Customer Reviews

Naked

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

With "Naked," Talking Heads sought to combine the complex rhythmic layering style of an earlier album like "Remain in Light" with the ironic upbeat accessibility of their more recent commercial work such as "Little Creatures." The result is an intriguing hybrid, with a spark all its own. Some Heads fans may prefer the harder edge of their earlier years, but one should not dismiss "Naked's" polished maturity so quickly. The album bubbles and swirls with diverse and rich rhythms, a variety of instruments (such as french piano, brass, and oboe), and wonderful interweavings of twangy guitar sounds. The first half of the album is pure fun, beginning with David Byrne's superb vocal performance on "Blind" and continuing through a series of tongue-in-cheek 80s vignettes like "Mr. Jones" (an updating of the Bob Dylan everyman from the 60s, now grown fat and even more consumerist but having a great time), the catchy "Totally Naked," the atmospheric "Ruby Dear," and the dazzling "Nothing But Flowers." Each of these tunes is a masterful mix of fluid sounds that make you glad to be alive. The album then takes on a gradual but progressively darker tone, beginning cynically with "The Democratic Circus" (you must remember that at the time this album came out, presidential candidates like Gary Hart were dropping like flies in ridiculous public scandals) and proceeding on to the chilling denoument, "Cool Water." The contrast is amazing - while Mr. Jones parties and naturists frolic around nude, real people are suffering and working themselves to death. Personally, I think this was one of the best albums of the eighties.

If you read the other reviews, you'll see a good bit of "wow, I love TH, but I hated this" mixed in with bits like "brilliant, their best work." Well, I'm here to say that this is neither their best nor their worst piece of work. If you expect the kind of overall sound and tone of the early TH albums, then this won't be what you're expecting, and I can see how people might dislike it. But, in fact, there are are some decent tracks on here, particularly on the first "side." It is most certainly NOT their worst effort, which *has* to go to _True Stories_ (I might even make a case here for _Little Creatures_, too, but that's another issue). But this album is most certainly not superlative, definitely not in the league of _Remain in Light_ or _Stop Making Sense_ or _Fear of Music_. It has some inventive moments, but it's overproduced and inconsistent and lacks the raw brilliance of TH's best work. And the downbeat, monotonous, second side is completely puntable. But it has more decent moments than the train wreck which preceded it.

Why this is always considered to be the "bleakest" Talking Heads recording is beyond me. Yes, it is totally different from every other Talking Heads CD, but without format changes art becomes stagnant.

It is my favorite Talking Heads CD by far. The songs are beautifully constructed and contain excellent lyrics. I especially enjoy listening to "(Nothing but) Flowers" on high-end audiophile equipment.

This album was the last Talking Heads album and freed David Byrne to persue a solo career.

Highly recommended.

Through my years as a growing Talking Heads fan, I have come to realiize that it is impossible to coin one of their albums as the best. Any true TH fan will agree. Sure there are some TH albums that are not as good as others, like True Stories for instance, but even with "True Stories," the more you listen to it, the more hidden tresures you discover- thus making it grow on you untill it's just as good as all the others.

Having said that, each one is unique and special in it's own way, it all depends on what mood you're in at the time. But what is so great about all of them is that they not only give great listening pleasure, but also demand something more from the listener, thought, hence the term, used so befittingly with this band, "smart music." Naked is at the top of this list. Possibly the smartest TH album ever, its sophisticated, rich and flavored sounds only enhance the sheer wit and intensity that the music posseses, which I must confess, makes it one of my most listenable albums.

Its title is exactly what the music represents, purity. It is stripped down to just the purest forms of how music is made. No fancy electronic sound effects or unorganic sounds. This message of returning back to nature is clear in all the songs lyrics. Just amazing to see how they do it, but they do. "Bill, living in the forrest," "there was a factory, now there are mountains and rivers," when we ride the ferris wheel we're little childen again," "some day we'll live on Venus, and men will walk on mars, but we will still be monkeys down deep inside." This strange and bizzaro poetry is the best you're gonna get.

And anyone who doesn't like it because it doesn't have the same angular more jagged stylings of eariler albums are insane. Just listen to the goddam thing. The music is unbelievable. How can someone say it doesn't sound good?

And Byrne obviously did know where he was heading with this sound and that's fine. Always reinventing yourself is healthy for an artist. No one should hold him back by saying, no, don't do that, only do what you did back in the late 70's early 80's. It would be one thing if his new stuff was bad and really went nowhere, but it's not! It is great music. After Naked his progression from "Rei Momo" to "Look Into The Eyeball" is nothing short of amazing. There aren't many artists like him still out there today. And I mean real artist that honestly let their creative muse really take them in the dirrection that is natural and not commercial or forced. That is real creativity.

Any one who thinks that it is too soft or lacks the older TH sound, must understand that, much like other band like The Beatles, this is a band that evloves with a consistent changing sound. And that is only because the people making this music are whats called, "true artists."
Just the song (Nothing But) Flowers is worth the price of the CD. And anyone who thinks differently doesn't grasp the concept of just how monumental and important that song is. But the creativity doesn't stop there. I can honestly say that every single song is a gen in itself. Yes, they do take multiple listens to fully understand just how good they are. However it is songs like those that grow on you that just keep getting better and better each time you hear it, unlike the conventional pop song that usualy gets played out and old after a few months. This album has lasting power, that is why it has not been fully discovered yet and like all great painters and artists, their works aren't fully discover and appreciated until after they're dead. I wonder why it's always like that?

It's really wonderful to read such positive commments about this brilliant, criminally underrated album. It's the best thing Talking Heads ever did - which is saying something. It's so hauting, magisterial and disturbing at times: Cool Water, Bill and the fabuluous Big Daddy especially. Its also sharp and satiric. The blurb says that the music and the style was a deliberate 'response to America's increased isolationism' in the 1980s. And it shows. Songs like Cool Water evoke the conditions in those Latin American countries wrecked by the evils of Reaganite foreign policy. The Democratic Circus brilliantly commments on the cynicism of politics. It's such an intelligent record. But it's danceable! I agree with the person who said it was his favourite album. It's mine too.

I am always surprised at the many negative reviews of this last album. Granted, it may not be a masterpiece but there are some damn fine tunes here. Blind, Mr. Jones, (Nothing but) Flowers, Totally Nude. Ignore at your own risk.
"I dream of cherry pies, candy bars and chocolate chip cookies."

Talking Heads were musically important, and stylistically important. Were their lyrics important during their heyday? No. David Byrne showed some gift for lyrics early on, but by 1982 had retreated to cut-up random nonsense (invested with vocal urgency). Here, the Heads try to make a refined music (with an expanded band) more subtle than previous efforts, based on a variety of rhythms including Latin beats and continuing to include African beats. And here, Byrne tries to communicate meaningful lyrics.

Some of this falls flat. But when it hits, it's great and a vast improvement over their output from 1984-87 (the "wide-eyed" period). "Mr. Jones" and "Blind" have some kick to them. "Cool Water" is a marvelously evocative and fluid folk song built on Johnny Marr's guitar strumming. "Nothing But Flowers" is the masterpiece here - a bubbling Afro-pop beat that fits Byrne's wonderfully evocative lyrics, supporting his concept so well that his chord changes become orgasmic. "The Democratic Circus" is subtle and good. "Big Daddy" is some solid, driving music.

On the minus side, why would anyone state "The Facts of Life" so plainly? And there's some less-than-enthralling stuff on here. But, they went out trying to do something meaningful - and succeeding greatly in places.

The last Talking Heads album took them to a great blend of the accessible pop of previous mid-80s albums and the experimental layering of their earlier years. Side one is pure candy, with french pianos and horns mingling with samba beats and intelligent, ironic lyrics. Side two gets a bit more depressing, but adds variety. One of the best albums of the eighties.

Yet another direction for the Heads, one many didn't warm up to. But if you give it a chance to sink in, you'll see it's the best T.H. album since REMAIN IN LIGHT. Lots of extra musicians are on board and they often broaden the scope with international flavors. And Johnny Marr of the Smiths contributes his sterling guitar to quite a few tunes here.

Themes such as the shackles of culture, evolution (on many different levels), breaking the bonds of culture and stepping out of one's element permeate NAKED. The lyrics are some of the best of David Byrne's career, especially on the bizarre, mechanical "The Facts of Life" - "People fall in love like in fairy tales/ I'm not sure I like what they can do/ I'm afraid that God has no master plan/ He only takes - what he can use."

Highlights include the jubulant "Totally Nude" about a "nature man" and the equally upbeat (yet tinged with melancholy) "(Nothing But) Flowers" sung by a character who mourns the loss of a civilization "sacrificed for agriculture." The closing song, "Cool Water," is slow-building and intense, wrapping things up with an ominous tone.

"Bill" is my personal favorite here which has that "Doc Tari" jungle sound quality to it. Many other songs have a similar quality, or, more specifically, heavy emphasis on Latin American styles of percussion. Amazingly, aside from "Big Daddy" which just rubs me the wrong way, all of these songs are brilliant.

If you dig the Heads but passed this one by, give it a shot!

By this time, Talking Heads was less of a band than it was a group of individuals each trying to record the music that they wanted to record. Nonetheless, Talking Heads managed to put out a respectable final release in Naked. The best tracks on this album are the energetic "Blind", the well-performed "[Nothing But] Flowers", and the political "The Democratic Circus." None of this album is particularly bad but it's not terribly impressive, either. It also sounds nothing like anything else they recorded as a band, so be cautious of this one.