Talking Heads Album: “Talking Heads Dual Disc Brick”

All eight official Talking Heads studio albums are collected here in a nice embossed plastic 'brick' on state-of-the-art DualDiscs.

Each DualDisc contains a remastered stereo mix on one side and a 5.1 dolby surround (DVD-A) mix of the other side. Each side comes with different bonus tracks, varying from outtakes to remixes, music videos and rare live video footage.

Of course, like with every boxset, the collection is not complete - there are different alternate versions and outtakes on the previously released "Sand in the Vaseline" 2CD set and "Once in a Lifetime" boxset, but "Brick" offers a lot of new -and previously unreleased- material to keep you busy for a while.

The 5.1 surround mix - done by longtime Talking Heads producer Eric 'E.T.' Thorngren and Heads' keyboard player Jerry Harrison - is by far the best surround mix I've ever heard. It beats 'new' surround albums like the latest Beck and Bjork easily with an amazing mix that puts you in the perfect spot with the band playing just in front of you and effects (percussion!) haunting you from every corner of the room. And it all sounds natural! Try anything from "Remain in Light" or "Naked" (the bands most tense albums) in surround and you know what I mean.

But also the less complicated albums (Jerry added some nice linernotes on the 5.1 mixes to every album) sound spectacular in surround; it's unbelievable that everything you hear now (handclaps, basslines, percussion, background vocals, soundeffects) was on the original records when they were first recorded - A lot of details were inaudible on the vinyls and previous CD releases, so even for the die-hard fans (and I consider myself one), there's a lot to explore on the new discs.

Each DualDisc comes with linernotes, lyrics and a limited edition artprint (mostly reproductions of works from Frank Olinsky's book "What the Songs Look Like).

Highlights for me -besides rediscovering the entire Talking Heads backcatalogue in glorious surround sound and high-detailed stereo mixes- include old live video footage (a 3-piece Talking Heads with drummer Chris Frantz on Xylophone!), super-funky unreleased outtakes on "Remain in Light", early versions of classic hits like "Road to Nowhere" and "And She Was" and a special extended version of "Burning Down the House" in surround sound that was done especially for this release.

The DualDisks are scheduled for seperate release in January 2006, but if you want them all, "Brick" is for you.

Since most people visiting this site are already probably familiar with Talking Heads' music, I'll skip the hyperbole. You know how good their music is. And before I say anything else, I have to mention that it's definitely worth owning every single one of the albums included in this box. But you should also know how alternately revelatory and frustrating this boxed set turns out to be.

Now, then...the Brick.

What a great idea. Remaster all the albums, both in 2.0 and 5.1 mixes, one mix on either side of each disc in the DualDisc format, and box them all together. They play 5.1 in either DVD-Audio players or regular DVD players.

The 5.1 mixes are a revelation...I've been listening to this music for over 20 years and I'm hearing so many things for the first time that have previously been buried in the mix...really incredible. Almost all of the discs benefit from this depth and clarity - especially More Songs, Remain in Light, and Naked. However, these were remixed by Jerry Harrison...so the keyboards are jacked up really high in the mix. Which is cool in some cases as they were initially (unfairly) minimized on certain albums. But it also means that Speaking In Tongues is an entirely different listen. The keyboard parts have dated a little bit, so it becomes a true artifact of the 80's. Huge sound, swirling effects, and distracting stereo trickery. It's almost as if it were reproduced by Esquivel.

Now for the bonuses -- the extra tracks on each disc are fascinating. Not fascinating enough to warrant repeated listenings in most cases, but intriguing if you're a Talking Headsophile. The artifacts from the Fear of Music and Remain in Light sessions, especially, provide indications as to Eno's influence in their writing process at the time. They sound much like Eno songs backed by the Heads. The demos, alternate takes, and remixes of several songs are also very cool. There are also a handful of additional outtakes, such as "I Feel It In My Heart" from the 77 sessions (which was deservedly left off the album) and "Sax and Violins" from the Naked sessions (which would have provided a much-needed ray of hope to close out the oppressively bleak second half of that album). However, some of them are given the 5.1 treatment while others inexplicably are not.

Worse, they've neglected to include some of the outtakes they've released on other collections in the past. Where's "I Want to Live", "Popsicle", "In Asking Land", "Gangster of Love", and "Lifetime Piling Up"? Those last two or three songs are lame, but as long as they're being comprehensive here, what gives? Also missing are the alternate versions of "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town" and "New Feeling" previously released elsewhere. You can get some of this stuff on iTunes, by the way -- just not here. But that's not as unforgivable as the video omissions.

Although their last feeble collection, "Once in a Lifetime", was kind of a joke, it came boxed with the spectacular, expanded DVD version of their video collection "A Storytelling Giant". All of their videos were included with the original between-song vignettes intact. The Brick doesn't include this disc. Instead, they give us some early live stuff (admittedly, the shaky footage of "Warning Sign" gives me the shivers, it's so good) some Fear of Music-era live stuff (fine) and a smattering of their videos later on.

Excellent, but where's my favorite video of theirs, for "(Nothing But) Flowers"? How about "The Lady Don't Mind" or "Stay Up Late?" For god's sake, where are the original, revolutionary videos for "Crosseyed and Painless" and "Once in a Lifetime"!? They're shucked for live versions of both songs. This is shocking.

The packaging looks neat from the outside. Like everything else the band does, it's designed to fascinate. But it couldn't have killed them to have the names of the discs embossed on the spines. Likewise, it'd be great to be able to see exactly where the bonus songs are on the disc without digging through the CD insert to find the song titles. But now I'm nitpicking.

All that aside, I've spent hours poring over this treasure trove. It's my favorite band, after all. But you shouldn't spend this much on a boxed set and not get everything they could feasibly have crammed into it. Was it a contract issue or some kind of rights agreement that kept these significant items off the set? Good thing it was a gift, or I'd feel a liiiiiiitle cheated. But I'm going to give the Brick four stars because the band's just about the best thing in the world and this is where you can find (almost) all of it.

There are very few bands where I own their entire output. Talking Heads is one of them. Why? Like many pivotal and seminal bands they made memorable music. This collection of the band's eight studio albums comes in the dual disc format with CD audio on one side plus (yea!) bonus tracks, extended remixes and outtakes. The other side features the entire album remixed in surround sound format with videos, photo galleries and other enticements. I noticed that some folks complained about the Dualdiscs not playing on their players. My guess is that if your player is more than a couple of years old, it may not play this format or just have a difficult time finding the instructions on how to play. It's a pretty common problem in situations like this. Why four stars and not five? Because the Heads eight albums vary a bit in quality. All of them are worthwhile but some or better written or more groundbreaking than others.

The good news--the audio on the CD sound blows away the previous CDs issued in the early 90's. There's better dynamic range which benefits all the albums but two of my favorites in particular "Remain in Light" and "Fear of Music". The other CDs sound much, much better with the sound having greater clarity and better presence. While many of the bonus tracks having been previously released ("Sugar on My Tounge" and "Saxes and Violins" in particular) there are some from the boxed set and two CD best of set that aren't on here. We do get early versions of "Road to Nowhere", "And She Was", an extended version of "Television Man","Two Note Swivel" (and unfinished outtake from "Speaking in Tongues"), "Burning Down the House" (Alternate version, three outtakes from "Remain in Light", an acoustic "Psycho Killer", "Love-Building on Fire", "I Feel it in My Heart" and four alternate versions of tracks from "More".

The bad news--The CD side of "Fear of Music" won't play on a lot of computers and some CD players (evidently some home CD players as well) but that's not the case with all of these. I didn't have any problems with the rest of the releases. I have written Rhino to find out what they are going to do about the authoring problem for "Fear of Music" (which is why it won't play on a lot of devices). Once I hear back, I'll report if there will be a replacement disc issued. I haven't had problems with the CD side for any of the other discs and since I usually listen to the CD side in the car, that could be an issue (for more folks than me I might add).

***Just an update--I contacted Rhino and there are no plans to repress "Fear of Music" if there are problems with your CD player or computer. It appears the CD/DVD hybrid is not compatable with a lot of players. That's too bad as Rhino will probably lose a few sales due to this. Rhino plans on releasing these titles individually in the Spring of 2006.***

The CD artwork doesn't exactly duplicate the original albums or CDs themselves. The discs are issued with a new booklet but the backside of the holders are blank (as are the spines on the holders). Clearly the holder was supposed to act as an "art object" (much as the latest incarnation of the "Best of" with the large book is supposed to be a coffee table art book). Still, it would have been nice to have the option of knowing what CD you were pulling out of the case.

The DVD side has all eight albums remixed in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound by Head Jerry Harrison. There are also live video performances, videos, photo galleries and the like. Harrison does a great job in remixing the albums. The first album recorded only in 16 track in particular sounds surprisingly strong in this incarnation. The best albums though in terms of sound are those involving complex arrangements or polyrhythmic interplay such as "Fear of Music", "Remain in Light", "Speaking in Tongues" and "Naked". That's not to say that albums like "Little Creatures" don't sound great--they do and Harrison does a great job of remixing them it's just that in terms of textures and sonics those albums lend themselves well to the format. If you're watching TV while listening there is a single static graphic that appears on screen (all of them quite interesting looking and featuring the unmistakable Heads arty bend)with the song title. No lyrics appear as you're watching the video (unlike, say, the "Crowded House" Dualdisc release). It's kind of interesting to listen to the 5.1 mix in stereo as well because different elements come out and are accentuated creating a slightly different mix to the sound.

The videos include live performances of the band (previously unreleased on DVD) with the "Fear of Music" and "Remain in Light" material played by the augmented line up featuring guitarist Adrian Belew (their best line up in my opinion)doing "Cities", "I Zimbra"

Each Dualdisc comes in a CD like case with a white plastic backing. The titles of the CDs aren't on the individual holders which is a bit of a pain. The booklets feature new photos, lyrics, comments from contemporaries (such as support member current King Crimson/Bear Adrian Belew and XTC's Andy Partridge). There's also miniature limited edition art prints that illustrate a song or lyric enclosed in the booklet. They are kind of small so be careful or you'll lose them.

My only complaint--I wish that all the"new" tracks from the two disc best of had been included as bonus tracks on the discs or, at the very least, be included as a limited edition Dualdisc available as part of the package for "Brick". Other than that, Rhino has done a great job here. The outside packaging featuring the titles of Talking Head songs is a hard plastic shell within which all the Dualdiscs fit. It's a bit bigger than a CD which makes it pretty easy to store with your other boxed sets on a shelf or with other CDs. Kudos to Rhino and the Heads on such an excellent job with the remastering/packaging.

My personal ratings for each album: 77 five stars, "More Songs" 5 stars, "Fear" five stars, "Remain" five stars, "Speaking in Tongues" four stars, "True Stories" three stars, "Naked" four stars. You'll have your own personal ratings and favorites no doubt based on when you got into the Heads.

I have had an infuriating experience with Warner Music Group lasting a year, first, over the Rhino "Brick" box, and now the individual T-Heads DualDisc titles. My problem is physical damage to the discs, unnecessarily caused by obvious careless handling & packaging at the pressing plant.

In the "Brick", the unique white jewel cases come gouged and scratched, and the discs in both the Brick and individually-packaged titles, have fingerprints, smears, scratches, and pits.

This began last year when I purchased the "Brick" upon release. When I opened the set, every jewel case was damaged. These cases have a solid white rear panel, and can't be commercially replaced. They are not individually shrink-wrapped (which would eliminate the problem), and are obviously forcefully shoved into the box set's plastic outer shell at the plant, hence the damage.

It was worse inside each jewel case: All of the discs literally looked like they were used. Several were so badly artifacted they couldn't be read in any player or drive.

So, following web site direction, I e-mailed "Dr. Rhino". I received a reply, which directed me to return the set for replacement. As this is an expensive item, that entailed going to the Post Office to buy Insurance & Delivery Confirmation at my own cost. Annoyed, I decided to wait a few months, reasoning that perhaps the first production batch was bad and they would sell through. I stood in line at the USPS for 45 minutes, mailed it and waited. Six weeks later, the replacement showed up, carelessly packed into a crushed box, and the entire set was in worse shape than the first one. I e-mailed again, didn't get an answer for 2 months, and when I did, it was "send it back again"! The audacity of that response was pretty amazing: Why would I keep wasting my money and time to cycle their defective product?

So, I contacted the CD store where I purchased the original set. All the TH titles had been released individually, so the store manager & I decided we would change out the box for the separate titles, and he would return the bad ones.

I just received those yesterday: In five of the eight titles, all the same surface-damage artifacts. Several digipaks had their plastic disc retaining spindles broken with shards floating around inside. Also, inside each digipak, there is a 3.5"-square paper "DualDisc" tutorial insert. In some of the digipaks, it was tossed on top of the disc, where it rubs against the disc, an additional cause of surface damage.

So, the store manager is going to continuously order in each individual title and open them, looking for virgin discs. He is going to return all the defective discs, and repeat the process going until he finds five clean discs. Which is pathetic.

I've been thru three complete sets in one year, which means you are almost certainly going to run into this problem with your purchase. So, when you buy the Brick or any of the individual titles, please do not accept & settle for damaged product. Send it back to Amazon, e-mail Rhino, do whatever you have to do to get what you paid a lot of money for.

This would have never happened, or would have certainly been quickly corrected, when Messrs. Foos & Bronson, who founded Rhino, were in charge. Unfortunately, in 1998, Rhino was swallowed whole and "WEA-fied" by the odious Warner Music Group, where CEO Edgar Bronfman is obviously far more interested in extolling the virtues of DRM than he is in running a business that can deliver quality.

I don't have the whole box set, I bought a couple of the individual packages (Remain in light, and Speaking In Tongues). I'm blown away by the 5.1 mix. It's great. I have SIT on vinyl and it's like hearing it for the first time. Having the 5.1 format really lends itself well to this album. The CD side is pretty darn clean too. So much for the good. I stuck the cd in my computer hoping to rip the tracks to FLAC format like I do for all of my CDs, LPs, and tapes. Most of my listening now days is done through a computer connected to a mixing console which is connected to my receiver. It just makes it easier to mix and match tracks, and it also is nice to be able to get up in the morning on Saturday cue up a bunch of stuff and let it play all day. These discs were kind enough to install some form of copy protection on my system (MediaMax) without asking me. FreeBSD was able to rip them no problem. That's not the point though. When I pay for a product it's mine to do with what I want. If I share it illegally, fine give it to me with both barrels I deserve it, but if I haven't broken the law why are you treating me like a criminal. When I pay for a computer it's mine to install or not install what I want on it. Where do these moronic corporations get the idea that their need to protect their content trumps my fair use rights as a consumer, or my right to decide what should or shouldn't be installed on my computer. I was able (through a lot of google searching) to remove the software they installed, but that shouldn't have been necessary. How many other users out there don't have the technical wherewithall to do that. It's crap, and as consumers we ought to vote with our wallets and send these guys a clear message.