I've always considered Talking Heads to be one of the few bands to successfully assimilate the 80s sound and avoid the trappings of a cliched 80s band. At this point there are too many to name. I think my most recent encounter was with The Cure. Now I haven't listened to a lot of Talking Heads music, but what I do know doesn't drone on for 40 minutes with a bunch of dreary emo bullshit. Talking Heads seem to have more of a funky flare to their music.
"Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" and "Crosseyed and Painless" certainly have funky beats and eclectically charming arrangements. But it really sticks out how repetitive the songs are. Basically once the main groove is set up it might as well be on continuous repeat. Even the choruses are sung over the same instrumentation. This continues onto the next track "The Big Curve" which is pretty much one measure repeated over and over for 6 minutes. These are songs that could desperately use a key change or a breakdown.
After the first 3 songs I seriously was not expecting "Once In a Lifetime" to show up on Remain In Light. This is a brilliant song that no one would say just repeats itself over and over. It's an intricate composition with key changes, subtle changes in instrumentation, and brilliant off-kilter vocals that eschew any traditional melody. I will say that hearing it in the context of the album it's hard not to notice the 6-note bassline never wavers throughout the song, but the artistry that is built from that simple foundation is astounding, so it's hard to really criticize.
Other than "Once In A Lifetime" Remain in Light contains repetitive songs that go on and on. The album closes with "The Overlord" which contains some neat eerie sounds, but is a long slow sleepy slog. I suspect Remain In Light only appears on this list because "Once In A Lifetime" is a great song and lots of people really like Talking Heads. This album is much more interesting to listen to than most 80s music, but I still didn't really like it. 2 stars.
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