funk workout which remains one-of-a-kind no matter how many other bands try to emulate it. If it weren't so overtly weird, it might even play well as a party record. I was born two years after its release so I have no idea how it was received by the public at the time. Honestly, compared to a lot of new wave stuff from that era, it's really not that extreme in some ways. A matter of context I suppose.
In sum, this is a brilliant work and holds up just as well now as it ever did. I love all of the music that this band created, through their final few (poppier) albums, but this one remains the most striking to me. A rare moment in history where depth of performance and attention to compositional detail transformed abstraction into something concrete and tanglible.
Very good January 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This album will never replace Remain in Light for me as the ultimate Talking Heads experience. But then, nothing will. Nonetheless Fear of Music is very audiophile, not unlike Remain in Light. There is a lot going on through each track, and much of it goes undetectable without the use of high frequency headphones. "Memories Can't Wait" is no doubt a great example of this. But unfortunately, despite all the cool arrangements, sounds, samples, and grooves on Fear of Music, there just isn't enough in the songwriting department. I feel like this album is very well produced, and I think the musicianship is prevalent. At times, Byrne is very witty. But there is no "Once in a Lifetime" on this album, even if "Air" comes fairly close. "What is happening to my skin?....Some people say not to worry about the air....but Air can hurt you too!" lol. It got a laugh out of me anyway.
This is a very worthwhile album. It really is worth listening to, just for all the ear candy injected into the stomach of this album. Especially on the stronger tracks, you can tell in the direction (Remain in Light) they are headed. Lyrically, we see Talking Heads near their best on "Air," and "Heaven." When listening to "Drugs," for the first minute and a half I have to remind myself that this is not a Brian Eno record. Because until David Byrne starts in, "Drugs" could easily fit in as an instrumental in Before and After Science. Unfortunately, the vocals ruin the ambiance of this track. Good thing Eno did solo work.
Best tracks: Air, Life During Wartime, Memories Can't Wait, Heaven.
The album that changed what I listened to April 20, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Summer of 1979. I just graduated from high school. I was into The Who and Led Zep during those years and then I listened to this album. Fear of Music instantly changed my listening preferences much like in the scene from Taxi when Jim, as a college student, eats a pot brownie and changes immediately into the stoned Reverend Jim. Fear of Music introduced me to Eno, Bowie, early Roxy Music, and alot of the new wave music that was coming out at that time. David Johansen's first album stayed on my turntable for a long while. Today Luna and Wilco take up alot of space on my iPod, and I thank Fear of Music for this.
Fear Itself March 11, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
David Byrne always passes off the "Fear" angle/theme here as a joke -- but I don't buy it. These songs are anxious, clautrophobic, and twisted -- and legitimately so to my ears. They're also poppy as a laundry basket full of poppyseed muffins, and this aural culture clash has been known to lead to vertigo -- don't look down....
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |
|