Album: “Popular Favorites 1976-1992/Sand in the Vaseline”

Description

This is a 2-disc retrospective with 3 previously unreleased tracks. Talking Heads: David Byrne (vocals, guitar); Jerry Harrison (guitar, keyboards); Tina Weymouth (bass); Chris Frantz (drums). Producers: Talking Heads, Brian Eno, Mark Spector, Tony Bongiovi, Lance Quinn, Steve Lillywhite, Nick Launay. Includes liner notes by each member of Talking Heads. It's hard to know where to begin when anthologizing a band as hugely influential as the Talking Heads, so the folks at Sire clearly had their work cut out for them in assembling this two-disc compilation. They took the sensible route, culling the best tunes from each album and assembling them chronologically, with a couple of previously unreleased bonus cuts thrown in to spice things up. The band's herky-jerky, nerd-with-a-guitar CBGB's days are represented by the anthemic "Psycho Killer." The expansion of their sonic palette is marked by their quirky cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" and the African-sounding "I Zimbra." The revolutionary funk-new wave hybrid of REMAIN OF LIGHT in the form of "Crosseyed and Painless" and the transcendent "Once in a Lifetime." "Burning Down the House" represents the concept of T-Heads as intellectual party band. The inclusion of some fiery live cuts makes it clear that the band could lay it down on the stage as well as in the studio. POPULAR FAVORITES is an ideal introduction to/overview of one of the late-1970s/early-'80s most important bands.