CD Revue: David Byrne - Grown Backwards

I have a long long history with David Byrne. Talking Heads’ album True Stories was the first album I bought with my own money that I’m not embarrassed to talk about. But his last album, Look into the Eyeball, was a bit of a let down; just more Talking Heads-ish rehash. It sounded like Byrne was on autopilot. I didn’t even know he had a new album out when I ran across this at Sonic Boom. It’s a strange album as all most all the songs feature an orchestra and Byrne even does two opera songs. But it really works as whole. It doesn’t sound like Talking Heads; it sounds like David Byrne. The best track is a cover of Lambchop’s “The Man Who Loved Beer”, which surpasses the original. Other stand outs are “Dialog Box” is the first song about the internet that doesn’t suck after three listenings and “Empire” is a great political song that is affecting with out be trite.