Album Review

Not many musicians carry the legendary status afforded David Byrne and Brian Eno. Neither man is a household name, but in the evolutionary history of rock music, few discussions could be taken seriously without mentioning the pair of quirky iconoclasts in some fashion or another. Eno started out a student of experimental music, became an integral member of the glam-art group Roxy Music, released a series of critically-lauded solo albums, worked on Bowie’s “Berlin trilogy,” practically invented ambient music, virtually joined the Talking Heads, and produced records for Devo, U2, and James. Byrne led the Talking Heads from their early beginnings as a stripped-down-and-neurotic funk group during the heydays of the 1970s New York underground, through their heady experimental ’79-’81 albums, and into their popularity as the harbingers of ‘80s new wave.

Aside from their work together in Talking Heads, the pair recorded My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a supremely influential album of experimental music, in 1981. Since then they have gone their separate musical ways. Eno has become so synonymous with ambient electronic composition and his role as a producer that many are shocked to find out he once recorded cutting-edge pop music of his own. Byrne has branched into film and other arts as well as popping up now and again with solo albums of varying levels of quality—most notably the group of late-nineties albums that includes Feelings. Now, thirty years after their first big successes together, Byrne and Eno have released a futuristic album of secular gospel music that may be one of the most important recordings of the year. You can read that last sentence again if you’d like. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today seemed to come out of nowhere for me, a fan of both of these artists. What I had expected was an album of subpar tunes by men who had seen their best work pass them by.

Call me a cynic. When grown-up rock stars reach fifty and put out new albums with their friends, the final product is most often something bland and unchallenging, slightly out-of-step with the musical scene of the time, and graciously accepted by a kindhearted but unimpressed public. If not that, some cutting edge artists will try to revert to their youth and produce something as identical to what we loved about their rebellious days, often to the embarrassment of those who revere their earlier recordings (I’m not pointing any fingers, Mr. Bowie). But Byrne and Eno have produced something here that challenges our assumptions about pop music, showcases their immense talents, and is instantly listenable for people of all walks of life. The music on Everything… is no celebration of the glory-days of the ‘70s and ‘80s, either. The songs are new and fresh, both a part of our current popular music and a few steps ahead in many respects.

Byrne and Eno have made names for themselves by being at the forefront of avant-garde rock music, but also because of a shared embrace of musical genres outside the buttoned-down academy of white songwriters. The idea they would now explore a secular but not watered-down form of gospel music is at first baffling, yes, but at the same time completely natural (Talking Heads did release “Puzzlin’ Evidence,” after all). And as you listen, it is hard not to think of what the basic purpose of gospel music is: to heal and give hope. “Home,” the album’s lead-off track, with its jangly guitars and mechanical rhythm, tells the story of a narrator lost and adrift in a world “breaking in two,” yet anchored to a place where, at least, “the band keeps marching on.” The surprising “I Feel My Stuff,” starts out as a somber, trip-hop-influenced tune and builds suddenly to a hard electric crescendo that stakes out a claim of self-reliance for its narrator. This is followed by the more lilting, orchestrated title track, a major-chord inspirational that seems in direct contradiction to the current outlook in America—where things are bleak in almost every corner—and quite honestly asks its listeners to have hope and persevere. Not really the type of stuff you expect to hear from the often cynical tongue of Mr. Byrne.

The two readily apparent singles on the album are pop songs of the highest quality. First comes “Life is Long,” where Byrne sings that he is “sawn in half by the passage of time,” but “still free.” The song is of the U2-Coldplay variety and may be one of the least electronic ditties here. Still, it is wonderfully fresh and begins to build on Byrne & Eno’s apparent goal: to make us all start feeling a little better about things.

“Strange Overtones,” is a little more idiosyncratic, with sounds you may recall from Eno’s Before and After Science, and features the line that will doubtless be quoted a dozen more times this year: “This groove is out fashion / These beats are twenty years old.” The slowed-down dance-floor beat in question is accentuated by Eno’s ingenious touch for ambient effects (his Enossification, they used to call it). But Byrne’s vocals hold an earnestness and depth most Talking Heads fans may be surprised by. I certainly was, and if either of these tunes succeeds in pop radio, it will be the new found power of Byrne’s honesty that will be most responsible.

My favorites here are the two songs I feel best mesh Eno and Byrne’s interest in gospel with their lifetime of musical experimentation. “Wanted for Life” and “Poor Boy” both find ways to meld industrial-funk sounds, social commentary, and a sense of cultural revival into perfectly crafted pop songs. In “Poor Boy,” the narrator complains that those in charge “trust market forces. It’s the only song they know.” It’s hard not to see the actions of a certain American president in the lines “I ran outside, the buildings dropped / Now he stole the crown. Do the buggers never stop?” To which our narrator says, “Wait a minute, pop.” The gospel march driving this quirky tune forward calls us to join in that little bit of resistance as well.

Not that you couldn’t ignore the words to Everything… if you felt like it. The music alone, paired with Byrne’s harmonized vocals, makes for an incredible listening experience. For both men, this album will be a touchstone in their careers. That much is for certain. For the rest of us, it affords an opportunity to explore a musical style we often take for granted because of its associations with our faith or lack of faith. And we could all benefit from the—no kidding—healing power of this incomparable duo’s latest effort.

Written separately — Eno in charge of the music, Byrne with the lyrics and vocals — the album is now available online at EverythingThatHappens.com but will be released on CD later in the year.

Comments (2)