Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.
The entire Speaking in Tongues album is reflective of the band’s roots as design school friends. At RISD, they learned that art isn’t created in a vacuum. So much of it is seeking out inspiration from other forms and movements. Each track on the album has a unique expression. “Burning Down the House” brought on the power. “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” brought on the hooks. And “Girlfriend is Better” brought on the funk.
True to the highly collaborative nature of Talking Heads, Jerry Harrison focused on guitars while bringing on longtime sideman Bernie Worrell to take the synth contributions to the next level. Harrison and Worrell are in complete lock step. It’s a beautiful thing to hear — and we get to see it with our eyes on the documentary Stop Making Sense. “Girlfriend is Better” is just one more example of the band’s ability to bend existing genres and put them into orbit around the idyllic, quirky world of Talking Heads. Not the other way around.
“We're being taken for a ride again.”