8 September 2025
Former chief talking head DAVID BYRNE
has his 9th solo LP, titled Who Is The Sly?
out.
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.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.
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 realized that when singing with Robyn earlier this
year. Her songs are often sad, but the music is joyous.”
Photo by: Ahmed Klink / Costume by: Tom Van der Borght
“At my age, at least for me, there’s a ‘don’t give a shit about what people think’ attitude
that kicks in. ”I can step outside my comfort zone with the knowledge that I kind of know
who I am by now and sort of know what I’m doing. That said, every new set of songs, every song even, is a new adventure. There’s always a bit of, ‘how do I work this?’ I’ve found that not every collaboration works, but often when they do, it’s because I’m able to clearly impart what it is I’m trying to do. They hopefully get that, and as a result, we’re now joined together heading to the same unknown place.”
TUTV: Well, I can’t add much to what the man said. He takes us on his merry-go-round. Probably his most upbeat longplayer ever. Lots of groovin’ and movin’, flamenco echoes and Mexican trumpets. Sonically, he entertains with frisky tunes and melancholic lullabies.
Lyrically, as usual, he comes up bizarre stories and bizarre song titles such as
My Appartment Is My Friend, A Door Called No and I Hear The Buddha At A Cocktail Party.
My fav tracks: Everybody Laughs, When We Are Singing, that Buddha Song and The Avant Garde.”
SINGLES
ALBUM