Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues

Talking Heads made their most joyful dance record with Speaking in Tongues, the 1983 album pressed here on 180-gram vinyl.

After three albums with Brian Eno, the band took the controls themselves, and the freedom shows. David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison kept the polyrhythmic adventure of their earlier work but leaned harder into funk, building the songs from loose, playful grooves. The tour that followed was famously captured in the concert film Stop Making Sense, and several of these songs became highlights of those legendary shows.

The hits are immediate and irresistible. "Burning Down the House" erupts with frantic percussion and a chorus that turns a wild image into a party chant, while "Slippery People" bubbles with gospel-tinged call and response. "Girlfriend Is Better" bounces on a rubbery synth bass and contains the lyric that gave the concert film its name. Then the album closes with "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)," a disarmingly sweet love song that ranks among the most cherished things the band ever recorded.

Speaking in Tongues is Talking Heads at their most accessible without losing an ounce of their weirdness. On heavyweight vinyl, those interlocking rhythms have the punch and clarity to get any room moving.