Sire Vinyl & CDs

Review: The eighth and final studio album by giant-grey-suited art-pop auteurs Talking Heads, Rhino was a curious sendoff for the four-piece, hearing David Byrne and company move back in the direction of worldbeat and Afrobeat, harking back to earlier opuses like Remain In Light. Considered a return to form for Talking Heads after the relatively panned True Stories, the album did rather well, owing to their seeming successful achievement of the goal of writing an album about "human beings stripped of their pretensions... of their surface trappings." Now reissued via Rhino, we hear this 1985 finale in its best light once again.

Review: David Byrne's seminal Talking Heads group remains a huge influence on a wide range of artists to this day. Their artsy take on music making and performance is still unique, and plenty of their tunes still bang. True Stories was the seventh studio album by the American outfit back in 1986 and preceded Byrne's plated film True Stories. The record features studio recordings of songs from the film and standout hits like 'Wild Wild Life' whose video won two MTV Video Music Awards in 1987. As far as catchy melodic pop and beautiful rock moments go, this is packed with them.