Love This Giant
Todo Mundo Records
Five Scoops of Bosco
Reviewed by Allen Bacon, The Daily Bosco
As much as I hate to admit this.....as much as I love the work of David Bryne, I've been waiting for a long time for him to make an album that recaptured that sound he had when he was the founding member of Talking Heads.
Just one more time.
I have enjoyed his musical journey and have embraced almost everything he has come out with over the past twenty years musically and artistically since the breakup of Talking Heads. And while I know that there is no possibility of that original lineup getting back together anytime soon, the best we can hope for is for a solo or collaborative project that gets back to the Talking Heads sound.
I think he has done it at points, whether that was his intention or not, with his latest. Pretty darn close.
From the very opening song, "Who" (my favorite track) on Love This Giant, released earlier this week, a music collaboration with Tulsa Indie Rocker St. Vincent (Annie Clark) the poppy, infectious, irreverent sound of Talking Heads can be found here. But the other half of the album goes in other directions also.
So, I guess, there is something for everybody.
Bryne and Clark first recorded together on Byrne's collaboration with Fat Boy Slim entitled Here Lies the Love
Even though it is a collaboration, Byrne and Clark sing lead on the music they write on this album save for one song, "The Forest Awakes".
Great song writing, story telling and vocalizations here by both Clark and Bryne who take turns with the lead vocals, but the real star of the album is the great brass instrumentation and arrangements. The horns will simply blow you away.
Bryne and Clark started collaborating at the suggestion of a concert organizer who put on a Bjork and Dirty Projectors show that they both attended to benefit Dark Was The Night.
Initially slated just for a single live performance, Clark suggested adding brass to their line-up to augment the sound and the two decided that they could write original music around horns. Several months of composing lyrics together in person and via email, an entire album's worth of material was created.
Byrne and Clark are presently on tour to promote the album and I look forward to seeing them at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles when they get to my neck of the woods in October.
No comments:
Post a Comment