My Top 20 Albums from 1978 No 20

MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD

Year Of Release: 1978
Record rating = 7
Overall rating = 11

Diddy-did-did-diddy-dy-dee... di-did-did-did-did-d-d-d-dii... That's the sound of the Talking Heads, if you're not aware.
Best song: WITHOURLOVETHEGOODTHINGWARNINGSIGNTHEGIRLS... yeah, yeah, up to track number nine.

Track listing: 1) Thank You For Sending Me An Angel; 2) With Our Love; 3) The Good Thing; 4) Warning Sign; 5) The 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) The Big Country.

Is More Songs the album that defines New Wave? Well... both yes, it does, and no, it doesn't. "No" in the sense that it's hard to define New Wave at all. What is New Wave? Much as I love definitions, I can hardly define this term, and it's good: it shows that New Wave wasn't so much a distinct musical style all enclosed in itself than just a solid musical period in which classic Sixties' pop was temporarily revived on a different scale. Therefore, just as you can't give a uniform definition to 'Sixties pop', in the same way you can't give a definition to New Wave. The Talking Heads, the Cars, and the Police are all New Wave, but is their music similar? Hmm... in a certain way, yes, but certainly not as similar as the music of any two selected heavy metal bands or any two selected rap combos.
That said, More Songs is still a quintessential New Wave record, more so than any Police or Cars record. And on the surface, this isn't very good. As the Heads combine forces with producer Brian Eno (St Eno's Fire!!), who would remain their main 'spiritual guide' throughout their golden period, they fully embrace the famous 'paranoid' writing and performing style they are most well-known for. More Songs' main attraction are, of course, the guitars - Byrne's maniacal voice and Tina Weymouth's funky bass are mere pleasant decorations, an important part of the overall sound but never its essence. But oh those guitars. The album is quite revolutionary in the way it completely redefines the guitar sound of the Seventies. There is certainly a lot of Eno influence on here; I can trace the way Byrne's and Harrison's guitars actually sound to some of Eno's own albums, most notably Taking Tiger Mountain, and, not coincidentally, Eno himself is also credited with some of the guitars for this album. But this album is all about the guitars. How can this sound be described? Paranoid and funky, sure, but more than just paranoid and funky. Perhaps the best example of this addictive buzz is 'Stay Hungry'. It's actually a very complex sound, based on overdubs of several fast jerky guitar rhythms crossed with each other, sometimes bopping along at different speed, sometimes with different special effects and Eno-treatments, but the key to their essence is that the resulting sound is not of a robotic character. If you listen closely, you'll see that it features all kinds of weird syncopation, plus the band has a lot of fun with volume and tonality effects - sometimes that droning buzz becomes just a wee bit faster, sometimes just a wee bit slower, then a wee bit quieter, then a wee bit louder, then they intentionally miss a note or two, then they put in a trifle of a wah-wah effect for a couple of seconds. All of these things are very hard to perform live, of course, and I'd bet you anything that a lot of the effect was lost in concert, but as a studio experience, this is as wonderful as it ever gets. It goes without saying that these rhythms served as one of the primary influences for Eighties and Nineties dance-pop, but the brainless popsters missed the 'human' factor in the sound and just went along with the robotic one. The profanes!!
But remember, I said something about this record being a quintessential New Wave record not being very good. And why's that? Because in search for that weird drone, the Heads and top Head Byrne forgot to bother about the melodies. In a certain sense, again, there are melodies here, but they all seem to be secondary in relation to the sound. Truthfully, I simply can't tell most of the songs apart - the only thing that helps is that the band is so paranoid they never make any pauses within actual songs, so whenever a short break comes on, you get to understand that there's another song coming. But to me, even after four or five listens, it's still all just one song. There are three exceptions. The record starts with an upbeat, 'Get Back'-rhythm based stomper pretentiously called 'Thank You For Sending Me An Angel' that has Byrne at his most schizophrenic and the band at its most rockin'. Then there's the BIG DRONE that lasts for eight tracks, after which comes the Heads' biggest hit up to that point, their cover of Al Green's 'Take Me To The River'. Frankly, I'm a bit puzzled as to why everybody loves that one so much. It's a good, soulful, intelligent number, but hardly essential for the Heads, and personally, I prefer when soulful grooves are done in a soulful manner - for my money, Bryan Ferry's version of it was done far better (unfortunately, I haven't heard the original). And 'The Big Country' that finishes the record is a lengthy melodyless bore: it might be the record's defining lyrical moment, with a hard-hitting anti-American rant on the part of Mr Byrne, but musically it starts nowhere and proceeds in the exact same direction.
That said, I still give the record an exceedingly high overall rating of eleven, simply because I dig that sound so much. Many people hated it at first and many people still hate it, but they're conservative. People, have the guts to recognize a revolutionary record when you see one - particularly considering that it was one of the last revolutionary rock records ever made. Oh, and do I really need to mention the sub-names of the 'Big Drone'? Are you interested in my particular opinion about its sub-parts? Fine. Two words. 'The Good Thing' is bouncy and jerky and very gentle, not to mention suggestive; 'Warning Sign' is bouncy and jerky and very atmospheric, not to mention scary; 'The Girls Want To Be With The Girls' is bouncy and jerky and very lesbian, not to mention Brit-poppy; 'Found A Job' is VERY bouncy and VERY jerky and very dumb-sounding, not to mention weird; 'I'm Not In Love' is bouncy and jerky and very rough, not to mention eminently danceable; and 'Stay Hungry' is BOUNCY TO THE EXTREME and JERKY TO THE EXTREME and very addictive, not to mention... Oh hell, it's the Talking Heads we're discussing after all. Remember, if you want to save music, you'll have to learn to play the guitar like David Byrne does it.

featured songs
With our love & Take me To the River