More Songs About Buildings And Food sees the Heads moving away from their poppier first album and, under the guidance of Brian Eno, discovering that there had always been a dance element to their music. It's an inspired move - whereas before Byrne had been the focus of the band, the formidable Weymouth / Frantz rhythm section relly makes its presence felt here: from With Our Love through Found A Job up to Stay Hungry, they just keep churning out those grooves. Retrospectively, this was an element of their music that was already there just waiting to be expanded upon: several of the songs featured on the album had already been written, sometimes as long as two years before the release of the record, and were already (I think) part of the band's live repertoire. Byrne's lyrics and way with a chorus are not forgotten, however - Good Thing has an absolute monster of a chorus. Another excellent feature of the album is that many of the songs crescendo at the end with an absolutely storming vamp that you want to continue forever.
The Big Country deserves special mention because it showed that the band still had much more to explore - it's a melodic, country tinged, slightly balladic (although not actually a ballad - they didn't do one of those till their seventh album) song about an idealised American heartland; although in typical Byrne style the narrator of the song doesn't seem to find the vision particularly appealing ('I wouldn't live there if you paid me'). They wouldn't really travel in this direction again until Little Creatures, although nothing on there is as good as The Big Country.
Overall, the album is excellent. As with Fear of Music, Remain In Light and Speaking In Tongues, if you're a music fan of any sort you should consider getting it. If you scroll up you'll find some preview links - I suggest you click them.

I saw Talking Heads perform at the Fox-Warfield Theater in San Francisco (1979). David Byrne looked like a geek on stage spouting dumb lines like "Girls don't want to play like that, just want to talk to the boys" (The Girls Want To Be With The Girls), Chris Frantz played what looked like a one-hundred dollar drum kit from Sears and his sophomoric style was far from captivating (an exception is his exuberant work on `Artists Only'), and organist Jerry Harrison seemed to be stroking the ivories while paying little attention to what was going on about him. Despite the off-key instrumental harmonies (With Your Love), Byrne's nervous and shaky vocal delivery, and sudden tempo changes with little warning (Stay Hungry); I was hypnotized for an hour and a half by the rich layering of vocals and instrumentals.

The glue that holds the compositions of More Songs About Buildings And Food together is Tina Weymouth's rhythmic and understated base lines. Without her concrete rhythm chords anchoring the tenuous melodies and dissonant harmonies, More Songs would collapse into an incongruous pile of musical rubble. Talking Heads has been tagged with a "New Wave" banner, but I believe that the band's stylistic focus is closer to that of Booker T. & The MG's. The rhythm and blues influence is highlighted on `Found A Job' and `Artists Only.'

Of all the cuts on More Songs, `Take Me To The River' received the most airplay and is easily recognizable as a Talking Heads signature tune, but it is not the most powerful or compelling composition here. For sheer energy and musical dynamics, `Artists Only' and `I'm Not In Love' win handsdown. More Songs About Buildings And Food is hypnotic, vivid and challenging.

There's always debate (among those who care) as to which record best captured the Talking Heads' sound. Well, my vote's with this one. It's tight, tense and nervous, but without going over the top on any element- a good balance in other words. Really it's a concept album about modern livin'. The songs may be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it's pretty easy to tell what they're about. "Girls want to be with the girls," for example, is very perceptive- girls tend to like to socialize in groups and it leaves guys confused as to how to approach them (ladies out there: why is this?). And "Found a Job" is a great positive rocker about improving your life by finding a new career that works better for you than your old one. "With Our Love" is also very perceptive, nicely describing the modern (read: workaholic) lifestyle and its impact on relationships ("I have to go to work now"). It is all thought-provoking stuff. After this, the Heads remained brilliant through "Stop Making Sense," then lost it for the most part (Mr. Byrne: why is THIS??). But what we have here is greatness, and great fun.

For a band that produced many fine and innovative studio recordings, I can say without hesitation that this is their absolute best. David Byrne's lyrics are scalpel-sharp, especially on "I'm Not in Love." Other songs feature his quirky observations, such as in the "Big Country" or "The Girls Just Want to Be With the Girls." The music is tight, with expertly timed stop-starts, unusual chord changes, and hypnotic riffs. I find that the songs "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" and "Found a Job" are the true stand-outs. However, those who are only vaguely familiar with the Talking Heads will zero-in on the cover version of "Take Me to the River," which though it brought the band some much needed attention, had the effect of overshadowing what was otherwise perhaps the finest album recorded in the decade of the 70s.

Thank God for Buildings and Food...

What better album could there have been for a struggling college sophomore wondering what the h--- he's doing at the Air Force Academy?

No social life. Hadn't even kissed a girl in over two years. Pining. Dying.

And then David Byrne steps up to the mike and says: Forget about romantic love. It's not worth much anyways. Get serious. Get to work.

O Captain my Captain. Roger, Sir.

A year later, with the place pretty much figured out, I'm making a 3.55 with 25 credit hours spring semester and having a blast on the weekends. Still no girl, but it didn't matter. I had Self-Actualized. I Was Happy With Myself.

Twenty years later, married and Really Happy, I still listen to B & F. Call me weird -- laugh if you want -- this is a DYNOMITE album for repainting your bedroom. Any manual task, actually, that's going to involve a little bit of time. Right from jump ("Thank You For Sending Me an Angel") you get the groove thang and just want to engage in some repetitive motion activities.

Funny thing: I look at the pace of lives in our nation's cesspool -- I mean, capital -- and wonder if some of these power/status mongers listen to B & F in their Beemers every single morning on the drive into work.

Still and all -- a seminal late '70s album...and a great example of a band that, after a media-hyped debut, gets serious because they smell paydirt. Artistically, financially, sexually -- who cares what the motivation was. This band sounds HUNGRY on Buildings and Food.

(Just listening to the instrumental end of "I'm Not In Love." Sweat starting to pop doing the air-drums. Great stuff...)