Album dossier / 1980

Remain in Light

Talking Heads · Art Rock/World

Recorded at Nassau's Compass Point Studios in summer 1980 (one room over from AC/DC tracking Back in Black), the band -- barely on speaking terms at the time -- built the album from wordless, looping instrumental jams inspired by Fela Kuti-style Afrobeat rather than finished songs, with producer Brian Eno acting as a de facto fifth member. Guitarist Adrian Belew and vocalist Nona Hendryx were later brought in for overdubs at New York's Sigma Sound, where David Byrne improvised gospel-inflected call-and-response lyrics over the grooves. The album's writing-credit dispute -- Eno wanted it billed to 'Talking Heads and Brian Eno,' and bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz later said advance copies wrongly downgraded their contributions to 'Talking Heads' collectively -- became a lasting sore point even as the record is now regarded as a landmark fusion of art-rock, funk and African polyrhythm.