Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein names her favourite Talking Heads album
The impact Talking Heads have had on modern music cannot be overstated. Between big suits and Brian Eno collaborations, David Byrne and his bandmates won over generations of guitar music fans and players, reinvigorating the genre with arty influences and genre experimentation. From the post-punk revival to a forthcoming Stop Making Sense covers album, they’ve influenced countless cross-genre artists, and Carrie Brownstein is no exception.
As one half of Sleater-Kinney, Brownstein is an alternative icon in her own right. Since the mid-1990s, the roaring riot grrrls have paired grating guitars with musings on feminism and the patriarchy. The alt-rock outfit have a wide range of musical influences that filter into their own output, including the New York new wave pioneers.
While divulging her 23 favourite albums to New York Magazine, Brownstein picked out one Talking Heads record: 1980’s Remain In Light. Following from the gritty Fear of Music just a year earlier, the band adopted a punchier, more rhythmic sound for their fourth full-length offering. With the help of Eno, they delivered a record that would come to be widely considered their greatest.
Starting as they mean to go on, Talking Heads kick things off with ‘Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)’, a skittish track with restless percussion and declarative lyrics. “Take a look at these hands!” Byrne urges. Remain In Light maintains this nervous, fidgety energy throughout its entire runtime, from the vocal oscillations of ‘Crosseyed and Painless’ to the more minimalist, slightly ominous ‘Listening Wind’.
But the biggest hit to spawn from Remain In Light was its lead single, the now-iconic ‘Once in a Lifetime’. Over swirling synths and groaning sounds, Byrne details the monotony of everyday life with the certainty of a preacher. His lyrics aren’t lacking in their usual nonsensical quality, but a little digging will reveal just why ‘Once in a Lifetime’ is so universally loved.
“And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife,” Byrne declares, “And you may ask yourself, ‘Well, how did I get here?’” It’s a feeling we’ve all experienced, that moment when you look around at your life and it seems completely different to the last time you stopped to think about it. Byrne seems to shrug the sensation off with a “Same as it ever was,” but there’s a lingering feeling of grabbing onto life while you can.
While 77 provides a look at the band’s early days and spawned their signature hit in ‘Psycho Killer’, and Speaking in Tongues ventured even further into genre experimentation and dance-worthy tunes, Remain In Light remains a demonstration of Talking Heads at their best. It’s easy to see why the album takes the title for Brownstein’s favourite Talking Heads record – ‘Once in a Lifetime’ alone makes it a worthy contender.
Brownstein’s own output is far less funky and fun than Byrne’s stylings, preferring abrasive guitars and straightforward lyrics to polyrhythms and preaching. Still, like most people who inhabit the indie rock scene, her love for Talking Heads is strong. Brownstein, unfortunately. isn’t a part of the upcoming tribute to Stop Making Sense, but we’d love to see her take on a Talking Heads classic at some point, putting her own alt-rock spin on the album’s punchy opener or iconic hit.
