David Byrne Albums (14)
What The Critics Say
Simply put, Big Love: Hymnal is exactly what its title and subtitle -- Music Written for the HBO Series Plus Other Compositions -- claim it to be: serial music to accompany the various episodes from the second season of the cable show that stars Bill Paxton. Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh wrote the first season -- and let's just say that in his own contribution, David Byrne is really aware of that fact. Byrne claims he wanted to write a series of "fake" Mormon hymns to accompany the many themes that characters encounter and express, from devotion to jealousy, anger, and betrayal. He initially wrote a number of these grand gestures without seeing a frame of the season's pictures, but they ended up not being used -- even though he would have allowed the series' producers to slice and dice them any way they wished. Byrne claims that's just as well, and punters can decide for themselves since he's included a number of them here as bonus tracks (though you'll have to figure out what's what for yourself because the super budget HBO CD package doesn't designate them). Byrne fans will no doubt recognize many of the same tropes he's employed since True Stories. These are mostly clever, short cues, with skeletal organic percussion and electronic drum loops, piano, analog synth, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, a string quartet, and, on some tracks, flügelhorn and French and baritone horns -- those tracks more than likely are the fake hymns. As a total listening experience, this set feels a bit precious. One is painfully aware throughout that this is music to be accompanied by images, and its saturated more or less with rather churchy and often rural themes. It's pleasant for a while, but lightweight, and yet feels like every one of its 41 minutes. Back to Mothersbaugh: Byrne does nod to his peer on some of the quirkier offerings like "A Hill in Ontario County," with its vibes and counterpoint piano lines that have been evocative on Mothersbaugh's own work in film and television as well as on Muzik for Insomniaks. Elsewhere, the contrast of sounds, such as those on the synth and drum machine pastiche that forms the core of "Deep Water," is underscored by electric guitars and a rather polka-like bassline to offer a kind of winking grin that this is supposed to be humorous. The subtly shifting timbres in "Murmur Not" are among the most beautiful on the set, where nocturnal keyboards and glockenspiel are wedded to deep unidentifiable bass effects, strings, and a gorgeous cascading woodwind sound. The bottom line? You either have to be a Byrne enthusiast (or perhaps a bit of a fanatic) to find this set of compositions engaging in its own right, or addicted to very specifically themed cinematically inspired music, to truly appreciate what's on offer here. One does have to wonder, however: if it weren't Byrne who scored this set, but someone of lesser renown, would this disc have been released at all? ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today'
Release Date 1/1/2008
Tracks 11
Label Todomundo
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What The Critics Say
The musical reunion between David Byrne and Brian Eno comes with a fair amount of baggage. After all, they produced some of the greatest records in rock history: the trio of Talking Heads records Eno worked on -- culminating in Remain in Light -- followed by the duo's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, where all manner of funky beats and freaky sampladelic rhythms were wedded to Pentecostal exorcisms and African ceremonial bush chants. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is a nearly 180-degree turn from the duo's collective musical past. These 11 songs are loopy pop tunes that wed Byrne's strange hearing of gospel and folk to Eno's continually evolving rhythmic and electronic palette -- they refer to it as being "folk-electronic-gospel." Before any cultural connotations of the word "gospel" take hold, be aware that this is mostly in simple structures and an optimistic viewpoint rather than its doctrinal components. Any spiritual messages are purely subjective and not -- as some rather academic agenda-minded evangelicals would have you believe -- having to do with religion. Eno's compositional frameworks are all written in major keys and Byrne's poetically funny, sophisticated lyrics express possibility and hope in the middle of cultural darkness. While it's clear that the emotional component is shared between the two principals, this is far from "message" music. The set opens with "Home." Strummed acoustic guitars and drum loops textured by sonic wonkery introduce an elegantly simple melody where Byrne, at his full-throated best, sings: "The dimming of the light/Makes the picture clearer...I memorized a face so it's not forgotten...Come back anytime/And we'll mix our lives together/Heaven knows what keeps mankind alive/Every hand -- goes searching for its partner in crime." Brokenness and paradox are also addressed: "Home where my world is breaking in two/Home with the neighbors fighting/Home -- were my parents telling the truth?" Likewise, the title track -- with its warm, liquid guitars (à la Daniel Lanois), out-of-the-ether sonic architecture, and Byrne's lyric coming from both dream and reflection -- is slower and less jaunty, but poetically moving: "Oh my brother, I still wonder, are you all right/And among the living, we are giving/All through the night...." The backing choral voices give the track its "church" feel, but the message is more human and existential than divinely inspired. Another winner is "Life Is Long," which evokes remembrance as the continuation of the chain of human events. Its horn section touches on soul and rhythm & blues, but is blanched and diluted wonderfully. The only track that even (consciously) attempts the rhythmic complexity of anything on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is "Poor Boy," which is cosmic science fiction white-boy funk at its best. It's a warning against following the established order and rampant, empty materialism for their own sake -- its guitar riff comes straight outta the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar." Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is, despite the long odds, a truly inviting, musically adventurous, and mature musical statement. It reveals in spades how willing artists are capable of redefining themselves when they refuse to take themselves too seriously. This is unfettered joyful listening, and in its own small way, even profound. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Live from Austin TX'
Release Date 10/2/2007
Tracks 13
Label New West
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What The Critics Say
David Byrne is a man of many musical faces, but he's also a show biz pro, and while he's followed a number of musical paths over the course of his solo career, in concert he's shrewd enough to know he needs to give his audience (or at least a large portion of them) what they came to see -- namely, the songs he helped write while he was in Talking Heads. On Live from Austin, Texas, an album drawn from a set Byrne played on the PBS music series Austin City Limits in the fall of 2001, demonstrates how he can have his cake and eat it too -- while five of the thirteen tunes here come from his tenure with Talking Heads (and one is drawn from The Catherine Wheel, a solo project recorded while he was still with the band), he's reconfigured them to lean towards his fascination with world music while still holding on to the melodic structures folks remember him for. Roughly half the songs on Live from Austin, Texas also feature a string section including members of Tosca String Quartet, who add a fresh set of tonal colors to "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)" and "Life During Wartime," though the ensemble really gets their chance to shine on "The Revolution" (from Look into the Eyeball, the album Byrne was promoting at the time). While he sounds a shade more enthusiastic on his more recent solo material than the relative oldies in this set, overall he seems to be in a slightly subdued mood, though he rallies for his finale, a cover of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" that's far more sincere (and effective) than you'd imagine. In all, Live from Austin, Texas isn't the crackling live showcase you might hope for from David Byrne, though he never sounds less than professional and his head is always in the game even if his heart may be somewhere else. [A DVD of the show was also released.] ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
David Byrne, like fellow New York transplant David Bowie, has reached a well-deserved apex in his career. After eight post-Talking Heads solo outings, the eccentric composer, songwriter, artist, and world music entrepreneur has transcended the inconsistencies of his previous efforts and created a genuinely moving and wickedly fun record. Like Bowie's Heathen and Reality, Grown Backwards is a mature work by an icon who has come to terms with his past, present, and future, and there's a joy in the simple act of creativity here that gives even the heaviest of subject matter an effervescent charm. Opening with "Glass, Concrete, and Stone," Byrne finds the perfect middle ground between his orchestral epic The Forest and the South American-inspired Rei Momo -- in fact, it's the latter that informs many of Backwards' arrangements. Texas-based chamber group the Tosca Strings feature on nearly every track, giving the more experimental cuts a much needed fluidity, especially on the arias Un Di Felice, Eterea, from Verdi's La Traviata, and Au Fond du Temple Saint, a duet from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. It's no great surprise that the shape-shifting Byrne has chosen opera as his latest foray, but what is surprising is that it works. The Bizet duet in particular, featuring Rufus Wainwright, is lent an emotional resonance by the juxtaposition of the pair's wildly different vocal styles -- when they finally meet in harmony it's like two Central Park bums behind Tavern on the Green, clinking their 40-ounce bottles and weeping into a dumpster beneath a sea of summer stars. The wonderfully acerbic "Empire," with its refrain of "The weak among us perish," is Byrne at his political best, emphasizing the "play" in wordplay like a sinister Paul Simon. While by no means a protest record, it bristles with liberal wit and social commentary, especially on the Broadway-style "The Other Side of This Life," a hilarious and scathing jab at the entertainment empires and their minions. "Tiny Apocalypse" finds Byrne at his surreal best, nearly rapping the lyrics "A three-tone carpet and a Jackie Chan spear/lookin' at a hairdo and a bellyful of beer/well, I ain't no poet, ain't got no rhyme/but I got me a car and I know how to drive" over an easy Tropicalia groove. As with many of the prolific artist's releases, the record could be trimmed by five or six songs, but fans have grown accustomed to these aberrations -- which are still of higher quality that many in the industry -- and are willing to either let them go or let them grow. While by no means perfect, Grown Backwards is the colorful, multiethnic sound of a New York City enthralled with itself, and like a select few of the Big Apple's denizens, Byrne is a perfect conduit for its love. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
'Lead Us Not into Temptation'
Release Date 9/9/2003
Tracks 15
Label Thrill Jockey
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What The Critics Say
Lead Us Not into Temptation started as music for the film Young Adam, but has evolved to sit somewhere between a true soundtrack and a David Byrne solo album. Since the cast and director of Young Adam were all Scottish, and Byrne himself was born in Scotland, the choice of recording with young Scottish musicians (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai) appealed to him from a conceptual standpoint, and after director David MacKenzie assembled a listening list, Byrne chose a group of musicians to work with. The end result is that Byrne leaves behind all the international rhythms that have dominated his solo work and turned in an album of moody, subtle beauty. Byrne sketched out some musical ideas to have a framework established, then worked with the Glaswegian musicians to elaborate on the sketches. Oftentimes, this was accomplished by Byrne giving the musicians a set choice of notes to be used on any given piece, but allowing the musicians themselves the decision of what notes to play and when (these sort of chance operations also play a part in both the music of John Cage and Brian Eno, among others). The music often echoes the gloom and dankness of the Scottish climate, sometimes mournful without being depressing or bleak, at other times tempered by a subdued optimism. Strings, piano, and Rhodes rise and fall in the mix, adding impetus to songs that could have too easily become static. Vocals appear only on the last two tracks: "Speechless," with its double-tracked, near unintelligible delivery, and the stately "Great Western Road." The only real departure from the basic mood of the album is a wonderful (albeit brief) arrangement of Mingus' "Haitian Fight Song" performed by the Hung Drawn Quintet. Lead Us Not into Temptation is somber and beautiful in a way listeners have not heard from David Byrne, and although he was probably pushed in this direction by the nature of the project, the fact is that this is one of the strongest albums of his solo career. ~ Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
It goes without saying that any David Byrne solo release will be all over the sonic map, and true to form, Look Into the Eyeball provides a pancultural stew of musical styles, exotic rhythms, and international guest stars. But what separates Eyeball from Byrne's previous offering, the only-fitfully successful Feelings, is a renewed emphasis on lush, natural sounds and consistent production. Nearly every track boasts strings and/or horns, and the textures go a long way in unifying Byrne's insistent genre-hopping. Tracks such as "Smile," "The Revolution," "The Accident," and "Everyone's in Love With You" best demonstrate his new approach: Spare melodies are layered atop subtle, percolating rhythms and then filled in with evocative string arrangements. Better yet, Byrne's two collaborations with legendary Philly soul producer Thom Bell -- the buoyant "Like Humans Do" and "Neighborhood" -- blend in effortlessly with the other material. Of course, old habits die hard: "U.B. Jesus" and "The Great Intoxication" are at once too slick and too simple, with muddled messages both musically and lyrically. (It doesn't help that the latter track features a cringe-inducing, self-referential "Who disco? Who techno? Who hip-hop? Who bebop?..." shout-out.) The remainder of the album vacillates between pleasant Talking Heads-ish pop ("Walk on Water") and accomplished if out-of-place forays into the Latin avant-garde ("Desconocido Soy"). It's hard to fault Byrne -- who produces an album every three or four years -- for packing as much as he can into one release. So it's best to view Look Into the Eyeball for what it is: an entertaining assimilation of the sundry artists and sounds he's gotten into since his last trip into the studio. ~ Michael Hastings, All Music Guide
'Feelings'
Release Date 6/17/1997
Tracks 14
Label Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.
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What The Critics Say
Attempting to inject some adventure into his multicultural, worldbeat-inflected avant-pop, David Byrne dabbled with trip-hop and drum'n'bass on Feelings. These tracks, including a collaboration with Morcheeba, are essentially window dressing, a way to distract attention from Byrne's lack of new ideas. The songs that work best on Feelings, like "Miss America," are reminiscent of the percolating, Latin-tinged Rei Momo; when Byrne tries to sound contemporary, he simply seems out of touch. Still, Feelings is stronger and more adventurous than David Byrne, even if it never quite fulfills its ambitions. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'David Byrne'
Release Date 5/24/1994
Tracks 12
Label Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.
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What The Critics Say
David Byrne took a spare, direct approach on his third song-based solo album, which lent his work an intimacy but did little to restore his commercial prospects, despite a first single, "Angels," that was a ringer for The Talking Heads song "Once in a Lifetime." In fact, the limited instrumentation and focus on Byrne's voice tended to create difficulties with his typically quirky lyrics -- with the words in close-up, one wanted them to make some kind of sense. But when, for example, on "Strange Ritual," Byrne delivered a series of images -- "a French corporation that doesn't make anything / an ambulance driver--wakes up in a dairy queen" -- he didn't really mean anything by them. When he noted, "saw a young Indonesian girl-- / possessed by the spirit of / mutant ninja turtles," it was just because he liked the sound of the words. In a denser musical structure, such as the mbaqanga-flavored "You & Eye," one might share his enjoyment, but on other tracks with less to offer aurally, the disturbing question "What is he talking about?" became inescapable. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Uh-Oh was only David Byrne's second pop-oriented solo album and his first to be released after the formal end of Talking Heads. Though informed by his various investigations into world music, the album was a natural successor to the Talking Heads records, relying on involved percussion tracks topped by Byrne's quirky singing and lyrics. By this point, disaffected fans may have grown accustomed to the idea that a David Byrne solo album could contain anything from an extended flirtation with Latin styles (Rei Momo) to an eclectic instrumental score (The Forest), to name only his most recent solo projects. Maybe Byrne and his record label failed to get out the message that he was back to making Heads-style pop/rock (he didn't organize a tour until the album had come and gone on the charts), but Uh-Oh never reached its potential audience. Talking Heads fans should give it a listen. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
