2008\u2019s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today <\/i>finds Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and producer Brian Eno reuniting for the first time since My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts <\/i>in 1981. This disc marks a different sort of collaboration than its predecessor, however; Eno laid down the instrumentation to a number of tracks, then recruited Bryne to provide lyrics and vocals. The tapes themselves were passed back and forth between the two musicians and additional session players until the disc was completed — yet despite how methodical the process may seem, the resulting collaboration sounds anything but processed or disjointed. Instead, this batch of eleven songs is one of the most buoyant, melodic, and refreshingly hopeful albums of the year (and had I not just gotten around to buying it now in January, would have most definitely made it onto my Top 10 list this year).<\/p>\n
Launching the disc out is one of the most solid cuts here, \u201cHome.\u201d Byrne\u2019s expansive vocals and crisp, evocative lyrics swirl past Eno\u2019s layers of acoustic guitar and chugging beats, hitting the mark spot-on in creating a track that skims the line between longing and tempered reflection. The songs here are described in the liner notes as \u201cfolk electronic gospel,\u201d and each are infused with such a sense of compassion and possibility that even Byrne wondered at how the material had managed to sound so uplifting during the trying and not particularly hopeful Bush era. <\/p>\n
Songs like \u201cEverything That Happens\u201d and \u201cLife Is Long\u201d reflect this mood most immediately, and are two of the album\u2019s most instantly striking moments. \u201cEverything That Happens\u201d find Byrne\u2019s vocals uncoiling over a languorous soundscape, hazy as if in slow motion, until the last verse kicks in: \u201cEverything that happens will happen today \/ And nothing has changed but nothing\u2019s the same,\u201d Byrne sings, and the combination of harmonized vocals and ringing guitars envelops you in its warmth. Next up, \u201cLife Is Long\u201d is kicky and jangly, coupling Eno\u2019s rich arrangements with one of the album\u2019s most fluid, memorable choruses, concluding with the line \u201cChain me down but I am still free.\u201d Meanwhile, \u201cOne Fine Day\u201d is billowing with a similar energy, textured with acoustic guitars and anthemic harmonies.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Lead single \u201cStrange Overtones\u201d was the way I first fell for this album, and it\u2019s really not too hard to see why this track makes an excellent introduction. It\u2019s seamlessly catchy, achieving a sort of Bowie-like groove with its shuffling beat, swerving bassline, and an epic chorus exploring directly the process of penning a song (\u201cStrange overtones \/ Though they\u2019re slightly out of fashion \/ I\u2019ll harmonize \/ I\u2019ll see the music in your face \/ That your words cannot explain\u201d). <\/p>\n
There are a few stumbles here, although it comes mostly when Byrne and Eno\u2019s stunning atmosphere gets interrupted by some less than successful experimenting. \u201cI Feel My Stuff\u201d is an odd break too early in the album into meandering spoken-word passages, shambling instrumentation, and strained lyrics that fumble the flow achieved by the preceding two tracks. Later, \u201cWanted For Life\u201d feels similarly out of place with its thickly buzzing synths and almost plodding beats, at least surrounded by the punchy \u201cStrange Overtones\u201d and the strange but successful \u201cPoor Boy,\u201d which pairs bongos and a spry guitar line with Byrne\u2019s confident vocals to create a rollicking penultimate track that diverges musically from the surrounding material but retains the same spirit. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today <\/i>is a stellar disc that manages to hold up hope in a pretty cynical age. The music here is seamless and enveloping, catchy without ever being slick — it\u2019s a joy to listen to, and a fitting comeback of sorts for this loose pair who achieve moments of brilliance with this album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":29697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8321],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41298","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-david-byrne-brian-eno","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41298"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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