Wednesday, March 15, 2006
NEW TALKING HEADS DUALDISCS MAKE CLASSIC ALBUMS EVEN BETTER
by Don Rose
Love Talking Heads? Whether you want to rediscover the discs you loved, or are discovering TH for the first time, the new DualDiscs from Rhino shine. Highly recommended.
As you may know, DualDiscs feature two sides -- regular CD on one side, DVD with enhanced content on the other. What enhanced content, you ask? For a start, all the songs in better audio. Plus, extras like videos and photos.
On "Talking Heads 77", one of their very early efforts, the music sounds fantastic, but the video of "Pulled Up" hooked me completely, you will love it. For one thing, it was filmed amateur style, with no cuts, just one long slightly-shaky take, at a college show (apparently their encore, since they left the stage once it was done). Seeing all the young heads in the audience bobbing up and down to the tune was great fun, and the sound of this live recording is amazingly clear and crisp. Of course, it also helps that it is a great song, simply stellar timeless pop. The DualDisc also has another rare video treat, an early song featuring David Byrne singing shyly and no Jerry Harrison, and drummer Chris Frantz on vibes rather than drums. A rough song, sounding like it still needed some work, yet delightful in its roughness and strangeness. What gems!
On the "Speaking In Tongues" dualdisc, there are also nice bonuses in addition to all the original songs -- 2 bonus tracks on the CD side, and an alternate 5.1 mix of "Burning Down the House" on the DVD side -- which also contains two videos ("...House" and "This Must Be The Place").
In short, go explore the new Talking Heads dualdiscs, you will have fun. And if you are ever in a down mood, just put on "Pulled Up"; you will feel better, guaranteed.
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Love Talking Heads? Whether you want to rediscover the discs you loved, or are discovering TH for the first time, the new DualDiscs from Rhino shine. Highly recommended.
As you may know, DualDiscs feature two sides -- regular CD on one side, DVD with enhanced content on the other. What enhanced content, you ask? For a start, all the songs in better audio. Plus, extras like videos and photos.
On "Talking Heads 77", one of their very early efforts, the music sounds fantastic, but the video of "Pulled Up" hooked me completely, you will love it. For one thing, it was filmed amateur style, with no cuts, just one long slightly-shaky take, at a college show (apparently their encore, since they left the stage once it was done). Seeing all the young heads in the audience bobbing up and down to the tune was great fun, and the sound of this live recording is amazingly clear and crisp. Of course, it also helps that it is a great song, simply stellar timeless pop. The DualDisc also has another rare video treat, an early song featuring David Byrne singing shyly and no Jerry Harrison, and drummer Chris Frantz on vibes rather than drums. A rough song, sounding like it still needed some work, yet delightful in its roughness and strangeness. What gems!
On the "Speaking In Tongues" dualdisc, there are also nice bonuses in addition to all the original songs -- 2 bonus tracks on the CD side, and an alternate 5.1 mix of "Burning Down the House" on the DVD side -- which also contains two videos ("...House" and "This Must Be The Place").
In short, go explore the new Talking Heads dualdiscs, you will have fun. And if you are ever in a down mood, just put on "Pulled Up"; you will feel better, guaranteed.
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