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What are you, in love with your problems?

Jason Stein | San Diego, CA United States | 01/27/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not interested in whether this disc can play properly or not! Let's talk about the music here! As a debut, Talking Heads did a pretty good job. It's definitely one of their more sparse recordings and does not have many layers like their later work.



The cd side is digitally remastered. So how does it compare to the old "'77" cd? A major improvement. However, there are no lyrics to the songs like on the old copy. There are liner notes from various musicians who appreciate Talking Heads as well as a note from Jerry Harrison about how he and Andy Zax remixed the album into 5.1 surround sound.



Which brings me to the dvd side. It's quite amazing to listen to "'77" through five speakers digitally remastered. You feel like you're in the studio with the band. The two bonus tracks are okay but nothing special. The two videos are okay. It's nice for someone like me to watch them since I missed the opportunity to see the band live. The 5.1 surround sound is excellent, but because this album is two dimensional sonically it doesn't quite compare with "Fear Of Music" or "Remain In Light".



Okay, onto the music. As I said, this a good debut, but not great, and not their best work. It does contain the classic "Psycho Killer". It also has "No Compassion", "Uh-Oh, Love Comest To Town", "Tentative Decisions", "The Book I Read", "First Week/Last Week...Carefree" and "Pulled Up". In the bonus track department three tracks "Love --> Building On Fire", "I Wish You Wouldn't Say That" and "Sugar On My Tongue" all appeared on 1992's "Sand In The Vaseline". I particularly like "Sugar On My Tongue".



For an album that came out nearly 30 years ago, "'77" holds up very well. Talking Heads were always ahead of their time and a true original. The digital remastering on the cd side is great, but you really need to listen to the dvd side and hear the album in 5.1 surround sound to be blown away. I'm a little annoyed by the expensive price tag to replace my old copy. I really think it should be $9.99, but then Rhino wouldn't make any money. If you really like the Talking Heads like I do, you will shell out the extra cash to get all eight albums digitally remastered. I wish they had included "Stop Making Sense" in 5.1 surround sound dual disc format!"

A superb debut.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 02/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of those debut albums that is clearly the beginning of a legacy, "Talking Heads '77" finds the band raw yet somehow fully formed. At its best, it is absolutely brilliant, somewhat schizophrenic new wave pop, at its worst, quite frankly, it's not much different.



Having met in art school in Rhode Island, David Byrne (guitar and vocals), Tina Weymouth (bass) and Chris Frantz (drums) relocated to New York to pursue their destiny as a band, eventually adding Jerry Harrison to the mix (keyboards and guitar) from Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers (highly recommended for anyone who enjoys this album). The band performed Byrne's songs-- a fractured, paranoid, intelligent and yet goofy sort of off-kilter pop-- the key to his music is that you can't readily identify when it was recorded, it has that magic timeless nature to it such that if you played this album for someone who had never heard it, they'd have no reason to assume it was recorded nearly thirty years ago. With Byrne's strained, frantic vocals and an unnervingly able and inventive rhythm section, the pieces all get superb readings.



Again, at its best it's brilliant schizophrenic pop-- from the deep groove of paranoid "Psycho Killer" to the mildly funky, building and paranoid "No Compassion" (the clearest pointer to what the future holds) to goofy-yet-serious chirping opener "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town" or the seemingly endless imagery of "Don't Worry About the Government". The less intriguing tracks are pleasant enough ("New Feeling"), but often fairly unmemorable ("First Week/Last Week... Carefree") when compared to the rest of the record. They'd probably stand out on anyone else's album, but the better material on here raises the bar.



This reissue is really something to get ahold of-- using the dualdisc format, both sides are remastered and the DVD side is mixed in 5.1. Put simply, the series sounds superb-- crisp and clean and really fitting the timeless quality of the music. The CD side adds five bonus tracks-- the band's first single (recorded without Jerry Harrison), the absolutely superb "Love-->Building on Fire", a song that defies explanation and is among the best thing the band ever did, a handful of b-sides (largely unmemorable but nice to have) and early (again, pre-Jerry Harrison) recording "Sugar on My Tongue", originally released as part of the "Sand in the Vaseline". This final piece shows just how fully formed Byrne's songwriting and sound was, even early-- it captures all the manic energy and frantic sounds that make the band great and is a wortwhile addition. The DVD side offers one of the b-sides, another mix of "Uh-Oh..." and a couple live video clips.



Truthfully, the Talking Heads would go on to bigger and better things in the company of Brian Eno on their next three records, all pretty much flawless, but this one is essential. Four stars without the remastering job, five with the cleaned up sound and the bonus tracks. Recommended."

All negative reviews are of the DualDisc format

Randall S. Russell | Nashville, TN | 01/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"All negative reviews are of the DualDisc format. The product is amazing, but only get it if you have a 5.1 surround sound setup. You won't be able to burn it and put it on your MP3 player, which sucks, but if you understand that and also understand that it is worth the price just to play it on your 5.1 surround sound system then buy it, I have it and a couple of others. It's KILLER to listen too on 5.1."