The album was No Talking, Just Head (1996). The band was the Talking Heads without figurehead David Byrne. In his place would be a roster of luminary guest vocalists also contributing to the material, including lyrics. At the time of its release, the album was met with considerable skepticism. The result was immediately dismissed by critics and fans alike: sales tanked.
I’m going to guess that, like me, most never bothered to listen to it. I still wouldn’t have had it not been for drummer Chris Frantz’s recent interview in Rolling Stone to push his recently published memoir, Remain in Love. In it, he mentions the album. It turns out, the album wasn’t the turd we were led to believe it was.
Like this one with Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano:
By 1984, at the Talking Heads’ commercial peak, at Byrne’s insistence, the band stopped touring. By the later years the band’s music had become less collaborative and Byrne would eventually leave the enterprise behind by 1991. I’ve heard it said that bassist Tina Weymouth had been wanting to get Byrne out for some time and hoped to replace him with guitarist/vocalist Adrian Belew. If you don’t know, Belew had toured with Talking Heads in both 1980 and 1981 and also played on the Tom Tom Club’s 1981 debut album—a Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz side project that would go on to do very well. (Belew would join King Crimson in 1981.)
XTC’s Andy Partridge also makes a contribution.
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