David Byrne’s 1997 release Feelings was his best album since Rei Momo and stands as perhaps his best solo work to date.
After the more subdued David Byrne, he opened the creative floodgates on Feelings, blending his signature African and South American rhythms with synthesizers and hip-hop beats.
The result is one of his funkiest albums, and the first to my knowledge that spawned a club remix (of today’s SOTD).
I first heard of Miranda Lambert when her 2009 album Revolution was released last summer. The write-ups in Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly raved about the album, calling it the best country record of the year and one of the best overall, and remarked that Lambert had knocked one out of the park in her first outing since the acclaimed Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Such was my bias against country music at the time that I didn’t even think about picking up the album. Compare that to, say, the praise heaped on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, which prompted me to buy that album despite my general disinterest in rap music. (I didn’t like Wayne’s album much at all, incidentally, so maybe that was a lesson learned).
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.
