David Byrne is still looking forward on pleasantly weird new album
Who Is the Sky? doesn't quite hit the highs of David Byrne's past work, but some of its songs are charming and distinctive.
At 73, David Byrne finds himself in the spotlight once more. Pop star Olivia Rodrigo had him join her on stage at the Governor's Ball music festival, and he and Paramore's Hayley Williams have collaborated several times.
In 2020, Byrne’s stage show American Utopia was filmed by Spike Lee, and then the Talking Heads' concert movie Stop Making Sense received a 2023 run in theatres. It was raved about all over again, including by new, younger fans, and the band even promoted it together after years of mutual disengagement.
Part of Byrne’s 50 years of critical adulation has stemmed from his enigmatic nature, on record and off. His lyrics tend to seem anthropological, like he’s documenting humanity’s foibles at a remove, and on his ninth studio album, Who Is the Sky?, he outright calls a song ‘I’m an Outsider’.
David Byrne, never one to shy away from creative risks.
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In it, he sings about being kept outside a members-only club on the other side of a velvet rope, a situation it’s hard to imagine Byrne ever facing. There’s a more believable one in ‘She Explains Things to Me’, in which he has movie and TV plots broken down for him by a patient female companion.
There’s a ring of truth to that track, as well as the usual sly humour. ‘Moisturizing Thing’ is similarly candid, with the line “Hey David, put this on your skin”.
Byrne has spoken about reaching an age where he cares less about others' opinions, and lyrics like this may reflect a newfound transparency. Thankfully, that lack of caring also extends to taking creative risks (not that he’s ever been shy about those).
To that end, he enlisted New York ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra to join him on Who is The Sky?, presented as an album-length collaboration similar to 2012’s Love This Giant with St Vincent, or 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and 2008’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today with Brian Eno.
The ensemble flesh out Byrne’s songs - conceived on acoustic guitar and drum machine - with ornate orchestration. The propulsive stomp of ‘My Apartment is My Friend’ is coloured with swelling strings and tinkling marimba; ‘What is the Reason For It’ has layers of percussion and a Mariachi hornline; and ‘I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party’s' majestic central melody is buoyed by injections of tuba and vibraphone.
It’s full but not overstuffed, Byrne’s compositions rewarding this kind of opulent treatment. He enlisted Kid Harpoon to produce, a Brit who received a Grammy for his work with Harry Styles.
Who Is the Sky? is a pop record in terms of sound and scope, with every element as loud and full as possible, propelled by the kind of chest-thumping bass modern technology has enabled.
While ‘Buddha’ briefly brings to mind Talking Heads ‘Slippery People’ at its outset, it soon charts territory of its own. By and large, the whole collection features a vaguely carnivalesque tone that balances pleasant weirdness with pop nous; familiar territory for Byrne fans.
The most extreme example is ‘The Avant Garde’, which, in keeping with its title, sports an extremely (intentionally) off-putting verse, then a very listenable, Beatles-esque chorus. Opener ‘Everybody Laughs’, meanwhile, is cheerful to a fault, the musical equivalent of Byrne opening his arms and assuring us that everything will be fine.
And that sentiment is welcome. He doesn’t quite hit the highs of past work here, but the collection is admirably forward-looking (to be expected from someone who reportedly turned down huge sums of money for a Talking Heads reunion).
Even more important than Byrne’s songwriting, which remains distinctive and charming, is his voice, somewhat weathered but still one of a kind. Whether or not he still considers himself an outsider, to fans, he remains a comforting companion.
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