David Byrne, bless his quirky little heart, is back with a new album and a world tour! Is it needed? Absolutely not. Will we pretend to care? Maybe. 🤔
Who Is The Sky?, the Talking Heads singer’s (yes, they’re still talking, apparently) first new album since 2018’s award-winning American Utopia (which, let’s be honest, was just okay 🙄), was produced by the Grammy-winning Kid Harpoon (who’s probably regretting that decision now 🤣) and 12 songs were arranged by the members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra. I bet they thought they were being all artsy and avant-garde. 🙄
Musical friends, old and new, including St. Vincent (who clearly has nothing better to do 🤷♀️), Paramore’s Hayley Williams (because pop-punk needs a cameo here, right? 🙄), The Smile drummer Tom Skinner (who’s probably wondering how he ended up here 😅) and American Utopia percussionist Mauro Refosco (still milking that American Utopia cow, I see 🐄), make appearances on Who Is The Sky?, which is led by the infectious single Everybody Laughs. Infectious like the plague, maybe? 🤢
Watch the official video, directed by multimedia artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, below:
Everybody Laughs (At David Byrne)
“Someone I know said, ‘David, you use the word “everybody” a lot.’” I suppose I do that to give an anthropological view of life in New York as we know it,” says Byrne. “Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling. Everybody’s wearing everybody else’s shoes, which not everybody does, but I have done.” Oh, David, you quirky little weirdo. 🤪 Is he trying to be profound, or just plain confusing? 🤔
“I tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody, especially at the end, when St. Vincent and I are doing a lot of hollering and singing together. Music can do that – hold opposites simultaneously. I realised that when singing with Robyn earlier this year. Her songs are often sad, but the music is joyous.” Hollering? Sounds about right. 🗣️ Maybe they should stick to interpretive dance instead. 💃
“It took me a second to realise, oh yeah, these songs are personal, but with David’s unique perspective on life in general,” adds Kid Harpoon (aka Tom Hull). “Walking around New York listening to the demo of Everybody Laughs was so joyous, because it made me feel like we’re all the same – we all laugh, cry and sing.” Yeah, we also cringe, roll our eyes, and question our life choices. 🙄
“The thing about David that resonates with a lot of people is that he’s in on the joke. He gets the absurdity of it all, and all of these personal observations are his perspective on it.” Or maybe he’s just completely lost it. 🤷♂️
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
