Last year's More Songs About Buildings and Food signaled that the group, on its second album, had perfected its tech-mech music. The LP was a manic, oddly funky, hard-edged, catchy masterpiece. On Fear of Music, Talking Heads take that style and proceed to torture-test it under every distortion they and coproducer Brian Eno can devise. Whereas More Songs About Buildings and Food was crisp and outgoing, Fear of Music is often deliberately, brilliantly disorienting. Fear of Music is Talking Heads' most elaborate production so far, teeming with overdubs and effects the group doesn't try to reproduce in concert.
Sounds emerge out of nowhere, echoes tangle the beat, instrumental timbres form unholy alloys.
It's hardly subtle, but it works. Though New Wave conservatives may be appalled at such elaborate studio tinkering, the songs don't suffer a bit. But all the while, a giddy, slapstick synthesizer line is busy cutting away any trace of sentiment. The problem isn't the production but the song itself. You don't even know my real name.