talkibest

Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense

More of the Music of Talking Heads

 

  • A vintage Sire pressing with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Every five years, like clockwork, we do a shootout for this superb title — our last was in 2021
  • Both of these sides are big, bold and dynamic, with the kind of energy that you rarely find outside of the live event
  • “. . . ‘A bona fide classic,’ opined Neil Jeffries in a five-star review of the reissue for Empire, ‘a perfectly measured snapshot of a widely loved and respected band playing at the height of their powers … No other band could do this. No other music movie soundtrack sounds this good.'” -Wikipedia

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Talking Heads / Remain In Light

More of the Music of Talking Heads

  • Here is a vintage Sire pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Everything we were hoping for from this music is here and more — richness, sweetness, great energy, big time presence, weight down low, punchy drum sound and so on
  • Both of these sides are also open and transparent with lots of space around the different parts
  • The sonics have extraordinarily high-resolution, which lets you hear all the detail and texture of the crazy synths
  • 5 stars: “Even without a single, Remain in Light was a hit, indicating that Talking Heads were connecting with an audience ready to follow their musical evolution, and the album was so inventive and influential, it was no wonder.”

It takes an exceptional pressing to get all the elements correct — the funky bottom end; the processed, multi-tracked vocals; the Brian Eno production weirdness and so on.

This is a brilliant album but a typically problematic record. Most copies get some things right but fail in other areas. There are smeary copies that can’t deliver the punchy bottom you need, grainy copies that make the vocals painful to listen to, and plenty of copies that are just too dark or flat sounding for anyone to enjoy. Note that the first track on both sides will sound the worst. The sound gets better, though, as you get further into the album.

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Talking Heads – Little Creatures

More of the Music of the Talking Heads

  • Little Creatures is back on the site for only the second time in eighteen months, here with solid grades on both sides of this original Sire pressing – this one has the Big Beat sound we love, and fairly quiet vinyl too
  • I ask you, what record from 1985 sounds better than Little Creatures?
  • These sides are rockin’ on tracks like “Stay Up Late,” “Road To Nowhere,” “And She Was,” “Creatures of Love” and more
  • Surprisingly big, punchy and open sound for this 1985 pop classic – a Top 100 album and longtime Better Records favorite
  • We used to think that this album was the best sounding one the band had produced, but recently we came across some phenomenally good sounding pressings of their debut, and they now hold the Talking Heads’ crown for best sound
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Ear Candy …a pop album, and an accomplished one, by a band that knew what it was doing.”

We’re huge fans of Little Creatures, and when you hear a copy like this you’ll know exactly why. Not many records from this era sound as amazingly rich as this one, not in our experience anyway.

On the better copies, the sound is punchy, smooth & so ANALOG, with an especially beefy bottom end, the kind a good Big Beat Pop Album record needs. For a good reference think Get The Knack or Parallel Lines.

Tight, punchy, surprisingly deep note-like bass absolutely makes or breaks the sound on Little Creatures. Without the proper bass foundation this funky beat-crazy Talking Heads album can’t BEGIN to do what it’s trying to do: get your feet tappin’ and your body rockin’ to the music.

The better pressings are surprisingly dynamic, with a sweet, often silky top end. The drums are very well recorded throughout — you can really hear the room around that big kit. You will also find that the higher-rez pressings give David Byrne’s vocals the presence and breathy texture they need. The overall sound will be open, spacious, and sweet — even three-dimensional.

The Last Great Talking Heads Album

This is the Last Great Talking Heads album. The first four and this one give you all the Talking Heads music you’ll ever need. Each of them is brilliant in its own way. One of the ways this one is especially brilliant from our admittedly skewed point of view is that it’s the best sounding record the Talking Heads ever made.

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Talking Heads / Speaking in Tongues

More Talking Heads

  • Both sides of this vintage Sire pressing were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning solid Double Plus (A++ ) grades
  • “Burning Down the House” – our favorite track on the album and one of the band’s best – is really rockin’ right out of the gate!
  • The sound opens up nicely, allowing you to hear into the music and appreciate the more subtle details, details that more often than not get lost on other pressings
  • 4 stars: “… their most popular album yet…” – it also was #54 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 best albums of the 1980s”

We recently finished a shootout for Speaking In Tongues, the band’s 1983 release, the last great Talking Heads album, and were pleased as punch to hear a copy or two deliver the kind of magic that we’ve been getting on Little Creatures.

Most copies of Speaking In Tongues are too flat, dry and veiled to get worked up about, but this one will show you that excellent sound for this album is indeed possible, albeit awfully difficult to find.

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Talking Heads – Fear of Music

More Talking Heads

More Brian Eno

  • You’ll find excellent Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this vintage Sire pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • I’d be hard-pressed to name another group from the era who put out more groundbreaking yet accessible records than the Talking Heads
  • Producer Brian Eno wasn’t shy about adding multiple layers of effects and processing; the texture of Eno’s synthesizers gives the music depth and character
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…the music is becoming denser and more driving… with lyrics that match the music’s power… its better songs are as good as any Talking Heads ever did”
  • If you’re as big a Talking Heads fan as we are, this is a classic from 1979 that belongs in your collection.

As huge fans of this band, it was a major thrill for us to complete a shootout for this album recently. We found that the best copies had wonderful transparency, meaty bass, Art Rockin’ energy and a refreshing overall freedom from distortion.

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Talking Heads – True Stories

More Talking Heads

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) sides or close to them, this copy is guaranteed to handily beat any True Stories you’ve heard – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Here’s the Midrange Magic (particularly on side one) that’s surely missing from whatever 180g reissue has been made from the tapes (or, to be clear, a modern digital master copied from who-knows-what-tapes)
  • “…True Stories is not without its charms… ‘Dream Operator’ is one of the most affecting tunes Talking Heads ever recorded; the closing-credits theme ‘City of Dreams’ is similarly touching.”

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Talking Heads – Talking Heads: 77

More of the Music of The Talking Heads

  • A vintage pressing of Talking Heads’ debut album (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years) with excellent Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom
  • Big and open with lots of layered depth to the soundfield, and sonics that positively jump out of the speakers
  • The sound here is so analog — warm, rich and smooth with the kind of fullness and life that are hard to come by for this music
  • The sound of the best pressings is raw, real and exceptionally unprocessed
  • 5 stars: “Talking Heads threw you off balance, but grabbed your attention with a sound that seemed alternately threatening and goofy. The music was undeniably catchy, even at its most ominous, especially on ‘Psycho Killer,’ Byrne’s supreme statement of demented purpose. And that made Talking Heads: 77 a landmark album

If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1977, this album would definitely be on it

We’re huge Talking Heads fans at Better Records, but we’d never tried to shoot out this album before 2011 because the copies we had played to that point were no great shakes. And that trend of mediocity only continued in the ensuing decade since, alas.

We’d forgotten how amazing this album can sound on the best pressings. I’d even say that it’s a sonic step up from Fear Of Music and Remain In Light, probably tying with More Songs About Buildings and Food and Little Creatures for top Talking Heads honors.

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Talking Heads – The Name of this Band is Talking Heads

More of the Music of The Talking Heads

  • The band’s 1982 double LP live album is back on the site for the first time in years, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on all FOUR sides
  • These are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “vox jumping out of the speakers”…”big and rich and punchy”…”fully extended from top to bottom”…”good space and depth”
  • Stunning sound for one of the best live bands of the era – the sonics are lively, incredibly present, rich and full
  • Byrne’s vocals sound just right and the clarity is excellent – when the music is this immediate and three-dimensional, it takes the enjoyment to a whole new level
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The excitement of this material is palpable, and the muscular band rips into these tunes with more power than the originals in most cases… arguably one of their finest releases.”

We recently had a big shootout for this live double album and were very impressed with how good some of this material can sound, particularly on the first side which was recorded before the band got huge and started playing bigger venues. A lot of copies we played were too thick and compressed to break through the challenges that live recordings face, but this one really nailed it. (more…)

Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings and Food

More of the Music of Talking Heads

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, you’ll have a hard time finding a copy of Talking Heads’ one true masterpiece that sounds remotely as good as this original Sire pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • We guarantee that you have never heard these songs sound as big, bold and alive as they do here – “Take Me to the River” is really rockin’ on this side two
  • With Eno producing and Rhett Davies engineering, every track is (psycho) killer – truly this is a must own from 1978
  • 5 stars: “Brian Eno brought a musical unity that tied the album together, especially in terms of the rhythm section, the sequencing, the pacing, and the mixing.”

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Talking Heads / Speaking in Tongues – Our Shootout Winner from Way Back

More Talking Heads

White Hot Stampers discovered, hot enough to burn down the house! We just finished a HUGE shootout for the last great Talking Heads album and were as pleased as punch to finally hear a few copies of this album that deliver the same kind of magic that we’ve been getting on the better pressings of Little Creatures. Most copies of Speaking In Tongues are too flat, dry and veiled to get worked up about, but this one shows you that excellent sound for this album is indeed possible, albeit very difficult to find.

We’re serious Talking Heads fans here at Better Records, as you may have gathered by now. Not only is their music completely innovative and original, but their recordings are as well. That’s not to say that their records are Demo Discs along the lines of Tea For The Tillerman, Fragile or Abbey Road, but when you find a killer copy of any of their albums you can’t help but notice how much work they put into making them.

We played a ton of copies before we even heard a hint of the magic we were hoping for. Most of them sounded like CDs. When you turned up the volume, sure they got louder, but they didn’t really get any better. That’s a sure sign of a mediocre pressing, and it just kept happening over and over again in the shootout. Just as we were about to throw up our hands and give up, a copy hit the table with enough analog qualities to rope us back in. We added a little extra volume and started to hear the qualities that we needed from this music: rich, full mids; punchy bass; breathy vocals; and above all, ENERGY. On a Hot Stamper copy with the traits listed above, the music becomes involving and vital. If Burning Down The House doesn’t get you moving to the beat, what’s the point? (more…)