More Songs About Buildings and Food

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More Songs about Buildings and Food
More Songs about Buildings and Food cover
Studio album by Talking Heads
Released July 14, 1978
Recorded Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas, March-April 1978
Genre Post-punk/New Wave
Length 41:32
Label Sire
Producer Brian Eno & Talking Heads
Reissue Producer Andy Zax with Talking Heads
Professional reviews
Talking Heads chronology
Talking Heads: 77
(1977)
More Songs About Buildings and Food
(1978)
Fear of Music
(1979)

More Songs about Buildings and Food is Talking Heads' second album, the first of a string of three produced with Brian Eno. The album was significantly more popular than their first, Talking Heads: 77, but still did not break the group into mainstream audiences. Driven by its rhythm section, the band's blend of funky bass, bubblegum, country, reggae and punk influences, with David Byrne's nerdy, off-kilter voice, established the group as a critical success known for their rabid live shows, but still with disappointing album sales.

Concerning the album's title:

When we were making this album I remembered this stupid discussion we had about titles for the last album," Tina smirked. "At that time I said, 'What are we gonna call an album that's just about buildings and food?' And Chris said, 'You call it more songs about buildings and food.'"[1]

More Songs about Buildings and Food peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart, while the Al Green cover "Take Me to the River" peaked at #26 on the Pop Singles chart in 1979 (see 1979 in music).

The front cover of the album which was conceived and executed by David Byrne is a photomosaic of the band made of 529 close-up Polaroid photographs.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 382 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2006, it was ranked the 45th-best album of the 1970s by Pitchfork Media.

In 2005/6, it was re-released and remastered by Warner Music Group on their Warner Bros./Sire Records/Rhino Records labels in DualDisc format, with four bonus tracks on the CD side ("Stay Hungry" (1977 version), alternate versions of "I'm Not in Love" and "The Big Country", and the 'Country angel' version of "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel"). The DVD-A side includes both stereo and 5.1 surround high resolution (96 kHz/24bit) mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital version and videos of the band performing "Found a Job" and "Warning Sign." In Europe, it was released as a CD+DVDA two disc set rather than a single DualDisc.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by David Byrne, except where noted.

[edit] Side one

  1. "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" – 2:11
  2. "With Our Love" – 3:30
  3. "The Good Thing" – 3:03
  4. "Warning Sign" – 3:55
  5. "The Girls Want to Be With the Girls" – 2:37
  6. "Found a Job" – 5:00

[edit] Side two

  1. "Artists Only" (Byrne, Wayne Zieve) – 3:34
  2. "I'm Not in Love" – 4:33
  3. "Stay Hungry" (Byrne, Chris Frantz) – 2:39
  4. "Take Me to the River" (Al Green, Teenie Hodges) – 5:00
  5. "The Big Country" – 5:30

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Additional personnel

  • Brian Eno – synthesizers, piano, guitar, percussion, background singing
  • Tina & the Typing Pool – background singing on "The Good Thing"

[edit] Recording personnel

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1978 Billboard Pop Albums 29
1978 UK Albums 21

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1978 "Take Me to the River" Billboard Pop Singles 26

[edit] Certifications

Organization Level Date
RIAA – USA Gold November 16, 1983

[edit] References

  1. ^ Barbara Charone (October, 1979). "More Songs About Typing and Vacuuming." Creem, n.p.c. link. Retrieved August 15, 2006.