Remain In Light

Remain In Light is the 4th studio album by Talking Heads. While often being considered the band’s best album, it is also one of the most influential and innovative albums of the 1980s. In its 40 minutes of runtime, the band blends new wave, funk, Afrobeat, and electronic music into an entertaining and electrifying post-punk masterpiece. From the very start, “Born Under Punches” features fast-paced funk style guitars and slap bass with David Byrne’s idiosyncratic vocal delivery. These fast-paced funk grooves continues with “Crosseyed and Painless” and “The Great Curve,” the latter of which utilises Afrobeat-style percussion and even horns all throughout the song. The album’s biggest hit “Once in a Lifetime,” showcases the bands ability to create catchy melodies with strange yet thought provoking lyrics about modern life. The second half of the album takes an interesting turn, as the tracks become progressively darker and slower-paced. “Houses in Motion” and “Seen and Not Seen” feature more subdued vocal deliveries by Byrne, as well as progressively strange lyrics. “Listening Wind” is perhaps the most hypnotic and dreamlike track the band has ever recorded. The lyrics are about American colonialism and a terrorist attack by an African Freedom fighter. The closing track, “The Overload” is a slow, brooding track consisting of these dark sounding synths with a very stripped down drum beat. It’s a far cry from Talking Heads’s usual upbeat and playful style, but the band builds up to this finale perfectly. Although it can sometimes feel a bit too repetitive sometimes, Remain In Light is one of the most important albums of the 1980s for a good reason. The myriad of genres the band blends, as well as Byrne’s lyrics, are wholly original within the genre of post-punk. I have a hard time deciding if I personally enjoy Remain In Light or their follow-up album, Speaking in Tongues, more, but it’s undeniable that Remain In Light is the album that decidedly placed the band in the annals of music history. Rating: 9.5/10 Favorite Songs: Born Under Punches, The Great Curve, Once in a Lifetime, Listening Wind, The Overload Least Favorite Song: Houses in Motion