- Record Label: Rhino
- Release Date: Aug 17, 2004
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is not only a vital document of an important, groundbreaking band on their way up, it's one of their best albums, easily surpassing Stop Making Sense.
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BlenderThe momentous band [on the 1980-81 disc] stretches out and jams, both celebrating and escaping the band's trademark anxiety. [Sep 2004, p.158]
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A caterwauling hunk of avant-garde precision.
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Entertainment WeeklyCaptures the punk attitude, brittle R&B vamps, and quirky lyrical trips of their early years. [20/27 Aug 2004, p.123]
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MojoIt's too taxing for the less intense of the band's admirers. [Nov 2004, p.127]
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The result is both the best career-spanning snapshot of and single-purchase introduction to Talking Heads-- odd accolades for a live record-- and a treat for longtime fans.
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Rolling StoneIn the 1977-79 half of Name, nearly every song beats the studio version. But the 1980-81 disc is the prize, as the Heads take their lofty concepts to the stage with a ten-piece band. [2 Sep 2004, p.147]
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The second disc... is the sound of a band at the height of its powers, employing a ten-piece band and backup singers, and exhibiting an absolute mastery of its material.
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A terrific and long-overdue reissue that's sure to satiate established fans as well as the new converts it hopes to earn.
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This is no cynical cash-in; every new track adds gestalt to an album which in its original incarnation was pretty damn great to begin with.
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UncutTerrifically thorough. [Nov 2004, p.131]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 58 out of 64
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Mixed: 1 out of 64
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Negative: 5 out of 64
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TravisF.Feb 18, 2008
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Mar 20, 2016
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Jul 25, 2013