David Byrne: Who Is the Sky? review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Matador)His last album was criticised for being too upbeat during Trump 1.0 but became a phenomenal live show, and the Talking Heads frontman remains sunny – almost to a faultIt is seven years since David Byrne released his last solo album, American Utopia. So much has happened in the intervening period that it’s easy to forget that, initially, the record received a mixed response. There was praise for its expansive and experimental approach: songs built on rhythms by Brian Eno were handed over to a wide selection of producers to tinker with, then Byrne compiled the finished product. Part of a larger multimedia project called Reasons to Be Cheerful, it attempted to engender a spirit of positivity, but there were complaints that this amounted to a blithe abdication of responsibility amid the first Trump presidency. Respectful long-service-medal reviews coexisted with angry fulminating over the complete absence of female contributors.A mixed response was business as usual as far as Byrne’s post-Talking Heads career is concerned. He’s pursued an idiosyncratic path – diversions into Latin American music, opera and trip-hop, collaborations with dance producers and St Vincent – but never with results that achieved sufficient acclaim or commercial success to overshadow his former band. But then, something weird happened. The ensuing American Utopia live shows, which used cutting-edge technology and choreography to demolish the conventions of a rock show, attracted deserved hyperventilating praise. A tour that began playing modest theatres wound up filling arenas, spawning a Broadway show, two live albums – one named after a critic’s breathless assertion that it was The Best Live Show of All Time – and a Spike Lee-directed movie. Continue reading...

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