Here's a discussion board for anyone who listened to Fear of Music by Talking Heads this week. You're welcome to drop a comment (or respond to one) regardless of whether you wrote a review or not. I will drop some comments, but here are some questions that might inspire you to write a comment yourself.
— What did you think about the album? Good or bad? How did it make you feel?
— Were there any reviews that you agree with or disagreed with?
— Were there any reviews that captured well the music as you heard it? Were there any reviews that did a great job at expressing an opinion that you thought was totally wrong?
— If you had written a review, what would it have looked like?
— Can you see yourself listening to this music after Record Club is done with it?
— Anything else you wanna say about the album or the artist or any of the songs?
17 comments:
Thanks to everyone who wrote a review this week. Welcome Casey, welcome back Allison. To everybody on here, thanks for sticking around. Feeling good about seven reviews (plus a Katy Perry review). 1681 reviews over 310 weeks averages out to 5.42 reviews per week, so we were way above average on January 10, 2025. Not bad for a dumb little music club about to enter its seventh year.
A few similar points touched on multiple reviews. Zach and Casey both question Talking Heads' drug intake. Me and Allison reflected on getting into Talking Heads later in life. Me and Zach speculated that we heard Talking Heads in utero. Sara and Nate reflected on how well this held up over a long period of time. Sunny was the only person writing about a fear of melons.
A couple good meta points in Sara's review today, and I'm curious as to how other members of this group feel about them. One, does the "how do you feel after one single week" limitation of Record Club ever feel restrictive to you, and do you think you'd like most of these albums more if you had more time? Two, should a review be approached criticism-first, or compliment-first, or does it all just depend on the music?
Some other miscellaneous thoughts:
1) Were people to easy on "Drugs" because it was a Talking Heads song on a great album? Would people have been more dismissive if, say, the New Year had placed "Drugs" at the end of their album?
2) A friend who will absolutely not be joining us in the discussion this morning told me that she really used to be into this album because she was "obsessed" with Dadaism. I didn't know what she was talking about. I'm glad Allison at least mentioned it, because I still don't know what it is, and I probably should.
3) What do you think Katy Perry thinks of Talking Heads? Do you think I'll be able to get the other four people in my Katy Perry review to write their own reviews about Katy Perry's Teenage Dream?
4) Should RC cover Pink Floyd at some point in 2025 so we can all go see Pink Talking Phish at some point?
5) Does anyone else love music?
I was under a deadline, so the Microsoft Paint-assisted graphic at the top of this post is one of the worst I've ever done. What happened, Anoncarthy, I thought you were supplying the pictures from now on???
Final TH thoughts for now. I am SHOCKED that no one mentioned the concert doc. Only slightly less shocked that no one mentioned any other Talking Heads albums. Anyone have a favorite? Least favorite?
Nothing but love and respect to all reviewers. "I tune into Talking Heads and I hear Khruangbin" has inflicted profound psychic damage upon me.
Comparing one week vs several is one of the RC meta challenges. Albums in the spring/summer have some advantage at year end, based on very little.
Sara also made the point Kelsey made to me earlier this week: Bowie vibes bouncing around a lot of these tunes
6) What will the name of the blog be that Joe's kids get pulled into in 20-30 years and are ultimately forced to listen to TH because of their ongoing writing involvement in?
in the pursuit of knowledge and takes, One must monitor their health and sanity bars during any poyb adventure
Punctuating these FoM reviews with the very modern and sensual Teenage Dream feels, hmm, appropriate
There are no wrong opinions here on PoYB... but some are less right than others.
Will probably be called "Memoirs of Hadrian"
I think the "Bowie vibes" can probably be attribute to Brian Eno, who produced this album and a lot of Bowie.
1) yes, because I am a hater first
2) idk but it feels like white people and psychedelics
3) I bet Katy Perry loves Talking Heads but I also think if anyone asked Katy Perry if she loved X artist she would just say yes. I think she needs to feel included.
4) Yes! I like that idea
5) Yes
I thought this would be a popular opinion
I'll bite. I think I do hear similar aesthetics in some of the rhythms and the geographical origins of those particular sounds. So you are not wrong! The thing that makes the statement hard to swallow, at least for me, is that Khruangbin comes off as half-baked and is cool-off music, whereas Talking Heads are revelatory, and heat-up music. I'm glad that you wrote it.
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