With his first since 2018’s acclaimed American Utopia and its performance film, the ex-Talking Heads frontman’s new LP is an antidote to dark times - brilliantly joyous, optimistic, catchy, variously eccentric and profound, accompanied by Brooklyn’s Ghost Train Orchestra and guests including St Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams and The Smile drummer Tom Skinner. The title comes from a voice to text autocorrect error (sent to him by a friend and presumably meant to be “who is this guy?”) which he kept as an amusing idea, and accordingly the album thematically raises all sorts of playful questions about human condition and behaviour. Produced by Kid Harpoon, the 12-piece Ghost Train Orchestra are given a warm, live vibrancy - the music itself dances with the musicians. Fresh percussive sounds, with twacking upright bass, brass and chamber strings, all as if they and Byrne have suddenly danced playing into a railway station or a restaurant for an impromptu concert. Something similar to this occurred recently intimate gig at New York’s Rough Trade Below record store in connection with The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (see video below).
The many highlights include the universal sense of unity and infectiously fun of Everybody Laughs and When We Are Singing, the former particularly lifting with the drum entry; the mariachi-style What Is the Reason for It? offering a series of human-condition questions and rich vocal of Williams backed by lovey mariachi-style brass lines'; A Door Called No’s romantic sweep of strings and cleverly oddball tale and metaphor; to the Cuban rhythms Don’t Be Like That, and upbeat song about difficult behaviour. There’s also the comical and bizarre aplenty as Byrne’s eccentricity is given full vent. I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party is about the religious icon getting tempted by too many pastries. On The Avante Garde, which veers between the musical dissonant and skittish and the warmer, more comfortable home keys, Byrne sings that he wants to go there, “And when we go there you will observe /It's a passionate life, it's ahead of the curve/ It's deceptively weighty, profoundly absurd / Well, it's whatever fits / It's the avant garde/ And it doesn't mean shit/ It's the avant garde.”
The profoundly absurd, in which he revels, continues with the chamber pop of Moisturizing Thing, about an anti-ageing cream gifted by the narrator’s partner. It works so well, it leaves the him looking like a three-year-old, plagued by people talking as if he’s a toddler and constant demands for ID in bars. There is indeed something comically child-like about Byrne - that seems to a key to creativity – being constantly curious. My Apartment Is My Friend is a love song to his home giving him emotional support as would a person. Byrne has self-diagnosed himself as being on the autistic spectrum (albeit far more high functioning than most people), and She Explains Things To Me is about how his partner surprises him with her understanding of films, literature and human nature. Byrne is in a relationship with writer and businesswoman Mala Gaonkar and are due to be married this week. No wonder there’s such a celebratory spring in the step of this record, and as ever, unafraid to embrace the oddness and wonder of the human condition. The beautiful I’m An Outsider is about getting to know a person using the metaphor of being refused entry by bouncers at the velvet rope, but trying to get in, and combining ideas of inner mind and a real place: “Is it like Las Vegas? /Or a library? / In thе cave of secrets / I wondеr what I'll see /I met a talking zebra / A man with fifty eyes/ I saw a fountain made of honey / I climbed a mountain in the sky.” Byrne is fabulously eccentric and different, but always comfortable enjoyable in being so. So finally on closer The Truth, with St Vincent, Byrne is a love song that also acknowledges that like in a post-truth age of potential distortion, and so he declares: “The truth cannot hurt me, I know what I know.” Another triumph from a uniquely inventive, charming, and treasured artist. Out on Matador Records.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Feel free to recommend more new songs and albums and comment below. You can also use the contact page, or find more on social media: Song Bar X, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: