Remain in Light

 

    This is gonna be a hard album to discuss because of how bizarre it is. Every aspect of the music is just so weird, and I'm having trouble coming up with any other way to describe it. Every individual part feels like it was made without consideration for how it would work with every other part and yet it all somehow comes together to create really good and surprisingly funky songs. The production is great on this album, and you know that it's something special if I actually mention the quality of the sound. The more traditional instruments, especially main guitar, have some sort of filter over it or something similar that gives it a very unique timbre that I can't quite nail down but that I really like. It's almost like it's being played through some form of older recording equipment to give it a very technologic and nearly artificial sound, which plays really nicely with the more artistic instruments (bongos, horns) that are left mostly unaltered. Combine that with the absurd style of David Byrne's vocals and Remain in Light becomes an odd, amazing album where the sum is way more than it's individual parts. Also I can't find a way to neatly fit this anywhere else so it's going here: 1. The lyrics are mostly nonsense and can be disorienting at times and a couple times detract by making me a little disinterested in the music, but for the most part they're good and I really like the polyphonic-round sort of vocals that some of the songs have. 2. Apparently "The Overload" was the band trying to replicate the style of another band and I don't like it. The style is completely different and extremely boring. Really weird bad spot on an otherwise really good, artistic album. 

    Highlights: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve, Once in a Lifetime, Seen and Not Seen. 

Rating: 5/6