The sonic patchwork of the track includes some harmonica, a sampled drum fill and some chunky bass. The skittering percussion sounds and weary preacher delivery of “Gasoline and Dirty Sheets” finds Byrne moaning and crooning over a delicious, softly funky beat. The album opens with “Dance Like This”, which clashes soothing, spare piano with clattering, thunderous industrial sounds – it often feels like two separate songs woven together. But the feeling of the album is consistently dark, cynical and biting, which continues – in some way – the claustrophobic, agoraphobic themes of Fear of Music and Remain in Light. But that’s where the similarities end – the paranoiac sentiment and unhinged humour is classic David Byrne: “We’re only tourists in this life / Only tourists but the view is nice.” This cynicism and biting sarcasm continues throughout the record.Īcross the other nine tracks, there’s very little to indicate that the man you’re listening to used to be in Talking Heads, nevermind the resident creative genius. Hey, it even sounds like an LCD Soundsystem title. The lead single, “Everybody’s Coming to My House”, does evoke James Murphy’s dance-punk crew in its bass-heavy groove, dense polyrhythms and over-caffeinated, hyper vocal delivery. LCD Soundsystem wear their Talking Heads influence loudly and proudly, and the majority of their excellent 2017 album American Dream (go figure) features the distinctive polyrhythmic heft of Talking Heads’ magnum opus Remain in Light (see: “Other Voices”, “Change Yr Mind”). Calling on all of us to think, connect, engage, and dance, David Byrne’s American Utopia unites the brain and the backside, which may be exactly what we need right now.Much has been made of the lead single’s similarity to LCD Soundsystem – which should strike the listener as being something of an oxymoron. Lee’s powerful visuals bring it right up to the present. In a film of countless highlights, Byrne’s cover of Janelle Monáe’s "Hell You Talmbout" is a showstopper, with the band chanting out the names of Black Americans killed by police. "Most of us are immigrants," Byrne says at one point, "and we couldn’t do it without them." They launch into "Everybody’s Coming to My House." The classics are all here, too, but transformed - the aching beauty of "This Must Be The Place" "Once in a Lifetime" now a euphoric anthem. ![]() Then, on come nine more musicians, including percussion masters from the US, Brazil, France - even Toronto’s own Jacquelene Acevedo. The cerebral first song, "Here," from Byrne’s 2018 American Utopia album, opens in a mood of cool reflection, but that soon builds as Byrne is joined on stage by vocalist-dancer Tendayi Kuumba and dancer-vocalist Chris Giarmo, with their uncanny mix of artful gesture and dance-floor funk. Spike Lee’s latest joint brings all this joyous stagecraft to the screen in a vital call to connect with one another, to protest injustice, and, above all, to celebrate life. Working with a vibrant new band and dancers, the former Talking Heads frontman turned his music into an antidote to America’s current divisions. Deeply thoughtful and wildly exuberant, David Byrne’s theatrical concert American Utopia lit up Broadway last year with Byrne’s trademark mix of rhythm and ideas. Spike Lee documents the former Talking Heads frontman’s brilliant, timely 2019 Broadway show, based on his recent album and tour of the same name.
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