Web site reviewsDavid Byrne: FeelingsThis page contains reviews of David Byrne's latest album "Feelings". Some of these reviews were published in papers or magazines while others were written by visitors of this website or members of the Talking Heads Mailing List. Thanks to everybody who put his feelings on virtual paper so far...
Read the review by/from:
It's been a long wait for David's new album............and worth it ?? After getting used to the new sound brought to us by David enryB (the last album) I didn't really know what to expect from 'Feelings'. Well, it's different again and I don't think I can recall a CD in my collection with such a variety of sounds on it !!! Brought into 1997 by the sounds of Morcheeba (and sounding well trendy!) and travelling across the world with Brazilian, American, Indian and English sounds (to name but a few) to finish with a more traditional sounding orchestral track 'They are in love'. Favorites on my first play are 'Finite=Alright', 'Miss America' and 'They are in love'. 'Wicked little doll' has a strange rhythm that carries it throughout the track and the recurring lyrics drone out an eerie feeling (the track is definitely a grower!) 'Daddy go down' sounds very Eastern and then a Cajun fiddle moves the sound into an American feel. Track 13 (not listed on the CD case!) an 'instrumental' serves no purpose as far as I can see - can anyone explain why it is there ?? 'The Civil Wars' brings back memories of his last album somehow. All in all Feelings is another new step for Byrne's musical career .......... I don't know how he would perform some of the tracks - very well produced but I cannot see them working live. I could tell when I saw the CD sleeve that this would be no ordinary CD and yes it was worth the wait..........which way will Byrne's music go next ?? To summarize I find 'Feelings' to be a World music of the 90's sampler and find myself dragged across the world at a great pace - led by a strange plastic doll with one hell of a creative imagination !!!! David Byrne strikes again......tour here soon David !!!! - Alan Lacey
Although it's been three years since he released his last self-titled album, David Byrne's parallel careers as an artist, photographer and figurehead of Luaka Bop have maintained his public profile. They've also given him the opportunity to stretch different creative muscles while he was mulling over his latest album. "It's great to get your head into something else and not eat the same dish every meal of the day," says Byrne. "I could let whatever I was hearing and what I was feeling gestate." Byrne's creativity includes making an art installation for a department store in Japan - comprising a sonic collage of inspirational tapes and large photo images combining weapons and money - and a travelling photographic exhibition. Musically, however, he is still best known for his work with Talking Heads, despite releasing three solo albums. "Going from Talking Heads to being David Byrne is quite a long process," says Phil Straight, director of artist development at WEA. "Sting and Peter Gabriel went through that process and I think David's really doing that as well. Over the past few years, he's changed his styles quite a few times. Sometimes people could get on with them; sometimes it was, 'I don't like that, why has he done that?'." While Byrne's diversions into ethnic music may have cost him sales to the more casual pop fan in the past, his latest album, Feelings, should ensure a broad base of appeal through its clever amalgamation of diverse styles. It embraces drum and bass beats, string quartets and Cajun fiddle playing and features Byrne's entertaining lyrics which make reference to supermodel sex, cocaine-thieving boyfriends and Jimi Hendrix records. "The first stuff that came out was really dark," says Byrne, "very kind of trip folk. Some of the ballads on the album came out of the afterbirth. "For a while, I thought the whole record was going to be like that. Then a greater variety of things started to come out. I knew I wanted to put the songs together so that each sounded different, but all the producers I called were either busy on big mega projects or weren't interested. So I thought, well, I'll just call up some bands and musicians whose work I like." Byrne surprised the UK's Morcheeba by asking them to collaborate with him on a couple of songs, then visited their studios in London "to make sure they weren't from outer space, or all drugged out". "It was funny," recalls Ross Godfrey, "he'd pick up on our phrases and scribble down what we said." The week with the band and co-producer Peter Norris proved so fruitful that Byrne returned, eventually recording nine tracks with them, six of which ended up on the album. Ironically, although Morcheeba helped Byrne explore new territory, they were also responsible for him returning to his roots on the track Dance On Vaseline. "Me and my brother Paul were big Talking Heads fans," says Godfrey. "Our first band, Severe Bingo, used to do a cover of Burning Down The House about nine years ago. We tried to make Dance On Vaseline sound like it." The involvement of Morcheeba, who accompanied Byrne on BBC2's Later With Jools Holland last Saturday (May 10), is sure to heighten media interest in Byrne, and Straight believes it will also lead to a greater awareness of the artist among a younger audience. "Morcheeba is great for us. A lot of kids know Morcheeba who don't know David." Other contributions to Feelings came from former Hugo Largo violinist Hahn Rowe, who produced the eerie ballad A Soft Seduction, Neneh Cherry/Tricky producer Mark Saunders and Brooklyn's Andres & Camus. However, the factor most likely to provide Feelings with a big push is the video for the album's first single, Miss America, scheduled to precede Byrne's Glastonbury appearance in June. Set in an Asian transvestite bar on the Lower East Side of New York, it's as wild and as lascivious as the song's lyrics, which portray Byrne playing Dirty Harry to an America personified as a supermodel with her pants around her ankles. "It's pretty tasteless and it's America," says Byrne of the video. "But I drew the line at the gospel-singing Siamese twins." -Shaun Phillips I'm sorry that a lot of you haven't been able to get a copy of Feelings yet, but I just want you to know that it will be worth the wait. I had listen #5 yesterday, loud with headphones, and I was quite staggered by the whole album.....it all suddenly made sense, musically at least ;) I have liked all DB's solo stuff, but was a bit disappointed by david enryb, and I thought some kind of trendy trip-hop collaboration could be a complete disaster. I was also expecting the sort of uneven, patchy album you normally get when you have lots of different producers on different tracks (Bjork's Post leaps to mind here). I am really pleased to say that I was totally wrong! The tracks are certainly varied, but coherent nevertheless, and the production styles are not as disparate as I feared (I guess DB was able to maintain some common elements by co-producing it all). My main delight is that IMO DB's writing is the strongest its been for a long time, musically and lyrically. I know its early days, but I think that Feelings is by far the best thing he's done since Rei Momo, and much more varied than that great album. I won't go into all the tracks right now (my favourites change with each listen). I'll end with a one-word summary of the album: Satisfying. Isn't that something quite rare these days?? Pleased that DB hasn't lost it, sad that he's not playing small gigs,
"Rock bands died when amateurs won..." Since last weekend Russia got some "Feelings" ( or "Feelings" got them ...) In brief the whole of the album sounds completely different to whatever was connected to the name of Mr. D.Byrne or Talking Heads. Where did David Byrne go ? No hysterical rythms, no insanity-driven tunes though rather plain music on all of the songs exept the little #13. Most of the songs relate to the traditional concept of composing music due to the rather professional harmonies on the album. No torn apart pieces ! Like David Byrne said in his early days , a typical Talking Heads song would consist of several pieces written independently and just "stuck" together later. Well, listening to his writings of 1997 I can think somewhat of ... Paul McCartney ! Very melodic too ! Somebody on Francey's Bulletin Boad had creditied Morcheeba as a trip-hop band . I guess that is heard clearly on the Morcheeba produced tracks. The rest of the album are not bad neither ! Some grunge on "Civil Wars" ! For a change... When it concerns David Byrne's music so grunge is not traditional grunge, and when David Byrne follows some musical traditions of the world he would pick up this time they become his own traditions. I would rather suppose David Byrne is going his way of song writing irresistibly aproaching traditional concepts of music. What else could he do after going through a plenty of style-changes from the TH to the "symphonic" Forest and then back closer to the early TH "torn rythm" minimalistic style on "David Enryb". I think "Daddy go down" is the most typical Byrne song here... "Feelings" with a really great original studio sound that I would like to appreciate - nothing like on his best works of old - the album is strongly poetical too. I am going to escape the verses critique, but we got some "uncensored" lyrics on track "Miss America" and another! At least no stickers like "parental advisory" on the cd-box ! After listening to "Feelings" for three times, Alex Goulebev Probably the most original and creative CD-case design ever! More hard-hitting and diverse than previous albums! Could do without the cursing though! I prefer the clean, philisophical David Byrne! Still one of his best though. And I still want them to release that awesome doll in mass quantities! Everyone else who thinks so should join me in convincing Yuji Yoshimoto! SaMuS THE MANY MOODS OF QUIRKY DAVID BYRNE FEELINGS - David Byrne (Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.) David Bryne returned long ago from his exotic world expeditions, where he captured big-game rhythms from afar to help infuse his solo work, whether it fit or not. For his new solo album, which may well be his best year, he makes sure to pick the best musical environment for each track. Byrne's still got a quirky eye for detail and an ear for the eccentric turn of phrase. His jagged observations are served well by a collaboration with a lot of artists, primarily the English dance collective Morcheeba, which gives a modern, well-suited backing to a number of tracks. Byrne also records with Seattle's old-time Black Car Orchestra and has a sweet string orchestra backing a couple of songs. The most natural collaboration is with guys who are as quirky, quasi-robotic and nervous as himself -- Devo, on the track "Wicked Little Doll." (Speaking of doll, on the innovative cover, Bryne is turned into an action figure with four different moods; with a little modification to the jewel box case, the CD itself can be used as a spinner to pick moods. Otherwise, thankfully, there is no cover of the Morris Albert song that shares the name of the new Byrne album.) Not since "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" has Byrne so gleefully mismatched musical styles to such strong effect. "Daddy Go Down" begins with a sitar and turns to hip-hop scratching, before the entry of a squad of hoedown fiddlers. The skewed musical approach, not so different from recent works by Beck or Bjork, is matched by his splendidly weird lyrics. On "Finite," the song with the pristine string arrangement behind him, he begins: "Three hundred fifty cities in the world and just 30 teeth inside of our heads. These are the limits to our experience." Especially on songs with backing vocals and prominent lead guitar, a lot of tracks sound not so far from the final recordings of his old band, Talking Heads. But he seems to fancy himself the free spirit these days, landing with the right group of musicians as the song dictates. How will all these different moods and musical persuasions be resolved in a single performance? Byrne will give a hint of how he plans to do it in a pre-tour performance Sunday night at Toad's Place in New Haven. --Roger Catlin
I'm in Australia and I managed to get an English import of Feelings (I don't know when it is released here officially). The cover and inlay etc. are fantastic; just like a really tacky doll box. The David Byrne Mood computer is great: spin the CD which has a huge arrow, the arrow points to a colour, you can look up what 'feeling' the colour is: Starry Eyed, Pissed Off etc. Then if you flip to the back of the jewel box the colour will correspond to a song. So if you want you could play the CD like that! Well for the music. Straight off the bat when a friend asked me what it sounded like I said it sounds a bit like Beck, I 'spose. I think it is a great album, the placing of the tracks it perfect; some faster boppy ones followed by more mellow ones eg. Miss America before A Soft Seduction. David uses a string section on two tracks: Finite=Alright and Burnt by the Sun which are highlights, as is the funky Hawaiianish shimmering guitar of You Don't Know Me. The ablum features an unusual mix of instrumentation: the hip hoppy Morcheeba stuff combined with a sitar and fiddle on Daddy Go Down. Compared to the David Enryb album there is a lot less guitar overall, although The Civil Wars and Gates of Paradise make up for this. The only song that I don't really enjoy is Wicked Little Doll (Co-produced with the guys from Devo, who incidentally appear to have influenced the cover photo)it is really repeditive and a bit grating, anyway thats my opinion. As usual DB's singing is great, as witnessed by the start of Miss America. One Australian radio station (Triple J) has played this song and the first song of the CD Fuzzy Freaky, it's always good to hear DB and T. Heads on the air. If you are a DB/T. Heads fan buy Feelings it's excellent, showing that DB can do 'modern' music and not simply 'latin' sounding things. Adam Powell
|
Home is where I want to be
(C)
Francey / Studio
Zimbra 2000