Talking Heads – Little Creatures

Of the four Talking Heads albums I have heard this was the least interesting. Kind of a run out of ideas album. I'm sure Road to Nowhere made it onto the best of though.

Big spacious and dynamic improvement over my old CD copy.

Mon exemplaire est légèrement différent avec une note sur le dos de la pochette " distribue en France par Pathé Marconi"

My disc has the blue targets on yellow but the matrix matches with this entry only.

All the original Talking Heads albums sound wonderful. Recorded and mastered well with excellent clarity and separation. Beautiful midrange tones, punchy drums and defined bass. A real treat to listen to. Spacious and full sounding, intimate vocals and immaculate detail.

The DualDisc release sounds amazing in 5.1 surround. Lots of detail you'd never get on a stereo release. Happy to see Jerry Harrison was personally involved in the mix.

To this reviewer’s thinking, Talking Heads had nowhere to go after Stop Making Sense, other than to put aside the absurd and create this accessible eschewed album. Of course that doesn’t mean you have to love it or hate it, it simply means that this is where the band was at at this particular moment in time and accept the brilliant offerings laid out here, while perhaps dancing along to songs such as “And She Was,” “Creatures of Love,” “Stay Up Late” along with the infectiously delicious “Road to Nowhere.” Of course the other tracks have their place, though not a one of them holds a candle to the afore mentioned numbers.

All and all it’s a joyous bouncy album, an ambitious retreat from the experimental attributes of their preceding records, celebrating a down to earth rebirth of the band. Without a doubt, the record is focused, with imagery that's resounding and pure, along with instrumentation that’s clean clear and crisp, exactly what the vocals of David Byrne (who for the first time was using his own honest voice) required, though here we find the alienation of the band nearly matter of factly set aside in favor of a more accessible and deliberate, all be it imaginative reality … yet certainly not a foray into mainstream pop culture.

That said, there’s a simplistic complexity found within these grooves, stunning lyrical bridges, flowing instrumental interludes, along with embellishments that at times often rival and are as interesting as the songs themselves. Little Creatures is a fine album, one that’s been conceptualized well, though with far too many listeners shrugging it off as the downhill slide for Talking Heads, though when songs from this album find their way to the airways, those same listeners sing right along, knowing each and every word, where to my way of thinking says it all, that the album has stood the test of time, is a delight to hear over and over again, subversively seeping its way into the musical DNA of our very beings.

*** The Fun Facts: As to the album’s artwork, the Talking Heads are depicted alongside mountains, animals and bell towers on the cover of their 1985 release Little Creatures. David Byrne, the leader of the band is seen supporting a globe (the world?) Atlas style, holding things together, while the other members are featured standing behind him. Graphic designer Tibor Kalman used a painting by Georgia folk artist Howard Finster as the basis of the album cover. Kalman designed several Talking Heads albums, yet this was actually David Byrne’s idea, to use the artwork of Howard Finster. Byrne explained that saying, “It was through the gallery that we contacted Finster and made suggestions regarding the format, size and type of painting. After following Byrne’s suggestion to use a Finster painting, graphic designer Tibor Kalman added the red lettering for the band’s name at the top of the painting, which is unique because the letters are cleverly interspersed within the original painting, with Finster’s clouds and stars sometimes above and sometimes beneath the text.

Review by Jenell Kesler

All of my Talking Heads records sound great, but this one in particular-- wow. From that first snare hit on "And She Was" it just explodes from the speakers with amazing clarity of all the voices and instruments. Blows away any digital version you'll hear. This Specialty pressing shows how it should be done!

My copy is dead quiet. One of the quietest pressings I have. Yay.

I have a white label copy of this version. Not sure how to go about adding it.