Talking Heads' second album More Songs About Buildings and Food, released in 1978, expanded the band's sonic palette.^[4] The record included a hit single, a cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River", which gained the quartet commercial exposure.^[5] In March 1979, the band members played the song on nationwide U.S. music show American Bandstand.^[6] In the days after the performance, they decided they did not want to be regarded simply as "a singles machine".^[7]

Talking Heads entered a New York City studio without a producer in the spring of 1979 and rehearsed demo tracks.^[8] Musically, the band wanted to expand on the "subtly disguised" disco rhythms present in More Songs About Buildings and Food by making them more prominent in the mixes of new songs.^[7] These recording plans were shelved after the quartet was not pleased with the results. A decision was then taken to rehearse in drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth's loft in Long Island City, Queens, where the band members had played while unsigned in the mid-1970s. Brian Eno, who had produced More Songs About Buildings and Food, was called in to help.^[8]

On April 22 and May 6, 1979, a sound engineering crew in a Record Plant van parked outside Frantz's and Weymouth's apartment building and ran cables through their loft window. On these two days, Talking Heads recorded the basic tracks with Eno.^[8]

Weymouth later stated that Byrne's sense of rhythm is "insane but fantastic" and that he was key to the band's recording drive during the home sessions.^[7] As songs evolved, the performances became easier for the band members.^[8] Eno was instrumental in shaping both their sound and recording confidence, and worked on electronic treatments of tracks.^[9][10]

Fear of Music is largely built on an eclectic mix of disco rhythms, cinematic soundscapes, and conventional rock music elements.^{[citation needed]}

Byrne credits the inspiration for the album, especially "Life During Wartime", to life on Avenue A in the East Village.^[11] Instead of incorporating characters in society, as he did on More Songs About Buildings and Food, Byrne decided to place them alone in dystopian situations.^[4] Weymouth was initially skeptical of Byrne's new compositions, but the frontman managed to persuade her.^[8]

Album opener "I Zimbra" is influenced by Afrobeat and disco, and includes guitar work by Robert Fripp and background chanting from assistant recording engineer Julie Last.^[7][12] The nonsensical lyrics are based on the poem "Gadji beri bimba" by German Dadaist writer Hugo Ball.^[10] Band member Jerry Harrison has said that this song influenced what the band was to do on their next album, Remain in Light (1980).^[13]

"Cities" details a search for the ideal urban settlement to live in and was born out of Talking Heads' preferences for urban homes, especially in Manhattan.^[14] "Paper" compares a love affair to a simple piece of paper.^[8] In "Life During Wartime", Byrne casts himself an "unheroic urban guerrilla", who renounced parties, survived on basic supplies like peanut butter, and heard rumors about weapons shipments and impromptu graveyards. The character is only connected to the imminent collapse of his civilization. Byrne considered the persona "believable and plausible".^[4] "Air" is a protest song against the atmosphere, an idea Byrne does not consider "a joke". Inspired by The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, the lyricist wanted to create a melancholic and touching track about a person who feels so depressed that even breathing feels painful.^[14]

The LP sleeve was designed by Harrison. It is completely black and embossed with a pattern that resembles the appearance and texture of tread plate metal flooring, reflecting the album's urban subject matter.^[15] The rest of the artwork was crafted by Byrne and includes heat-sensitive photography created by Jimmy Garcia with the help of Doctor Philip Strax.^[10] The design was nominated for the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package.^[16] Harrison suggested the "ludicrous" title to the band; according to Weymouth, it was accepted because it "fit" the album's themes and the quartet's stress during the album's production.^[9]

After completing Fear of Music, Talking Heads embarked on their first Pacific region tour in June 1979 and played concerts in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Hawaii. The album was released worldwide on August 3.^[17]

A U.S. tour to showcase the new material was completed during August 1979.^[17] At the time, Byrne told Rolling Stone, "We're in a funny position. It wouldn't please us to make music that's impossible to listen to, but we don't want to compromise for the sake of popularity."^[18] The band shared the headliner slots with Van Morrison and the Chieftains at the Edinburgh Festival in September, and embarked on a promotional European tour until the end of the year.^[17]

Critical edit

The album was well received by reviewers. Jon Pareles, writing in Rolling Stone, was impressed with its "unswerving rhythms" and Byrne's lyrical evocations; he concluded, "Fear of Music is often deliberately, brilliantly disorienting. Like its black, corrugated packaging (which resembles a manhole cover), the album is foreboding, inescapably urban and obsessed with texture."^[29] John Rockwell of The New York Times suggested that the record was not a conventional rock release,^[30] while Stephanie Pleet of the Daily Collegian commented that it showed a positive progression in Talking Heads' musical style.^[31] Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, praised the album's "gritty weirdness", but noted that "a little sweetening might help".^[32] Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times was impressed with Byrne's "awesome vocal performance" and its nuances and called Fear of Music "a quantum leap" for the band.^[33] Tom Bentkowski of New York concluded, "But what makes the record so successful, perhaps, is a genuinely felt anti-elitism. Talking Heads was clever enough to make the intellectual infectious and even danceable."^[34]

In retrospective reviews, AllMusic's William Ruhlmann felt that Fear of Music was "an uneven, transitional album", but nonetheless stated that it includes songs that match the quality of the band's best works.^[19] In the 1995 Spin Alternative Record Guide, Jeff Salamon called it Talking Heads' most musically varied offering.^[27] In a 2003 review, Chris Smith of Stylus Magazine praised Byrne's personas and Eno's stylized production techniques.^[35] In The Rough Guide to Rock published the same year, Andy Smith concluded that the album is a strong candidate for the best LP of the 1970s because it is "bristling with hooks, riffs and killer lines".^[36]

Commercial edit

Fear of Music was certified Gold by Recording Industry Association of America on September 17, 1985, after more than 500,000 copies were sold in the U.S.^[37]

Accolades edit

Fear of Music was named as the best album of 1979 by NME,^[38] Melody Maker,^[39] and the Los Angeles Times.^[40] The New York Times included it on its unnumbered shortlist of the 10 best records issued that year.^[41] Sounds placed the album at number two on its "Best of 1979" staff list, behind the Specials' eponymous release.^[42] It placed fourth in the 1979 Pazz & Jop critics' poll run by The Village Voice, which aggregates the votes of hundreds of prominent reviewers.^[43]

In 1985, NME placed Fear of Music at number 68 on its writers' list of the "All Time 100 Albums".^[44] In 1987, Rolling Stone placed it at number 94 on its list of the best albums of the previous 20 years.^[45] In 1999, it was included at number 33 on The Guardian's list of the "Top 100 Albums That Don't Appear in All the Other Top 100 Albums of All Time".^[46] In 2004, Pitchfork featured the record at number 31 on its "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s" list,^[18] while in 2005, Channel 4 ranked it at number 76 during its "100 Greatest Albums" countdown.^[47] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[48]

• The original LP issue credited all songs to David Byrne, except "I Zimbra". After complaints from other band members, the credits were changed to the above on later CD issues.
• A limited edition UK LP included a live version of "Psycho Killer" and "New Feeling" from Talking Heads: 77 on a bonus 7-inch record.

• The remastered reissue was produced by Andy Zax, with the help of Talking Heads, and was mixed by Brian Kehew.
• The DVD portion of the European reissue contains videos of the band performing "I Zimbra" and "Cities" on German music show Rockpop in 1980.

Those involved in the making of Fear of Music were:^[10][49]

• Bowman, David (2001). This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-380-97846-6.
• Charone, Barbara (October 1979). "More Songs About Typing and Vacuuming". Creem. pp. 27–33.

• Fear of Music lyrics at Rhapsody
• Fear of Music at Discogs (list of releases)