Track Listing

1. Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
2. With Our Love
3. Good Things
4. Warning Sign
5. Girls Want To Be With The Girls
6. Found A Job
7. Artists Only
8. I'm Not In Love
9. Stay Hungry
10. Take Me To The River
11. Big Country

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8703 in Music
• Released on: 1987-04-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

CD Description
The Heads' second album found them building on the twitchy "new wave" sound they established with their debut while using that approach as a springboard for new lyrical and musical innovations. The band's sonic pallette is a bit wider here; the interplay between the guitars of David Byrne and JerryHarrison is more fully developed here, are Harrison's keyboard contributions (he was, after all, strictly a keys man inthe Modern Lovers, one of the Heads' primary influences). The band displays diversity with their first recorded cover tune, Al Green's "Take Me To The River", which they redefine with an ominous, supple sensuality. While Byrne still soundslike his nerves are being stretched to the breaking point, the band is a little looser here, as on the jumpy, Velvet Underground-ish "Thank You For Sending Me an Angel". Byrne's hyper-intellectualism is in full flower on BUILDINGS, from the gender politics lesson "The Girls Want to Be With the Girls" to the New York bohemian slant of "Artists Only", whose key phrase is "you can't see it till it's finished!"

Customer Reviews

Thoughts on the remastered CD
Most of what has been written about this series, starting with the Brick box set has focused on the 5.1 DVD remixes. Since I don't have a surround system, here's a few words on the CD in package.

Firstly, the CD in this CD+DVDA set is a completely separate disc to the DVD. No double-sided, incompatible with lots of things, dualdisc. Secondly, it has 4 bonus tracks unlisted by Amazon. They are: Stay Hungry (1977 version), I'm Not in Love (Alternative version), The Big Country (alternate version), and Thank you for sending me an angel (Country Angel version).

It would be fair to say from the get go that the bonus tracks are not why you want this CD. Stay Hungry and The Big Country sound here as rejects from TH '77. The Alternate version to I'm Not in Love is a novelty version (at least today it sounds it) with massive flanging and phasing effects all over certain instruments. The only thing among the extras worth hearing more than once is the Country Angel version of "Thank you for sending me an angel". It's like the original version, but the with the country elements turned up. It works fine, though I still strongly prefer the original.

The cover says the CD is remastered. In most cases this means that some mastering engineer has slovenly run the tape through a savage peak limiter, screwed up the volume by 5-10dB, and instant remaster! This remaster though is an entirely different animal. While it is louder than previous masters (about 3dB louder than Sand in the Vaseline and 7db louder than the original MSABAF CD), the big differences are in two areas: the bass and the details.

This CD has MUCH more bass than the original. On "Take me to the river" I measured an increase of 10dB at 55Hz and 20dB at 30Hz (set to an equivalent volume at 1kHz). The treble is slightly dropped to, though this is only 1-2dB.

The result is a much weightier, more modern sound. This no longer sounds like lightweight pop, it's getting bolshie and powerful. The music is immensely engaging (it always was of course) in a new way. It drives, it hits, it moves.

The other thing is the details, and here I am starting to wonder if something more than remastering has gone on, cause I'm hearing so much new music. I suspect these things were always there because when I go back I can hear the things I am hearing for the first time on the early pressings, but now there are stereo placements and details, especially I am guessing Eno's input, that stand out much more clearly. And this isn't just the volume making them stand out since I have adjusted for that. There is space here I have never noticed - and the space gives room for instruments to appear more clearly. David's voice is very clear in the mix, and his manic intensity is even more powerful than ever.
And all this is before you even get to the DVD! my money was rarely better spent.

Enter the Enoman!
There are two bands for whom Brian Eno can lay claim to some responsibility for their subsequent greatness. Everybody knows about U2 but his involvement with Talking Heads as producer started with this album. Both bands had the potential for what they became but Eno opened up a whole new area of posibilities and added an extra bit of cool although I guess U2 needed that far more than Talking Heads, 77 is still a great album albeit with a slightly more limited sound pallet than from this album onwards. This was the third Talking Heads album that I bought (as I did not get into them until Fear of Music came out when I bought 77 then FoM then this album) The funkiness of this album is brilliant. Byrne's lyrics just go into so many areas that other songwriters normally do not go to but there is a huge resonance with things thant concern many people. It is amazing when you hear a song voice ideas that have gone on in your head but you never thought anyone else would take the time to voice. There lies the genius of Byrne's lyric writing, he does not necssarily look for the big ideas to inspire a song but looks at the mundane or seemingly insignificant and manages to pull it off, never sounding forced or falsly whacky in that "We're all mad in here!" way that some do. Brilliant! I would have to contradict one reviewer of Fear of Music who says that it is THE Talking Heads album; I would argue that this is THE album. Artists Only, Stay Hungry, Found a Job, The Girls Want To Be...I'm Not In Love. every one a winner!

My all time favourite album, impossible to resist!!
For me, this is the most infectiously joyful album in my collection. I have never heard anything else that comes close to the sustained adrenalin rush of these short, sharp pop masterpieces flying past one after the other. I find it nearly impossible not to jump around the room when this album is playing loud. Love it!!