The Best of Talking Heads

The opener, Love Goes To Building On Fire is a powerful song with an unorthodox arrangement and evocative imagery, whilst Psycho Killer is a prime example of David Byrne's innovative vocal style.

The omission of The Big Country is a pity, but their version of Al Green's Take Me To The River from the same album remains fascinating. Another highlight is the cinematic Once In A Lifetime with its multi-layered rhythms and gripping vocals.

Burning Down The House, And She Was and Road To Nowhere were huge hits, the last being very much like a flowing country ballad. And that is what made Talking Heads so special - their brilliant explorations of a wide variety of styles. In the process they extended the musical boundaries of rock and made an innovative contribution to the music of the punk revolution.


A good 'best of' but somewhat unnecessary.   November 18, 2004
 23 out of 23 found this review helpful

As a best of album, this is not bad. It documents all the great Talking Heads tracks in one manageable bite. It is also in chronological order so you can see the development of Talking Heads from their first ever single Love - > Building On Fire, which was admittedly quite bad, to some tracks of their final album - Naked. The best track for me on this album is the great This Must Be The Place. If you are new to Talking Heads, there are plenty of tracks on here that will give out enjoyment.

As expected however, there are a number of brilliant tracks that aren't included on this album. I 'guess' if you wanted them all though, you'd probably be buying the Once In A Lifetime box set or each conventional album.

This album was released in conjunction with the live album, The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads. That was a brilliant thing to be released but I think this best of album is really quite unnecessary. It has been deemed unworthy already by Popular Favourites : Sand In The Vaseline; a biography, best of and rarities album all rolled into one. Alternatively, the Once In A Lifetime box set provides more than enough for your money. I got the feeling this album was released to try and squeeze more money out of Talking Heads and this is wrong.

In conclusion, I'd recommend you by the Once In A Lifetime box set or the Sand In The Vaseline compilation as they are fuller and more rewarding than this latest best of.


Singles rather than the Best   October 18, 2004
 24 out of 27 found this review helpful

This is an adequate enough compilation if you just want the singles and a few other well known tracks released by Talking Heads. The number of albums released and different styles embraced by the band make this an interesting journey of development but without some of the key album tracks to interlink the different stages it is a little disjointed to listen to.

The extended 'Once in a Lifetime' compilation is a better bet if you can track it down or just buy 'Remain in Light', 'Fear Of Music' and 'Speaking in Tongues' to hear them at their peak!