Talking Heads

A remastered and expanded version of the Talking Heads' 1985 release. With Creatures, the Heads left complex studio layering behind and went back to more of a live band sound. This wasn't a regression, however: Creatures is their least mannered, and most open, album, and with songs as great as "And She Was," "Stay Up Late," "Television Man" and "Road to Nowhere," you won't even notice it's not their best work.

As I assume you've figured out, this return to basics isn't exactly Talking Heads '77. What the relatively straight and spare approach signifies is that their expansive '80s humanism doesn't necessarily require pluralistic backup or polyrhythmic underpinnings. It affirms that compassionate grown-ups can rock and roll. The music is rich in hidden treasures the way their punk-era stuff never was, and though the lyrics aren't always crystalline, their mysteries seem more like poetry than obscurantism this time out. Anyway, most of the time their resolute happiness and honest anger are right there, and in "Stay Up Late" they come up with a baby song that surpasses "Willie and the Hand Jive" itself. (Grade - A)