Customer Reviews

Fear of Music

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album was recorded by the Talking Heads in Long Island City, NY in 1979 which led me to wonder how Brian Eno got to Queens -- did he take the 7 train to Queens Borough Plaza and then walk over? After all, the 7 train does appear in at least one Talking Heads video. Regardless, this album has a real live feel to it, like it was recorded in someone's living room and mixed to reproduce the live experience of a bass, guitar, drum and keyboard ensemble. It is the Heads at their most trimmed down production and in tone, texture, production values and subject matter, it reminds me of Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division which was also recorded that year. I know the Heads must have had an awareness of Joy Division since their song "The Overload" on Remain In Light (1980) is frighteningly close to JD's "I Remember Nothing." Besides, everyone on earth knew who Joy Division was by 1980.

At first blush, this album is weird, quirky, mysterious and fragmented. But closer examination reveals a pretty huge sense of humor. The title alone, Fear of Music, is hilarious and is a key to the sensibilities that run throughout the songs. David Byrne paints one portrait after another of phobia, fear of electric guiars, fear of animals, fear of air, fear of Heaven, fear of cities, fear of wartime, fear of paper. Fear of paper?

Fear of music is a very city oriented album. It is not an album of art rock by art school students like their first two albums. It is a garage band that has spaced out on too much surrealism, late-night television, science fiction movies and Dadaist poetry. They even use a Dadaist poem by Hugo Ball as the lyrics for "I Zimbra" which is written in pseudo-African words and chanted to hypnotic effect by the Heads to a point where you almost feel emotion coming from the meaningless words. "Mind" and "Paper" are simple themed songs evoking what is probably a metaphor for Self: "Hold the paper/Up to the Light/Some rays they pass right through!"

The two great classics of the album come back to back: "Life During Wartime" and "Cities." They are epic pre-Remain In Light songs that speak of fear and trembling more potently than any other Heads song either before or after. "Find a city/Find myself a city to live in" is evocative of the Mad Max nomad who doesn't fit in anywhere and probably doesn't even have a name. "Life During Wartime" was covered many times with a slightly different sound and in the great concert movie "Stop Making Sense" it even provides a backdrop to a mid-concert aeorbics dance session, but here it is pure and uncut, no doubt recorded moments after Byrne taught the tune to the band, and it shines as a dark, disaffected piece of science fiction poetry. "Burned all my notebooks/What good are notebooks/They won't help me survive/My chest is aching/burns like a furnace/The burning keeps me alive!"

"Memories Can't Wait" is a psychedelic masterpiece. "Air" makes breathing itself seem fearful. "Animals" is disturbing and may be a top of the hat to Pink Floyd that had released their "Animals" album the year before. "Heaven" is a beautiful tune but it even makes Heaven seem sinister. "Drugs" which ends the album is scary to listen to. Byrne jogged around the city block several times before recording his vocals, and you can hear the edge in his voice and the lack of breath as he struggles to get the words out. You can only hope he's acting.

The album made Rolling Stones Top 100 Albums of the last 20 years issue and deserves it. It is a dark testament to a bunch of paranoid musicians huddled in a Queens loft right before they became really, really famous. It is an album that should be studied by historians.

all talking heads albums are great [with the exception of 'true stories', but thats more of a soundtrack than an album proper] but this is the best. it combines the minimalism and edginess of the first two albums with the african instrumentation and polyrhythms of 'remain in light'. like my bloody valentine or sigur ros, talking heads distilled their guitar sound into its base elements on this album; a unique, scratchy, edgy noise. brian eno's contribution is evident in the strange sounds and effects which run through this album. far from sounding dated and gimmicky, however, the production still sounds fresh and exciting. tina weymouth's bass makes the faster songs pure dance music [the subsonic bass drops on 'i zimbra' sounds have to be heard to be believed; it sounds like whales' mating calls!]. the slower songs such as and 'air' 'mind', and the ballad 'heaven' are beautiful, and never sound trite or cliched.

lyrically, david byrne is on top paranoid form; his chracters see the banal aspects of everyday life; paper, guitars, pets, even air, as either crushingly important or terribly threatening. there is also a strong feeling of claustrophobia permeating the album, such as the endless descriptions of disorientation is 'life during wartime' and the cry of 'i'm stuck here in this seat' in 'memories can't wait'.

this album is talking heads at the height of their creativity; fulfilling the promise of their early material but avoiding the later works' occasional lack of focus.

At the close of the 70's David Byrne and his band, with a little help from friend Brian Eno, guided us on an unforgettable musical odyssey. With openness, clarity and a sense of introverted post-adolescence, they provided education into the lack of soul in 70s rock. Fear of Music articulated the angst we experienced giving ourselves over to the nihilistic hedonism of the disco apocalypse. As its two predecessors had done, Fear Of Music made informed surgical incisions into the bloated cancer of corporate rock. 1n 1979, Fear of Music was a lifesaver, a touchstone, providing escape and a refuge from the meaninglessness while at the same time holding a tongue-in-cheek mirror up to it -- and to ourselves. Paranoiac obsessions about Paper, Air and Electric Guitars were strangely satisfying, while Life During Wartime became a contradictory anthem for those who were and weren't thinking. Mind remains a personal all time favorite. Phish's fabulous remake of Cities was stunning enough to force a rediscovery of the original. Although the album hasn't aged well, being rooted in the dying gasps of the 70s, every song is an absolute classic. Memories Can't Wait, so if you have it, give it another spin. If not, don't be afraid to discover an amazing artifact of the 70s.

"I Zimbra" is a wild African rhythmic wonder complete with nonsense lyric chant which immediately announces a departure from the previous two Talking Heads discs. The new direction is marked by that familiar frantic energy but now it doesn't sound so friendly. The first two were like great music for art school parties but FEAR OF MUSIC's atmospheres are menaced by paranoia, and FEAR. As if the very "Air" we breathe is not safe, and perhaps it isn't. But "Air" is a great song, great heavenly music and background voices and guitar. And so is "Heaven" even if it is "is a place where nothing ever happens". "Drugs" is perhaps the least Talking Heads sounding song. Certainly the most Eno crafted. An Eno created environment with great slowed down Heads rhythm section, and Byrne tentatively exploring his new surroundings which are both ethereal and primordial(Eno reptile and insect noises in background). Perhaps Eno cages the band a bit too much in his ideas. I like this disc but always look forward to once again hearing the more accessible Heads albums after this one.

This disc came out in '79, the same year as Bowie's Lodger. Both were produced by Eno & both reveal Eno's fascination with Africa and sound collage which would appear later in more advanced form on the Byrne/Eno My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
Just like some people didn't like what Eno did with Bowie's pop, so there are plenty of people that feel he shouldn't have messed with Talking Heads sound.

If you play Remain in Light, "Once in a Lifetime" for instance, after this disc it will sound very liberating. Much more alive and in touch with both Heads own roots and the world at large. And even more alive is the very live disc, THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS. There "I Zimbra" and "Drugs"(funked up with great guitar part) as well as "Memories Can't Wait" and "Life During Wartime" removed from the studio come alive and find their true form along with all the other great Headtunes of the first four discs.

David Byrne always passes off the "Fear" angle/theme here as a joke -- but I don't buy it. These songs are anxious, clautrophobic, and twisted -- and legitimately so to my ears. They're also poppy as a laundry basket full of poppyseed muffins, and this aural culture clash has been known to lead to vertigo -- don't look down....

Summer of 1979. I just graduated from high school. I was into The Who and Led Zep during those years and then I listened to this album. Fear of Music instantly changed my listening preferences much like in the scene from Taxi when Jim, as a college student, eats a pot brownie and changes immediately into the stoned Reverend Jim. Fear of Music introduced me to Eno, Bowie, early Roxy Music, and alot of the new wave music that was coming out at that time. David Johansen's first album stayed on my turntable for a long while. Today Luna and Wilco take up alot of space on my iPod, and I thank Fear of Music for this.

"I Zimbra" opens FEAR OF MUSIC kind of famously for its wordless or "nonsense" lyric, merely vocal utterances, musical syllables coupled with complex rhythmic styling and an irresistible groove. This is followed by the equally rhythmic yet persecuted "Mind," the HEADS at their most minimalist, "I need something to change your mind..." We're then freed by "Paper" and its translucent and resonant homage to guitar rock. "Cities" perhaps defines this record and its era ("...Some good points! Some bad points! Find a city, find myself a city to live in!") It's absurd minimalism at its most ironic. We're then necessarily treated to the woeful "Life During Wartime" which also happens to be one of the great party grooves of that era ("This ain't no party! This ain't no disco! This ain't no foolin' around!" This ain't the Mud Club or CBGB's...I ain't got time for that now!")

"Memories Can't Wait" has an unusually lush production for this album, and is reminiscent of acid rock at its most obscure, but is more off-key and desperate, like its lyric suggests. There is something terribly true, insightful, and disturbing, about David Byrne's lyric "Take a walk thru the land of shadows take a walk thru the peaceful meadows...don't look so disappointed, it isn't what you hoped for, is it?" Perhaps the most influential track on the album, Byrne sings, "I'm wide awake on memories...these memories can't wait!" That tune is about as profound as the TALKING HEADS get.

"Air" is a delight as light as its name and humorous, and like all these weird little songs, a catchy tune. "Heaven" is perhaps the most quoted of all songs on this album ("Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens...!") Brilliant but cold, it does remind me of (the great) Neil Young at his most ponderous and protracted. "Animals" is what we are, capiche? Funky, and a little skunky. "They're livin' on nuts and berries..."

Like objects "Paper" upon which he writes his lyrics, or "Mind" from which ideas spring, the artist's "Electric Guitar" is essential and that track comes across like a 1950s Sci-Fi homage to the institutional claim of one's art, or perhaps the fascist claim of same by the state, or more likely, the cognescenti (i.e. the New York press or Rolling Stone magazine) bringing FEAR OF MUSIC back to personal expression and the hold of such expression on the artist, both fearful and funny. "Someone controls electric guitar...Someone controls electric guitar..."

The last track "Drugs" is an afterthought nightmare dream float you forget in the night, a footnote, a dream float, an insight and epiphany, the last secret little piece...

Produced by Brian Eno, who may have been a bit heavy handed here or there, but only in comparison with the HEADS' followup, FEAR OF MUSIC remains a mesmerizing album that is also underrated. Perceived by some as an extention of MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD, but FEAR OF MUSIC is moving towards the HEADS' masterpiece and has a unique transitional quality. Not exactly loveable, hardly perfect, but nonetheless groundbreaking, fascinating, and essential. There would be no REMAIN IN LIGHT if there was not FEAR OF MUSIC.

The best Heads album and my second favorite album of all time next only to Floyd's Dark Side. Byrne creates a transition between Buildings and Remain in Light that remains forever embedded in my mind as a social commentary and funk album that will stand as one of the all-time greats. If you like this avoid post Speaking In Tounges albums.

This album is a bleak thing, even on picking up the cover. Originally released in a manhole-cover-textured embossed black sleeve, the forbidding industrial appearance of this album definitely provided a clue as to where David Byrne's mind was going to be at on the inside. Starting out with a Hugo Ball lyric with no meaning, this ride hurtles thru many dark and darkened aspects of life at the time. And although it sometimes hits an upbeat tempo ("Life During Wartime") or major key ("Heaven"), there's always the clear and present sense of danger and menace lurking just around the corner. The funk elements grow even deeper, and the atmospheric weirdness courtesy of at-this-point collaborator Brian Eno frequently hits a deluging, assaultive tone, especially on "Memories Can Wait" and "Drugs". A panicked, claustrophobic album that perfectly evokes America on the brink of the 80s, at the height of the Cold War, and the cusp of its abrupt shift to the Right. This is the Heads at the start of their peak of power, which would continue thru to the follow-up, "Remain in Light".

I never had a very large interest, other than curiosity, about the Talking Heads. However, I love modern experimental music(They Might Be Giants, Laurie Anderson, Captain Beefheart) and after seeing the soundtrack for 'Stop Making Sense' in the library and decided to check it out. Apart from 'Psycho Killer' and 'Once in a Lifetime', the album left be a tad disapointed. While at the library again, I found the album 'Fear of Music'. I found it to be one of the finest cd's I have ever heard, matched only by TMBG's 'Flood', and Philip Glass' 'Dancepieces'. From the pulsating joy of I Zimbra(actually a dada poem set to music) to the fractured backbeat of 'Drugs', the album captured me. The best song on here hands down is 'Mind', a ghostly and sad song seemingly about a doomed relationship. The second is 'Animals', a terrific exercise in paranoia. The final minute of that song one of the most interesting pieces of music I have ever heard. Those two songs are well worth the whole album.