Booting Brian Eno from the studio and cooling off after three years, Talking Heads return with influences yanking them in different directions. While it would not come to a head until their final album, Naked, the warning lights flashing on Speaking in Tongues are mistaken for flares of quality. Exploring different genres is inevitable for Talking Heads though they continue the narrative of dystopian fears and working to death found on Fear of Music and Remain in Light. But this is the fallout of getting what you want. Speaking in Tongues starts with a warning for listeners who were after more post-punk and new-wave flourishes. But the art rock stance and heavy funk influences are elevated. Talking Heads’ tense stand-off on Remain in Light is cleared out, replaced by a playful energy of hope and funk intensity.
Opener Burning Down the House does the heavy lifting for Speaking in Tongues’ tone. What happens if you get what you want? There is still an edge to Talking Heads upon their return to recording together. David Byrne has collapse on the mind with Making Flippy Floppy. Ghostly guitar work and a whining tempo held together by the rhythm and percussion blur from Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz give it an instrumental bridge like no other. Byrne and the band feel influenced by the touring funk bands of the time, Funkadelic plays a big part in Burning Down the House and certainly holds its own through instrumental flickers on Making Flippy Floppy. Jam sessions evolved into fully-fledged tracks, spawning a tour which would define the band’s legacy.
Stop Making Sense marks an intense entry point in Talking Heads. What a place it is to start with their discography. Speaking in Tongues marked a pop into the charts, and though the popularity contest is no mark of musical quality it did present this record, particularly Burning Down the House, as a turning point away from darker elements of burning new wave passions and into groovier, orchestrated funk sections. Swamp grows and grows on each listen. Those grinding punts of electronic terror, this horrifying knife slide-like eruption developed alongside a slick and constant bass riff, it all comes together as Byrne gets his hands dirty and sharpens this claustrophobic feel. Talking Heads may dip into nonsense lyrics on Swamp but it is the conviction Byrne has and the openness to ideas vaguely present in Speaking in Tongues which define it as a remarkable piece.
Flickers of an environmental consciousness grow on Pull up the Roots. An endless highway paving over the natural beauties and leaving people battling their mind. It provides a tortured experience and Speaking in Tongues may look liberated of thought but the lack of lyrical connection is a wonderful spiral. Byrne is a man possessed by intonation and the lack of specifics. Out of his mind and beautiful sounds of the world around him, most of it built up by sharp and influenced work from the rest of Talking Heads, is the convincing foundation for wilder wordplay. It is Talking Heads at their most disconnected, and certainly their best. Catchy hooks, sparks of instrumental bliss and it all comes to a head on album closer This Must Be the Place, a truthful track filled with a rejection of dystopian fears and instead a comfort in finding your way home.
