Talking Heads ‎– Talking Heads: 77

“Talking Heads were among the first bands from the scene that emerged from New York’s CBGB in the mid-’70s to reach a national audience, at a time when “punk rock” was a fresh concept still making its way into Middle America. If their debut album, 1977’s Talking Heads: 77, doesn’t sound like punk rock from a remove of over four decades, that has more to do with how “punk” was soon codified as a genre rather than a way of approaching their art, and underestimates how striking and groundbreaking they truly were. Talking Heads clearly had musical antecedents in 1960s pop and rock, classic soul, and folk-rock, though it was obvious from the first they were mixing those ingredients in a unique way, and adding the edgy, nervous energy of David Byrne’s songs and vocals truly set them apart. Byrne was fortunate to have a band that was both talented and simpatico — Tina Weymouth’s bass and Chris Frantz’s drums give the tunes a churning groove, sometimes funky and sometimes motoric, and though Jerry Harrison was still growing into his role as the group’s utility man, his guitar and keyboards give the performances a depth and texture they need. That said, Byrne was the wild card who made Talking Heads something different; the nervous gulp of his vocals, his lyrical voice that took a quizzical look at the world around him and the emotions moving within him, and the melodies that managed to be both herky-jerky and inviting at the same time were all fresh and intriguing, and they still sound that way all these years later. The arrangements and production on Talking Heads: 77 suggest that the folks at the controls were trying to find a way to make this music a bit easier to swallow for the uninitiated, and the steel drums on “Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town,” the sax and marimba on “First Week/Last Week…Carefree,” and the playful bounce of “Don’t Worry About the Government” feel a bit out of place within the context of the band’s next two albums, 1978’s More Songs About Buildings and Food and 1979’s Fear of Music, which rank with their finest work. But the final two tracks, “Psycho Killer” and “Pulled Up,” end the show with a bang and point to the brilliant music they would make in the years to come. Talking Heads: 77 was a striking debut that sounds even better now than when it first arrived.” – allmusic.com

Label: Sire – SR 6036

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album

Country: US

Released: 1977

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