Music Byrne Laughs for the Strangeness of Life in ‘Who Is the Sky?’

Today, fans already see David Byrne as more than an eccentric subject coming from a cultured rock band. He is a direct public intellectual to the point; an advocate of civic improvement and multicultural cooperation; a neurodiverse poet of the modern condition; An artistic brown eminence with fingers in various cultural pulses. In a way, as the multifaceted project showed American utopia, Byrne It has become a kind of non -denominational minister, with a silly sense of humor, to whom one can resort to guidance, hope, encouragement, and words of wisdom when things get scary.

Well, things are quite scary now, and in their first original song album since before the pandemic, Byrne is… writing musical comedy. “I found the Buddha at a party in the center”He announces in the lively range of the same name;He was close to the desserts and canapés / stuffing himself as if there was no tomorrow / with a beatific smile on his entire face.”When the singer shows concern, divinity instructs him:“‘I had to retire from this lighting bid / I never had the answers, and I never had it / they think I can help them, but I’m not so smart / So, here, keep a piece of this blueberry pie!’”

In “The Avant Garde”The art student who became a pop singer stages an aesthetic crisis about an intertwined beat, rhyming“I Saw a Woman in a Leotard” with “I’m not sure how i feel ’bout the avant garde”And concluding in the chorus:“it doesn’t mean shit”. Already in“Moisturizing Thing”About humorous string arrangements, your partner says:“ ‘Hey, David, pass it on the skin / Say here that it is anti-aging, antioxidant too / goes ahead, try / let’s see what happens.‘”And behold, the lotion transforms him into a child.”My beloved wakes up, look to the side and scream”He reports;“This cream is magical, I seem to be three years old.”

This narrative style is not new to a polymate that has been writing musicals for two decades, or even more, if we count the collaborations of the 1980s with TWYLA TARPE (The Catherine Wheel) and with the deceased Robert Wilson (Music for ‘The Knee Plays’). There is also an obvious connection with the recent interactive project Theater of the Mindin addition to a long line of staging compositions that dates back to “Psycho Killer”And“Life During Wartime”.

What made those songs work, and do these too, is the sound of the mind of Byrne in motion inside them. Memories appear in Who is the sky? – whose title, Byrne Admits, it came from a voice transcription error by the phrase “Who is this Guy?“. Concerns about aging, with people questioning their creative choices or waiting for him words of wisdom to decipher the madness of the world seem to be very real triggers. And, to be honest, is refreshing – and hilarious – listening to Byrne sound almost grumpy in “The Avant Garde”Since he rarely goes beyond subtle sarcasm (not to mention a curriculum full of his own mea blames).

There are personal memories also in love songs, especially considering the imminent marriage of Byrne with the writer and founder of the investment fund Gionanother polymate (Note: The playlist of his wedding dinner is definitely worth a hearing). In “What is the reason for it?”, Byrne overpraches the phenomenon of love on Mariachi style metal arrangements, with the charming participation of Hayley Williams (Paramore) – One more among its 21st century pop partners, as Robyn, Olivia Rodrigo and Annie Clark (St. Vincent), a longtime collaborator who appears here in “Ev’rybody Laughs”The main single and statement of intention from the album.She Explains Things To MeIt is another song of love, in a way. It is the most sensitive and vulnerable moment of the album: an expression of gratitude, with slight comic frustration, for someone who expands his perspective-the mansplaining reinvented as man-listening.

Musically, Byrne connects to modern pop strategies via Kid Harpoon, producer of Harry Styles. But, being Byrnealso called the Ghost train orchestraa New York set known for interpreting the composer and street musician Moondog, as well as the drummer Tom Skinner (from The Smileparallel project of Radiohead). If the approach remembers ColorsBeck Pop Virada in 2017 with GREG KURSTINhere the touch is lighter, always with the rhythmic and melodic multicultural surprises that illuminate the solo work of Byrne.

The risk of mood in songs, of course, is the joke losing the grace. But laughing is pleasant and undeniably therapeutic – perhaps even a trend in the current pop (see sharp tirades of Laufey or the collaborations of LaraajiDefender of Laughter, on the new album of Big Thief). Anyway, Who is the sky? It is an engaging invitation, like the one who Byrne offered in “Road to Nowhere”, Classic of Talking Heads -Recently rewritten by Brazilian Roge in a tribute to the band-to accompany him on this long trip to the unknown, singing and laughing whenever needed.

Read the original article in:Rolling Stone

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