Remain In Light

TALKING HEADS – Their Brill 4th LP ‘REMAIN IN LIGHT’ Is 45 Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

8 October 2025

TALKING HEADS released their 4th LP, REMAIN IN LIGHT
on 8 October 1980, today 45 years ago.

The band’s 3rd and last album was produced by Brian Eno.

Byrne struggled with writer’s block, but adopted a scattered,
stream-of-consciousness lyrical style inspired by early rap and
academic literature on Africa.

The album artwork was conceived by the bassist, Tina Weymouth, and
the drummer/husband, Chris Frantz, with the help of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology‘s computers design company.

Remain in Light got widespread acclaim from critics for its sonic experimentation,
rhythmic innovations, and merging of disparate genres into a cohesive whole. The
album reached number 19 on the US Billboard 200 and number 21 in the UK.

Rolling Stone said: “It’s a brave and absorbing attempt to locate a common ground in the era’s divergent and often hostile musical genres. ‘Remain in Light’ yields scary, funny music to which you can dance and think, think and dance, dance and think, ad infinitum.”

KEY SINGLE

ALBUM


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Short Bio – All Albums

Turn Up The Volume’s TOP 5 Of TALKING HEADS Albums

Posted on by JL

1. FEAR OF MUSIC – 3rd LP – 1979

Rolling Stone said: “Fear of Music is often deliberately, brilliantly disorienting. Like its black, corrugated packaging (which resembles a manhole cover), the album is foreboding, inescapably urban and obsessed with texture.”

Stream here…

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2. REMAIN IN LIGHT – 4th album – 1980

AllMusic: “Talking Heads were connecting with an audience ready to follow
their musical evolution, and the album was so inventive and influential.”

Stream here…

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3. ’77’ – debut LP – 1977

The Village Voice wrote: “Every tinkling harmony is righted with a screech, every self-help homily contextualized dramatically, so that in the end the record proves not only that the detachment of craft can coexist with a frightening intensity of feeling—something most artists know—but that the most inarticulate rage can be rationalized. Which means they’re punks
after all.”

Stream here…

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4. MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD – 2nd longplayer – 1978

Pitchfork: “On ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’, Talking Heads were sorting out how
to engage simultaneously with the mind and the soul (or at least the hips)—how to be both
art-rock and dance music… a magnum opus.”

Stream here

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5. THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS – double LP – 1982

AllMusic: “Although most people probably think the only Talking Heads live release is Stop Making Sense, the fact is that there’s an earlier, better live album called ‘The Name of This
Band Is Talking Heads… It’s arguably one of their finest releases.”

Stream here…

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