10 Bands And Artists Who Pass The Five Album Test
7. Talking Heads
Between 1977 and 1983, Talking Heads survived a changing political and musical climate and intra-band rivalries to release a quintet of near perfect records. Each of these saw the band evolve and adapt, forever remaining one step ahead of the shifting fashions of the day.
Talking Heads: 77 is jittering new wave/art punk reflective of their status in the New York scene. These were songs to be played hard and fast at CBGBs and the Mudd Club. Then, they hooked up with Brian Eno for their true golden period. The former Roxy Music man was the perfect producer for the band, and the next two records produced satirical fare like “Found A Job” and the paranoid, grooving “Life During Wartime”.
Their next two records, Fear Of Music and Remain In Light take a sojourn into afrobeat. “I Zimbra” begins their great polyrhythmic experiment, but Remain In Light takes things way out there. The first side of the record is a non-stop party, “Crosseyed And Painless” the hectic highlight.
Speaking In Tongues may be their last great album, but it brings everything together sonically, from the funk of “Making Flippy Floppy” to the tear-inducing beauty of “Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place)”. They never reached these heights again; that’s a lot of ideas to throw out there over five records.