Talking Heads – Speaking In Tongues

Absolutely love this album :3! Earlier I had the 2013 reissue of speaking in tongues and it sounded absolutely awful. A few months ago I got this pressing and it sounds perfect!

Are there any vinyl pressings that use the full length versions found on CD/cass?

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE. One of the best talking Head songs

Grabbed a clean copy in great condition (OG inner, clean jacket, etc.) for about $26 which I felt was a steal, and my god this is the only way you should be listening to this album. This pressing is on FIRE. How they got something so punchy, and spacious on only two sides of one disc is absolute wizardry. My mind was blown listening to this properly after only hearing this album through FLAC and MP3 previously. I’ve listened to this three times today and I feel that I still want more. I haven’t heard the rhino reissue of this but considering you can snag a very good looking copy for only ~$5 more don’t even bother with the reissue.

Picked up a clean used copy, gave it a wet clean, and I’m completely impressed with how freaking good it sounds! With vintage copies currently in the $25-$30 range, grab one while you can! This press sounds incredible.

Why isn't Bernie Worrell credited here? I'm sure he was playing keyboards on this album.

A two-LP set with the full "extended" versions of the songs would be a nice addition to the catalog.

There’s much to say about Speaking In Tongues, an album that evolved and had been refined from the Talking Heads’ beginnings, a step away from the burned out new wave synth machine, and more toward the avant garde aspects David Byrne was so inspired by. David went on to say, “We felt it was possible to work within a kind of pop song format and kind of do what you wanted as long as you stayed within that format. And having a love of pop music, we felt that occasionally something we did kind of by accident would connect to a larger public and other things would not.”

Of course all that was true for the moment, as in the near future, Byrne would go on to break up the band, shrug his avant garde sensibilities and step through the door of world music, which was a mistake of the highest magnitude, ‘less of course you’re a fan of that early Sunday morning style of public radio music that’s played in the background, requiring no thought, no inspiration and no exploration of the conceptual nature.

With a heavy R&B vibe that was laced with soul overtones, the album opens with the hit single “Burning Down The House,” a visual as well as a musical manifestation, all due to the expanded lineup of session players who would eventually work their way into live shows in a very bouncy Funkadelic (ah-la Parliament) manner, which would increase the sonic nature of the entire album, filling it with unexpected grooves and a presentation that at the time was impossible to ignore.

That being said, it’s easy to hear the control Byrne was taking, secreting himself away with producer Brian Eno, to the point where the other band members felt marginalized and leading to the attributes that would become the Tom Tom Club. All and all the album is very frank in its nature, filled with an air of cool detachment, yet in the same breath, it was experimental and joyous with deeply consider lyrics, especially if one hovers over the number “This Must Be The Place,” which turns out to be perhaps one of the most pointed, if not pained visions of relationships in the modern age.

There was something about Speaking In Tongues that made it absolutely undefinable, especially when one considers the iconic translucent album and cover artist Robert Rauschenberg was charged with creating, one that came with a hefty price tag for listeners (though I never manage to get one of the 1000 deluxe editions signed by both Rauschenberg and Byrne), serious frustration with opening the package without breaking it, supporting the nature of the record with the attitude that the music existed beyond space, that it merely needed to be held to be appreciated.

At the same time, the album is deep, evolving, charming, goofy, new age, and heavily reliant on aspects of American blues and R&B singles from the mid 60’s. Speaking In Tongues was a deeply crafted affair, and while the songs were great at the time, very few of them have been able to hold up of the years for me. The record is a sort of encrypted message in a bottle that I continually return to, attempting to sort it all out, make sense of it, compartmentalize it, yet all and all, it eludes me, relegating me to hearing it as a cohesive unit, where the lyrics and the music meld together as one, nearly indistinguishable from each other. Though … that relationship I talked about earlier on the song “This Must Be The Place”? Perhaps that relationship regarded not an actual interpersonal relationship between two individuals, or even that of David Byrne and the other band members, but rather the relationship the Talking Heads had with their fans.

Regardless, it’s a not to be missed lively affair.

*** The Fun Facts: Regarding the album title, a person who has what is known as “the gift of tongues” or the ability to speak in tongues, often unbeknownst to them and unrecognizable to others, usually occurs in the midst of religious ecstasy, trance, or delirium. Experts call this phenomenon glossolalia, a Greek compound of the words glossa, meaning “tongue” or “language,” and lalein, meaning “to talk.”

As to the song "This Must Be The Place," the song's title was taken from the 1965 print by Roy Lichtenstein by the same name, currently housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Is there a specific listing for the first 1000 copies which were signed by both Davie Byrne and Robert Rauschenburg?

Excellent sound on this record, every sound is so precise and clear. This is odd because I have some Renaissance Sire presses that just sound okay. This one on the other hand is out of this world. Great clarity and sound on this. Plus freaking amazing album too!!