On his third solo album, 1994’s David Byrne, Byrne retreated from the world music flavorings of his previous releases in favor of a more spare, somber sound.
Many artists choose to self-title an album when it contains their most personal work, a glimpse into their inner workings. Byrne isn’t going down that road here. The lyrics are his typical opaque explorations of the human condition, following his usual obsessions with the minutiae and ugly-beautiful details of life.
After the unexpected brilliance of Rei Momo, David Byrne’s second solo album was a disappointment. 1992’s Uh-Oh felt far too processed… it lacked the organic feel of his first solo outing.
But, as the saying goes, the worst David Byrne album is still better than most albums, and Uh-Oh does have its share of worthy tracks. The best of them maintain the world music feel of his previous record while leaving room for his signature eccentricities.
And you have to admire the CD cover art, which depicts a Snoopy-like cartoon dog sitting on what appears to be God’s throne in Heaven.
Through 563 songs I’ve managed to highlight only one David Byrne track and one Talking Heads track, which seems akin to a criminal act. I’ll do my best to make up for that oversight by dedicating a theme week (plus a bonus Monday) to David Byrne’s solo career. And a Talking Heads theme is definitely in the cards down the road.
Following the release of 1988’s Naked, the final Talking Heads album, David Byrne kicked off his solo career with Rei Momo in 1989. I remember picking this album up from a bargain bin on a whim, figuring it might contain some worthwhile music given Byrne’s great work with Talking Heads.
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan contains several early classics, including ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ ‘Masters of War’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.’ But for my money the best song on the album is today’s SOTD, ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right.’
This song is such a fabulous combination of scathing lyrics and melancholy music… it’s hard to know what to feel when you listen to it. I mean, if you just read the song without playing it, you might expect the finished product to sound like some sort of tirade — not unlike Dylan’s future hit ‘Positively 4th Street.’
There are many potential ways to go about these Dylan weekends. I could present the songs randomly, thematically, chronologically, alphabetically… you name it. In order to lend some organization to the process, I’ve decided to highlight, in pairs, tracks from my favorite Dylan albums according to order of release.
I won’t cover every one of his albums — his work from the mid-70s to the mid-80s is better left forgotten — and I’ll restrict myself to the studio albums, leaving the bootleg records (worthy of a series all their own) aside for the time being. But that still gives me close to 20 albums to work with, encompassing one of the most extraordinary careers in the business.
