Naked (Talking Heads album)

Last updated
Naked
Thnaked.jpg
Studio album by
Talking Heads
ReleasedMarch 15, 1988
RecordedAugust–December 1987
Studio
Genre
Length52:17 (CD)
46:56 (LP)
Label Fly/Sire
Producer
Talking Heads chronology
True Stories
(1986)		Naked
(1988)		 Popular Favorites 1976–1992: Sand in the Vaseline
(1992)
Singles from Naked
  1. "Blind"
    Released: August 1988 [3]
  2. "(Nothing But) Flowers"
    Released: October 1988

Naked is the eighth and final studio album by American rock band Talking Heads, released on March 15, 1988, by Sire Records. Following the more straightforward new wave and pop rock sound on Little Creatures (1985) and True Stories (1986), Naked marked a return to the worldbeat stylings of both Remain in Light (1980) and Speaking in Tongues (1983), blending elements of Afrobeat, Latin funk, and art pop. The album's songs were formed from improvisational jam sessions recorded in Paris, which featured the participation of numerous guest musicians such as former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and singer Kirsty MacColl. Lyrics and vocals were then added in New York City following the Paris recordings.

Contents

Naked was positively received by critics, who viewed it as a return to form for the band following the mixed responses to True Stories; retrospective assessments, however, have been more lukewarm. The album was also a moderate commercial success, peaking at No. 19 on the US Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart, later being certified gold by both the RIAA and BPI. Following the album's release, Talking Heads officially went on hiatus, with its members focusing on various side-projects over the course of the next few years; frontman David Byrne would eventually announce in December 1991 that the band had dissolved. [4]

Recording

Co-producer Steve Lillywhite (pictured in 2010) helped consolidate the album's shift in sound. Steve Lillywhite during interview.jpg
Co-producer Steve Lillywhite (pictured in 2010) helped consolidate the album's shift in sound.

Wanting to try something different after their use of regional American music and the pop song format on their previous two albums Little Creatures (1985) and True Stories (1986), Talking Heads decided to record their next album in Paris with a group of international musicians. According to the album's liner notes, the decision to do so was in part a reaction to the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration, which had grown increasingly isolationist in approach. [5] Prior to leaving for France, the band recorded about 40 improvisational tracks that would serve as the foundation for the sessions in Paris.

In Paris, the band, along with producer Steve Lillywhite, were joined by a number of other musicians in the recording studio where they would rehearse and play for the entire day. At the end of each day, one take was selected as being the ideal version of a particular tune. "Paris is a wonderful place to work," observed drummer Chris Frantz in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads . "We were really embracing world culture fully." In the interest of freedom for the musicians, it was decided that lyrics and melodies would be left until later. The lyrics were not overdubbed until the band returned to New York. Many of David Byrne's lyrics were improvisations sung along with the prerecorded tracks until he found something that he felt worked. In this way, the melodies and lyrics evolved in a similar fashion as the songs themselves. According to Lillywhite, the album's more organic, percussive sound was a deliberate move away from the bombastic production that he had helped make commonplace in the 1980s, stating that "It wasn't made so angular and mixed so loud as it might have been in the past. It was more of a warm sound with all for the beats compensated for." [6]

Byrne told Record Mirror in 1988 that many of the songs on Naked are "about human beings stripped of their pretensions; stripped of their surface trappings", which in turn inspired putting a picture of a chimpanzee on the album cover. [7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Chicago Tribune Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Christgau's Record Guide B+ [10]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [11]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [12]
NME 9.68/10 [13]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [14]
Spin Alternative Record Guide 8/10 [15]
Uncut 6/10 [16]

Naked was well received by critics, who hailed it as a vast improvement over True Stories. [17] Chris Willman from the Los Angeles Times said the band abandoned "the stripped-down four-piece rock approach of late" in favor of a "far more eclectic big-band, world music extravaganza." [11] In Rolling Stone , Anthony DeCurtis called the album "stylistically bold and intellectually provocative," a "dizzying and disturbing piece of work" that "marks a return to the more open-ended, groove-oriented style the Heads defined on Remain in Light." He noted that "the vital human harmony suggested by the international band of players .. is the strongest counterpoint to the album's pervasive themes of alienation and dread." He concluded by interpreting the view of the album's lyrics: "The human race consists of some pretty cool people ... but it's got a very destructive monkey on its back. Human survival is not guaranteed. With humor and good-hearted-ness [ sic ], hope and fear, Talking Heads contemplate a world on the eve of destruction on this important record — and leave wide open the question of what the dawn will bring." [2]

Naked was voted the 24th best album of 1988 in The Village Voice 's annual Pazz & Jop poll of American critics nationwide. Robert Christgau, the poll's supervisor, regarded it as "an honest if less than sustaining internationalist gesture" and said "Byrne concealed the ricketiness of his current compositional practice by riding in on soukous's jetstream, but the trick didn't stick", attributing the band's diminished success to a weariness with the music business. [17] In Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he wrote, "where Paul Simon appropriated African musicians, David Byrne just hires them, for better and worse – this is T. Heads funk heavy on the horns, which aren't fussy or obtrusive because Byrne knew where to get fresh ones. What's African about it from an American perspective is that the words don't matter – it signifies sonically." However, he called, "(Nothing But) Flowers" a "gibe at ecology fetishism that's very reassuring". [10] Years later, he revised his stance on both Naked and True Stories, "which I once thought overrated. I was wrong. They sucked." [18]

In a retrospective review, Michael Hastings from AllMusic found Naked "alternately serious and playful", allowing Byrne to continue worrying about "the government, the environment, and the plight of the working man as it frees up the rest of the band to trade instruments and work with guest musicians. It's closest in spirit to Remain in Light– arguably too close." He further stated that "the album sounds technically perfect, but there's little of the loose, live feel the band achieved with former mentor Brian Eno. It's quite a feat to pull off a late-career album as ambitious as Naked, and the Heads do so with style and vitality." He concluded that "the album's elegiac, airtight tone betrays the sound of four musicians growing tired of the limits they've imposed on one another." [8] Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it "marked a return to their worldbeat explorations, although it sometimes suffered from Byrne's lyrical pretensions." [19]

Track listing

All lyrics written by David Byrne, all music composed by Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth. [20]

Cassette/CD versions

No.TitleLength
1."Blind"4:58
2."Mr. Jones"4:18
3."Totally Nude"4:10
4."Ruby Dear"3:48
5."(Nothing But) Flowers"5:31
6."The Democratic Circus"5:01
7."The Facts of Life"6:25
8."Mommy Daddy You and I"3:58
9."Big Daddy"5:37
10."Bill"3:21
11."Cool Water"5:10
Total length:52:17

LP version

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Blind"4:58
2."Mr. Jones"4:18
3."Totally Nude"4:03
4."Ruby Dear"3:48
5."(Nothing But) Flowers"5:14
Total length:22:21
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."The Democratic Circus"5:01
7."The Facts of Life"6:25
8."Mommy Daddy You and I"3:58
9."Big Daddy"4:01
10."Cool Water"5:10
Total length:24:35 (46:56)

2005 DualDisc reissue bonus track

No.TitleLength
12."Sax and Violins"5:51
Total length:58:08

Notes

Personnel

Additional musicians

Charts

Certifications and sales

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [41] Gold100,000^
United States (RIAA) [42] Gold500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

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References

  1. ↑ "Talking Heads 'Naked': The Band's Last Studio Album Turns 25 Years Old". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 DeCurtis, Anthony (April 7, 1988). "Naked". Rolling Stone . Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2011.
  3. ↑ Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. p. 809. ISBN   9780862415419.
  4. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Talking Heads: Biography". AllMusic . Archived from the original on November 13, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  5. ↑ Naked (CD release, liner notes, pg. 3). Talking Heads. Fly Records/Sire Records/EMI Records. 1988.
  6. ↑ Hart, Ron (26 March 2018). "Talking Heads' 'Naked' at 30: Chris Frantz & Producer Steve Lillywhite Look Back on Band's Swan Song". Billboard. Lynne Segall. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  7. ↑ Adamson, Doug (27 August 1988). "Stripped Naked". Record Mirror . p. 28. ISSN   0144-5804.
  8. 1 2 Hastings, Michael. "Naked – Talking Heads". AllMusic. Archived from the original on July 2, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
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  11. 1 2 Willman, Chris (March 13, 1988). "A Talking Heads Extravaganza". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
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