Talking Heads

The Talking Heads' final album sees the group returning to a darker, polyrhythmic world-music-goes-alt-rock style. "Blind" and "Mr. Jones" (a positive rewrite of a corrosive Dylan tune) offer up a one-two opening punch, but the LP's finest moments are found in the apocalyptic party perennial "Nothing But Flowers." The Afropop guitar duel between Johnny Marr, Yves N'Djock and David Byrne on "Flowers" is all-consumingly joyful.

And as things fell apart/Nobody paid much attention," sings David Byrne on "(Nothing but)
Flowers," the energetic high-life romp that is the first single from the extraordinary new
Talking Heads album, Naked. Byrne, however, is paying close attention – not that it's likely
to make much difference. What he sees is a world in chaos, endangered by political
madness, torn between animal instincts and the urge to civilize, teetering on the... More >

Where Paul Simon appropriated African musicians, David Byrne just hires them, for better and worse--this is T. Heads funk heavy on the horns, which aren't fussy or obtrusive because Byrne knew where to get fresh ones. What's African about it from an American perspective is that the words don't matter--it signifies sonically. The big exception is the glorious "(Nothing But) Flowers," a gibe at ecology fetishism that's very reassuring in this context. (Grade - B+)