AOTY 2023
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Critic Score
Based on 7 reviews
1980 Ratings: #5 / 146
User Score
1980 Ratings: #1
Liked by 1,134 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Pitchfork
The album presents such a strange artistic vision, foreign to what came before but operating as though it were the culmination of a long tradition, that it seems to declare the power of weirdness itself.
100
AllMusic

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.

100
Rolling Stone
The Heads had already mastered minimalist funk, but here they built jams around thick, slurred rhythms, with additional musical contributions from producer Brian Eno.
100
The Needle Drop
The way these funky modes of popular music are reinterpreted to feel a little more cold; a little more digital—all of this compounding into one of the best; one of the weirdest, but yet also one of the most irresistible listens of the 80s.
90
Slant Magazine

With Remain In Light, Talking Heads took what was being increasingly regarded as a generally cerebral extension of punk and turned it into something far more global in musical and lyrical scope.

90
Uncut
The innovative groove breakthrough, with the usual musical “narrative” of melody and chord progressions downgraded in favour of cyclical funk and Afrobeat figures, realised through a larger cast of helpers.
BradTasteMusic
93

This album is the shit

ElectricMess
100

The groove of Born Under Punches is just fucking unfair

Edit 04/26/21: This is one of the best things ever.You know that. I know that. So here’s just some specific moments I’ve been in love with recently.

- The strange, freakish imagery that pops into my head when the chorus sings “we move in between”
- David Byrne invented ad libs
the moment when the first chorus joins the “Heat Goes On” refrain is peak music
- David Byrne’s ‘rap’ verse ... read more

zachthesnack
100

Edit: this grew on me

My power is out right now because of a snow storm so I didnt appreciate being taunted on Born Under Punches :(

And the heat goes on
And the heat goes on
And the heat goes on
And the heat goes on
And the heat goes on

Bitch I wish the fuck it would, ya boi has icicles for toes.

oh
100

a fun happy album filled with such anxiety and paranoia that it feels like the musicians are going to snap at any moment. and they do kinda at the end. at the start of the album david screams AAH! and you're immediately bombarded with about 30 different layers of guitar and bass. the album doesn't slow down with its immensely complex and layered songs until Listening Wind. after that it's just really depressing and almost apocalyptic with The Overload. here's some of my favourite moments from ... read more

dodecahedrons_
100

Suspenseful and frightening, yet calm and funky.

Never again will I write a review like this one because of how short I kept this with so much to talk about.

aeter34
100

what can I say that hasn't been said before? nothing - perfect album, all hits.

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Added on: September 24, 2012