Little Creatures

Talking Heads | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002L80
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,014 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #49 in Music > Alternative Rock > New Wave & Post-Punk > Post-Punk
  • #66 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > General AAS

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Having spent the early '80s in a giddy expansion of the sound and scale of their studio recordings and concerts, Talking Heads come full circle with this 1985 album, retracting to the core quartet and restoring a focus on David Byrne's knotty songs. Arriving in the wake of the fevered rhythms of Speaking in Tongues and Stop Making Sense, Little Creatures's new material sounds freshly lyrical, remarkably concise, even subdued, but there's the usual whimsy--the levitating heroine of the jangling, punchy opener, "And She Was," the cracked child-rearing advice of "Stay Up Late," and the galloping, anthemic reminder that we're on the "Road to Nowhere." --Sam Sutherland

Product Description

Audio CD.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Come along and take this road to nowhere August 28, 2002

By Daniel Jolley HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Little Creatures is one of my all-time favorite CDs. I know a lot of Talking Heads fans consider this album a little too pop-oriented, but I love every song on here. This is particularly good music to sing along with, yet it still has plenty of quintessential David Byrne vocal sounds to distinguish it from non-Talking Heads music. I still hear And She Was on the radio from time to time, proving its longevity as a quirky, fun track, but for some unexplainable reason, nobody ever seems to play Road to Nowhere anymore. That was really the song that made me a TH fan, and I'll never forget the video with David Byrne running nonstop in the corner the whole time. Stay Up Late is another cool song that got some air play in its day; it's not a song you would want your babysitter to listen to while she is at your house, but it's just a typically fun, unique Talking Heads song.

All of the remaining songs are almost as good as the single releases. Give Me Back My Name, The Lady Don't Mind, Perfect World, and Walk It Down aren't spectacular, but they are quite enjoyable. I especially love the chorus of The Lady Don't Mind, and the last verse of Perfect World features vintage David Byrne vocals. Television Man comes closest to the earlier, more traditionally untraditional Talking Heads sound, and it features a great stretch of David Byrne vocal gymnastics. As enjoyable as all of these songs are, though, none compare to the song Little Creatures. It has a great flow to it, with interesting lyrics, and it shows how talented a singer David Byrne really is. The entire album has a fullness and flow that most albums just do not have; I never skip any of the tracks when I play this CD. This group's forehead-slapping music is great, but sometimes it is nice just to relax to calmer music such as this disc offers. Clocking in at just under forty minutes in length, Little Creatures is not terribly long, especially by today's standards, but it is enjoyable from start to finish. Some TH fans might consider this album a musical road to nowhere by this eclectic band, but in my opinion Little Creatures proves that the journey is often times the best part of the trip.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Talking Heads go pop -- good! May 11, 2005

By Allan Tong

Format:Audio CD

I adore Remain In Light, enjoy Speaking In Tongues, love Psycho Killer. But LITTLE CREATURES is my favourite Heads album. I know many Heads' fans don't, because LC doesn't sound like anything else they ever did. It's melodic, bouncy, bright and optimistic. Little Creatures is like the Velvets' LOADED, a pop record made by an avant-rock band.

Reportedly, David Byrne was in love (with Adelle Lutz) when he composed these tunes. That's evident from the get-go. And She Was kicks off the album on a note of joy and energy, not dark brooding like Burning Down The House. From there, the record detours into kids & family (Creatures of Love, Stay Up Late) and more love (the wonderful The Lady Don't Mind).

The hooks are catchy and the harmonies are delicious. Further, every song moves. You can dance to this. There's no filler. The sequencing is smart -- the record is assembled like one unified piece.

LITTLE CREATURES isn't everyone's cup of tea, but who says a band has to sound the same on every album?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent, but lacking an edge. February 22, 2006

By Michael Stack VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

After their debut album, the Talking Heads began building music of excess-- extra musicians, layered instrumental arrangement, polyrhythms, and so on, driven on by David Byrne's sort of all-accepting view of music and in part fueled by Brian Eno's production wizardry. After an album that was more electronic then organic ("Speaking in Tongues"), the Talking Heads did a complete about face with "Little Creatures", presenting an album of essentially stripped down pop music.

Now granted, stripped down pop is not a bad thing-- it's just that the band appears to have surrendered their edge along with their heavy production. While the music manages to reclaim a bit of that timeless quality that made the first four Talking Heads albums so great, the music is lacking. From my perspective, I suspect it's because it's a lot more restrained-- the instrumental arrangements are a lot less edgy and Byrne's vocals fall in a comfortable middle range tenor rather than his usual higher, tense vocal.

Truthfully, none of it is BAD-- it's all pretty enough pop music ("Perfect World"), and the reflections on children on sweet and often quite clever-- albeit goofy ("Creatures of Love", "Stay Up Late"), and certainly there's no question that opener "And She Was" was destined to be a hit-- it's a great piece with a fantastic hook and a great vocal harmony on the chorus. It's just that most of the pieces are pretty much undistinguished ("Walk it Down"), and the Talking Heads were never about undistinguished songs.

The dualdisc reissue remasters the album in both stereo (CD side) and 5.1 (DVD), and it sounds great, the sonic upgrade is fantastic. Both sides also include bonus tracks-- two "early versions" and an extended remix b-side on the CD side and a pair of music videos on the DVD side.

Trutfully, had a band other than Talking Heads put this out, I'd probably rate this higher, but the bar was set pretty high by "Fear of Music" and "Remain in Light".