Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues [Dual Disc]

Talking Heads | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 14, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1983
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Dual Disc
• Label: Rhino
• ASIN: B000CCD0FI
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,013 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Burning Down the House

2. Making Flippy Floppy

3. Girlfriend Is Better

4. Slippery People

5. I Get Wild/Wild Gravity

6. Swamp

7. Moon Rocks

8. Pull Up the Roots

9. This Must Be the Place [Naive Melody]

10. Two Note Swivel [Unfinished Outake][*]

11. Burning Down the House [Alternate Version]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hidden Grooves, February 21, 2006

By 

tashcrash (South Shore, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (Audio CD)

After purchasing all the remastered albums and listening to both sides of these dualdiscs inside and out, I have come to the earth-shattering conclusion that SPEAKING IN TONGUES is in fact their finest achievement. Prior to these reissues, I was a devotee of FEAR OF MUSIC and REMAIN IN LIGHT, but the extraordinary remastering here reveals previously indistinct, nuanced layers. Indeed, all previous iterations of this album were compromised (especially the truncated versions of some of the songs on the original vinyl release), while this is the definitive version. Songs are finally allowed to play out as extended jams, and it adds to the overall free-form feel. Even more than REMAIN, this is their most experimental sounding album, and the tracks that I once wrote off as filler ("Pull Up The Roots," "I Get Wild/Wild Gravity") now sound both resistently enigmatic and eminently danceable. In comparison, LITTLE CREATURES sounds all the more diminished, while TRUE STORIES is, well...pretty terrible (although I'm partial to about half of NAKED). And O-U-T (but no hard feelings...)

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Revered by seemingly everyone but me..., February 21, 2006

By 

Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (Audio CD)

An album that everyone but me seems to love, "Speaking in Tongues", the first Talking Heads album in three years when it came out, was also the first album since their debut not produced by Brian Eno, with the band taking over productions duties. The band proves remarkably diverse, clearly embracing many of the sounds and ideas the members explored between albums, but all in all, I find the album lacks something that the records with Eno had.

And in truth, it may have that its Eno I find missing-- it's been my assessment that in the twenty years or so Eno was involved in "art rock" records, the material he worked on was the pinnacle of the form-- his own albums in the early '70s, John Cale's mid-70s trio for Island records, David Bowie's Berlin period, the turn of the '70s Talking Heads albums, U2's mid '80s albums... all of them are pretty much universally superb and among the best (if not the best) by the artist Eno was engaged with.

But enough of my Eno love fest, as the case may be, this album is without him and the band explores programmed rhythms, dance beats and funk, as well as a number of other forms. The most noticable thing about the album is a number of the tracks are very dated-- they came from the '80s, it's pretty clear ("Slippery People", "Pull Up the Roots"). This isn't something that the Talking Heads is generally known for, their albums, particularly the early ones, have a unique timeless quality to them. On the other hand, the band is emmensely talented, and principle songwriter David Byrne endlessly inventive, and even in this sort of corner, they successfully manages to pull off at least one utterly superb piece in the form of single "Burning Down the House". Composed from a throwaway jam, the piece ends up being everything great Talking Heads is-- timeless, somewhat funky and jittery. It works entirely too well. And certainly when the band spreads their wings-- be it the slow groove of "Girlfriend is Better" (featuring one of the most self assured vocal Byrne delivered with the band), the blues ramble "Swamp" (with Byrne an octave lower than usual) and the light and delicate closer "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)"-- the music is superb. The latter in particular is stunning, driven by delicately bouncing synthesizers with a fantastic gentle sound and superb vocal delivery from Byrne that introduces a sense of melancholy and gentle naivette that really makes it the standout of the record, even in the presence of "Burning Down the House".

This dualdisc reissue is superbly remastered-- both the stereo CD side and 5.1 DVD side sound superb (this album in particular benefits from the additional space 5.1 allows) and a few bonus tracks are included-- each side contains an alternate mix of "Burning Down the House", the CD side adds an unfinished demo and the DVD side videos for the singles.

But you know, in the end, a lot of people like this one a lot more than I do, and there may be a reason for that. It's certainly worth investigating, but I think it pales in comparison to the three albums with Eno. Newcomers to the band might do better starting with "Remain in Light".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The beginning of their "pop phase", December 17, 2007

By 

finulanu ""the mysterious"" (Here, there, and everywhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (Audio CD)

Brian Eno left to make some insane ambient music, titled something like Warm Green Science Tiger, and the group reformed. Their sound completely changed here, mutating themselves into a disco-funk/world music/new wave group. The lyrics are paranoid as usual, and the rhythms are great. Still, I miss Eno's weird production stuff. But it's still a great album. Everybody knows "Burning down the House", which became the group's biggest hit and justly so, combining a driving rhythm, ominous synthesizer and heavy, danceable grooves. This and the next three songs are golden: "Making Flippy Floppy" features some interesting faux-Indian keyboards in the bridge, with a first-rate guitar solo as well; "Girlfriend is Better" is pretty much just the group babbling about god-knows-what, but let's face it, few groups could do it better - besides, it's got a chorus that is physically incapable of leaving your head and a danceable rhythm; "Slippery People" has a cool call-and-response chorus, featuring some of the best backing vocalists ever to appear on any record, as well as cool percussion and weird synthesizer sounds. And try to listen to these without dancing! It's not possible. "I Get Wild/Wild Gravity" is a rather lame retread of "Making Flippy Floppy", and it slogs at five minutes; "Moon Rocks" isn't much more than trivial, underwritten funk. But "Swamp", featuring one of David Byrne's strangest and most menacing vocal performances, is a classic, anti-nuclear war country-blues-new wave stomp; and "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)" is one of the few wistful songs in the group's catalogue, packing a stunning synthesized string part. No, it's not Fear of Music or Remain in Light, and virtually everything closes in on or breaks five minutes via plenty of unneeded repetition ("Pull up the Roots"). Still a pretty good record.