CD: Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings and Food

Generally thought of as post-punks, Talking Heads' great leap forward actually came while they were on tour with label-mates the Ramones, punk's motherlode, prior to the release of their debut, Talking Heads '77. While in London, they met Brian Eno, who would become virtually a fifth member of the band. Their debut, and the three Eno-produced records that followed, have each been remastered with extra tracks, and a DVD containing the original album remixed in 5.1, and video material. 1978's More Songs ... was their first record together, and betrays the band's then deeply unfashionable love of disco, as well as echoes of Parliament's psychedelic funk. But this is black music bleached and scorched by the energy of punk, and the enervated chug of the Velvet Underground, against which strains David Byrne's unmistakably white, alienated yelp. From the opening gallop of Thank You For Sending Me an Angel, it still sounds as though it's charging into the future.