How many other bands can you think of that emerged so fully formed, so focused, so tightly wound, so ready to explode… and then went on to even greater heights? Not a note is wasted, not a lyric superfluous. The bare bones of funk, stripped and exposed, daring you to dance. Building from Tina Weymouth’s monstrous bassline on Psycho Killer and tracing its way backwards through New Feeling to the unnerving Don’t Worry About The Government, this album oozes anxiety and tension. And yet it’s so precise. David Byrne’s vocals are sharp and brittle and, in places, pure psychosis, while Chris Frantz’s drumming is so tight it rivals James Brown’s legendary JBs. Every track, every beat…
To label this “college rock” is an oversimplification, unless college students are all perpetually on the verge of a breakdown, bursting with barely contained nervous energy.
