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Paranoia and polyrhythms: Talking Heads’ greatest songs – ranked!
As an all-star version of 1984’s Stop Making Sense is released, we run down the band’s best tracks, from the beautiful Dream Operator to the existential crisis of Once in a Lifetime
It’s the Talking Heads song everyone knows, but Once in a Lifetime is a deeply odd recipe for a hit single: preacher-style sermonising about an existential crisis, off-kilter polyrhythmic funk, a climax inspired by the distorted organ of the Velvet Underground’s Sister Ray. You could read Heaven as The Big Country’s smartarse narrator turning his attentions to matters spiritual – the afterlife, he suggests, resembles a popular but boring bar – but Byrne’s echo-drenched vocal and the band’s ragged performance sound impassioned rather than sarcastic. Photograph: Luciano Viti/Getty Images More Songs About Buildings and Food saves its best track until last: it’s punchy but expansive music that approaches a new wave take on country, with lyrics that view the US midwest from a aircraft window.
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