Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today by David Byrne & Brian Eno
Digital release August 18th 2008, physical release Autumn 2008
When David Byrne announced, via his email newsletter, on August 4th that he had just completed a new record with Brian Eno then I sit up, take notice, and want to listen to the songs as soon as possible. Why?
Well for multiple reasons: First and foremost this is David Byrne ex Talking Heads front man and in my book sufficient reason to justify such lauded attention. Now add; the last time these two collaborated resulted in the ground-breaking My Life in the Bush of Ghosts released in 1981, not to mention that Byrne & Eno were also responsible for the Talking Heads albums More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978), Fear of Music (1979), and Remain in Light (1980). Eno ex Roxy Music is of course a highly respected musician, the mastermind behind ambient music, and as a producer responsible for such records as David Bowie’s Low, U2’s The Joshua Tree, and most recently Coldplay’s Viva la Vida, amongst many, many others. These two together then are a formidable force with an outstanding track record.
David also said in his email that he and Brian were making available, from August 4th, a free download of a single track, Strange Overtones, a sneak peak. Naturally I downloaded the track straight away. David said about the album “It’s familiar but completely new as well.” The minute I heard the first few bars of Strange Overtones, I thought “very familiar” the song didn’t pick up where “Bush of Ghosts” left off, this track is evocative of Byrne’s best work with Talking Heads. In fact, Byrne sounds the most like Talking Heads I’ve heard since the band split in ’91. Talking Heads always were my favourite band, “Intelligent Pop” I used to call it – music to dance to and thought provoking dark lyrics: an intoxicating combination.
You will hear the influences of Talking Heads in bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Ting Tings, Franz Ferdinand and many others; now you have an opportunity to hear the original, Everything That Happens makes great listening; a combination of edgy vocals from David Byrne counterpointed by Brian Eno’s ambient gospel/rock music.
Watch out for European Tour dates in March 2009 “The live shows will maybe try to draw a line linking this new material with what we did 30 years ago,” explains Byrne, “a little bit anyway.” Now if that’s not something to look forward to, then I don’t know what qualifies!
More information on David Byrnes Website
