TALKING HEADS - Naked LP (colour vinyl)

Limited edition violet colour vinyl.

This is a very underrated Talking Heads album. They seem absolutely inspired to re-invent themselves. The production is beautiful, the songwriting is fantastic. You get to hear Byrne's vocal quality in a more clear and refined way.

Naked is the sound of a vast and engrossing assembly of international styles and musicians: as bold and broad in its sweep as the previous two outings, 'Little Creatures' (1985) and 'True Stories' (1986), which were self-consciously parochial and narrow. Farewell then, three minute pop songs, make way for world music.

You can guess most of this just by reading the album's credits. Produced by Steve Lillywhite in Paris and New York, Naked features guest appearances by several prominent members of the Parisian Afro-mafia, notably Wally Badarou on keyboards, alongside a couple of The Pogues and some dulcet guitar interventions courtesy of one Johnny Marr.

Never less than interesting, the 10 songs are presented as a series of quite distinct musical essays. The album sets off with "Blind", a slamming big-band workout of funky Afro-jazz, and concludes with a spacy and funereal lament called Cool Water. In between are all manner of exotic hybrids.