Grown Backwards

David Byrne

Nonesuch Records

We owe a…

Grown Backwards

David Byrne

Nonesuch Records

We owe a lot to David Byrne. Once called “Rock’s Renaissance Man” by Time magazine, Byrne should be familiar to everyone over the age of 25. The guy with the big suit? The guy with the shrunken head? No, the founder of one of the most influential music groups of the late ’70s and ’80s. I shudder to think where we would be without David Byrne. (I don’t even want to fathom where we would be had he not released a song called “Radio Head” back in 1983.)

David Byrne is the former front man of The Talking Heads. Since the group disbanded, he has gone on to become a writer, the head of a record label, a photographer, a video artist, a film director and a designer — all in addition to becoming a solo music artist. Throughout his career, Byrne has always been an innovator, which, for him, results in a variety of hits and misses. Not every experiment is a good one, but there is something to be said for experimentation, especially in today’s world of insipid pop music.

Grown Backwards is David Byrne’s first Nonesuch Records release. For this album, he used a “top down” approach, singing melodies into tape recorders, which would then be used as the backbone to create the songs. This is much different than the usual method of creating songs primarily with improvised grooves and textures.

Fortunately, the result is the same as it ever was — densely textured instrumentation and playfully bouncing melodies. Like in his last solo effort, Look Into the Eyeball, Byrne incorporates many string arrangements into each song. In addition to this, he also adds a distinctive Eastern feel with the use of different drumming. With all the quirky lyricism, it all ends up sounding like a very scary nursery rhyme.

If you are a fan of the Talking Heads — and especially if you are a fan of David Byrne’s solo work — I definitely recommend giving this album a spin.