Retro Spins: Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues

I don't know much about Talking Heads. My introduction to them was in 1984's Revenge Of The Nerds, when the Alpha Betas burn their house down, ironically to the tune, Burning Down The House. Admittedly, It's not one of my favorites. However, as a band who had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I had to believe there was something to them that I was missing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the group. Of their eight full length studio albums, I can name two songs from them I like. While it may not seem like much, because it isn't, it was at least enough that I decided to nab a couple of records from them. I picked up, Speaking In Tongues, Little Creatures and True Stories.

With all of these ready to go, I figured I'd start with the earlier of the three, Speaking In Tongues. It starts up with aforementioned Burning Down The House. However, from there, it gets a little weird. I'm not sure what I would call the band's style. It's like nothing I've really ever heard before. Their wiki page describes it as a fusion of punk, art rock, funk and world music. The art rock portion I can definitely agree with. The others, not at all.

Despite, or perhaps because of its odd sound, I really wasn't able to get into this album. I like my songs to be singable, not that I do much of that. But, that aspect definitely wasn't here. Everything was just odd. Maybe I just didn't get it.

It was because of this that I really didn't understand what all the hype was that this band went on to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Further investigation didn't help matters. I checked them out on Billboard, only to find that of their eight hits which charted, only one cracked the top ten. Two made it into the top twenties, while the rest were between the fifties and nineties. This is certainly not a band I would have selected to be inducted. I suppose, if nothing else, I at least don't feel like I'm the one who's missing something here. The charts speak for themselves.

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