Talking Heads
"Remain in Light" (1980)

***** out of *****

Remain in Light’s tracks, most of which are five minutes or longer, are like a series of possessed pop chants, mixed with meditative trance-inducing funk. Produced by Brian Eno before he went over to U2 and did far less interesting stuff, this is an album that I couldn’t imagine working in theory, but is damn great in practice.

This is the type of album that makes you realise the importance of the album format. The songs don’t link in any way, but the effect of listening to them as a whole, just sitting and letting it wash over you, is like being put into a trance that doesn’t clear your mind but fills it with possibilities and exhilaration.

Of all the Talking Heads albums, the multi-layered songs benefit the most from being mixed in 5.1. But more than twenty years later it doesn’t sound like an ‘80s time capsule, with or without the remastering. Still, lying on the couch in the exact centre of the home speaker set-up and putting this on is a great experience.

This is a dual disc release, with the original album and bonus tracks on the CD side. On the DVD side is the original album in 5.1 Surround Sound, two videos of live performances, and a photo gallery.

Tracks

1. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
The opening song sets the tone for the album. It’s a mixture of funk and tribal chants, with a solid driving rhythm that stops it from degenerating into white noise. In the best Talking Heads tradition the vocals don’t go in a straight line from verse to chorus, and a major theme getting introduced towards the end of the song.

2. Crosseyed and Painless
The second track is more of a guitar-driven poppy song, but it retains the driving tempo and chanted choruses, with a punchy almost-spoken verse meeting a sweeter chorus.

3. The Great Curve
The funk is turned up, as well as the speed, and strange chants overlay each other. But, you have to remember that this doesn’t sound like dull Gregorian chanting or anything like a harmonising Beach Boys song. This is almost like a Blaxplotation theme song rewritten by someone who’s been listening to too much African funk and skipping songs.

4. Once in a Lifetime
This is the most famous track from this album, and tones down the fast-paced funk, starting a string of strange songs narrated by David Byrne. Despite being the single it fits in well, but it does sound like the single even though it probably wouldn’t on any other album.

5. Houses in Motion
This track has something of an acid jazz feel to it, mixed with Byrne’s narration it’s like beat poetry set to music, but not quite. It flirts with it, but the sung chorus turns it into something else. What it’s about though, I don’t really know.

6. Seen and Not Seen
Perhaps the weirdest song on the album, Byrne talks about a man whose face is going to slowly change shape through force of will until it matches his ideal. With spectral, semi-funky pop and chanting.

7. Listening Wind
A strangely beautiful song about an alienated man. The vocals and music is mixed to sound like the song’s title. Well, the wind part. I’m not sure what listening wind would sound like. Like this song, I suppose.

8. The Overload
This is the closest thing to an all out meditation song on the album. It has the repetitive low bass, the chanting within a small range of notes, the singing is overdubbed in a trippy way, and there’s haunting distortion in the background. It’s also the song that would stand up the worst without the rest of the album.

Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks

9. Fela’s Riff (Unfinished Outtake)
It’s great to have new material, but after the transcendental “The Overload”, jumping into this track is a bit jarring. It sounds not unlike the soundtrack to an NES game, a side-scrolling beat ‘em up to be exact. I love the NES and NES music, just maybe not right now. It builds up in speed and intensity, kind of like NES music does when you’re heading to a boss fight.

10. Unison (Unfinished Outtake)
More similar to the style of the album than “Fela’s Riff”. But the recording does sound pretty crude. And unlike most of the album tracks, it doesn’t build up or really move off the path it sets out on. It’s easy to see why it was unreleased, there are similar, better tracks on the album.

11. Double Groove (Unfinished Outtake)
There’s overlap singing of nonsense words mixed with a jumpy, happy guitar riff; two things I would never have expected to hear together. It’s interesting and not too bad, but like “Unison” it’s just not as good as the tracks that are on the album.

12. Right Start (Unfinished Outtake)
An instrumental version of “Once in a Lifetime”, but peppier. Kind of like a jam version, or a covers band with no one brave enough to do the David Byrne narration.

Videos: Crosseyed and Painless, Once in a Lifetime
These aren’t music videos, rather footage of a performance on a German TV show called Rockpop in 1980. The lead in to “Crosseyed and Painless” is about a minute of staticy rambling, before they suddenly kick into it (I’d like to see a band go on Top of the Pops and do that). This is better to have than actual music videos, which are easily available. The performances are energetic, the cameraman barely films Tina Weymouth, and the German audience only seems vaguely into it.

Photo Gallery
The only photos in this gallery of the band are the same as those in the liner notes. The interesting stuff is lyric sheets and storyboards. After flipping through storyboards drawn on a yellow legal pad for the “Once in a Lifetime” video I wished they’d put it on the disc.

Overall

Remain in Light is a great album, an one that is impossible to get across in writing. The combinations of musical styles that you hear and marvel at, sound unlikely or unappealing on the page. This is an exciting, fascinating pop/rock album. It’s perfect for fans of both looking for something different. Especially in 5.1 Surround Sound.

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