Track Listing

1. I Zimbra
2. Mind
3. Cities
4. Paper
5. Life During Wartime
6. Memories Can't Wait
7. Air
8. Heaven
9. Animals
10. Electric Guitar
11. Drugs

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34327 in Music
• Released on: 1984-06-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 naiveté ("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

CD Description
FEAR OF MUSIC is the point of transition between the angular art-school new wave of the Heads' early work and the P-Funk-inspired modalism of their early-'80s output. While there's nothing as funky or visionary as REMAIN IN LIGHT here, thealbum represents a step in a new direction. At the same time, the Heads' white-knuckled neuroticism is pushed to the extreme here. Almost unrelentingly dark and paranoid-sounding,the tunes find Byrne at his most Anthony Perkins-like, and the interplay of the guitars, even more syncopated and thoughtfully arranged than on the previous album, provides a pointillistic landscape on which Byrne can let his twitchy persona run free. From the tense espionage tale of "Life During Wartime" to the global disaffection of "Cities", Byrne and company seem wound so tight you wonder when they'll snap. One of the only places to look for breathing room here is the funky, African-sounding "I Zimbra", with its highlife-influenced guitars and tribal chanting. This tune also points the way to the mind-blowing innovations that were just around the corner on REMAIN IN LIGHT.

Customer Reviews

Talking Heads at their best
This is an excellent album from an excellent band. There are a variety of styles on here that all work. From the almost anthemic Heaven, the guitar heavy Memories can't wait and the brilliant Life During Wartime. The music is a mix of guitars and electronics that compliment David Byrne's vocal style perfectly. It sounds as good now as when it was released and is a definite must have for any Talking Heads fan

Fear Is The Key
In the early days of the New York New Wave, Talking Heads were scorned by many of their cooler than thou contemporaries because they were "nerds". But their debut album showcased a fresh, immediate sound and the nerds were well on the way to becoming cool themselves. 'Fear of Music', their third album, fulfilled the vast potential demonstrated on their previous releases.

Rumour has it that when Sire signed them David Byrne made Tina Weymouth re-audition for the position of bass player. Whether that's true or not, if the band (not just Weymouth) had technical limitations their creative vision was virtually boundless. On this album the spiky urgency of before has a new sure-footedness. Tracks like 'Cities' and 'Life During Wartime' for example motor forward with a well-oiled self-assurance to complement that spikiness.

Other tracks like 'Drugs' and 'Heaven' strip the sound to its bare essentials, thus bringing to the fore Byrne's edgy vocals exploring themes of urban dislocation and paranoia. But despite all this unease this imperfect modern world is celebrated too because Heaven is, as Byrne observes, "a place where nothing ever happens".

Right down to its mostly one-word song titles, 'Fear of Music' is a minimalist masterpiece. Talking Heads made many other great albums but even if they hadn't this alone would have ensured their place in rock history.

Not just for 70s nostalgics: exciting as any music today
Astonishingly fresh almost 25 years after it was first released, this is Talking Heads masterpiece. The lyrics are as weird as they are inspired, the music is loose and muscular in its post-punk rocky confidence.

While most people buying this are probably going through the process of replacing vinyl, this album is far too good just for that audience. This is dynamite, exciting music, that makes you want to dance as much as it makes you think. Talking Heads lyrics were always far beyond the standard romance, regret or rage topics of pop, and this album includes songs about urban guerrillas, the boredom of eternal life in paradise and the sneakiness of animals.

Perhaps surprisingly, the greatest song on the album is "I Zimbra", which has meaningless "mouth-music" lyrics in an invented nonsense language. This may be one of the most influential songs after punk. As well as being a great dance track, it must be one of the first examples of world rhythms injecting rock with their hybrid vigour, a precursor to Byrne and Eno's ground-breaking album "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" two years later.

So, if you owned this before, get it again. If you've never heard it, buy it anyway. At under a tenner, you can hardly go wrong, and you'll love it. No doubt about it.