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Rating: Where is the sex? Where are the drugs? Where is the violence? We are not dealing with a band of brazen rebels but are instead talking about four highly sophisticated intellectuals, one of whom, David Byrne, is obsessed with urban alienation and all its effects. Thus, explained are the demented melodies, off-kilter disco rhythms, asylum lyrics, and Byrne’s psychotic voice. "77" and "More Songs About Buildings And Food" had addressed more or less the same themes with a crazy and sardonic irony, but this time everything sounds damn serious and threatening...
"Fear Of Music" is a true essayistic work, a paranoid and surreal study on everyday life, incommunicability, and artificial hedonism, behind which lie neurotic and bizarre existences. Supported by a musical trio of absolute worth, consisting of a precise rhythm section absolutely suited to Byrne's intellectual ravings, namely bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz (husband and wife), and guitarist Jerry Harrison, Byrne delivers his impressionist lyrics in a style that may remind one of David Thomas but is undoubtedly less inclined to the abstract vocal acrobatics of the famous leader of Pere Ubu, preferring only to hint at the unrestrained madness and sometimes settling into a cold and detached businessman tone. As critic Lester Bangs wrote, the album could have easily been called "Fear Of Everything," as nothing escapes Byrne's castrating obsessiveness: the singer is tormented by his inability to communicate in "Mind," repeatedly insisting, "I need something to change your mind,” but it quickly becomes apparent that he will never find that something. He is morbidly fascinated by paper and the rays of light passing through it in "Paper," desperately seeks a city to live in "Cities," where Birmingham is a city "where many rich people live, many ghosts in many houses" and Memphis is "the home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks", paints frightening war landscapes in "Life During Wartime" ("This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around," he proclaims in the refrain) and dismisses Paradise as a place "where nothing ever happens."
Even the initial "I Zimbra," an exercise in icy and conceptual pseudo-world music with nonsense lyrics by Dadaist poet Hugo Ball, is overshadowed by this dense cloud of neurosis. The music is a fascinating mix of rock, funk, disco, and world music, all blended, sterilized, and covered by a dense layer of insane, almost childish absurdism: the greatest emphasis is placed on the rhythms, on the nearly perfect connection established by Weymouth and Frantz, and at the same time on Byrne's very distinctive singing. Impossible to overlook is Brian Eno's production (and his contribution to backing vocals on some tracks), adding an extra layer of surrealism to the whole, with his subtly humorous tricks (the sampling of birds and frogs in the threatening semi-ambient conclusion of "Drugs") and his particular attention to vocal effects and sinister synthesizer sounds ("Memories Can't Wait"). "Fear Of Music" is certainly an album-treatise, an intellectual and deep work in which Byrne perfectly illustrates his point of view: the problem is not the mind, not the paper, nor any city or even Paradise: the problem is life itself. Life, for Byrne, is an endless spiral of neurosis and unease, a cycle in which normality is the only anomalous element, and the only possible solution is mockery, hilarity, making fun of oneself and existence in every aspect. Much like Pere Ubu did, terrified of technology and industrial society, until they decided to talk about it with lightness, exorcising its traumas and tragedies.
Laughing to avoid crying, this is "Fear Of Music." Often, as in this case, it is all we can do.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 I Zimbra (03:08)
GADJI BERI BIMBA CLANDRIDI
LAULI LONNI CADORI GADJAM
A BIM BERI GLASSALA GLANDRIDE
E GLASSALA TUFFM I ZIMBRA
BIM BLASSA GALASSASA ZIMBRABIM
BLASSA GLALLASSASA ZIMBRABIM
A BIM BERI GLASSALA GRANDRID
E GLASSALA TUFFM I ZIMBRA
GADJI BERI BIMBA GLANDRIDI
LAULI LONNI CADORA GADJAM
A BIM BERI GLASSASA GLANDRID
E GLASSALA TUFFM I ZIMBRA
02 Mind (04:12)
Time won't change you
Money won't change you
I haven't got the faintest idea
Everything seems to be up in the air at this time
I need something you change your mind
Drugs won't change you
Religion won't change you
Science won't change you
Looks like I can't change you
I try to talk to you, to make things clear
but you're not even listening to me...
And it comes directly from my heart to you...
I need something to change your mind.
03 Paper (02:39)
Hold the paper up to the light
(some rays pass right through)
Expose yourself out there for a minute
(some rays pass right through)
Take a little rest when the rays pass through
Take a little time off when the rays pass through
Go ahead and mis it up...Go ahead and tie it up
In a long distance telephone call
Hold on to that paper
Hold on to that paper
Hold on becuase it's been taken care of
Hold on to that paper
See if you can fit it on the paper
See if you can get it on the paper
See if you can fit it on the paper
See if you can get it on the paper
Had a love affair but it was only paper
(some rays they pass right through)
Had a lot of fun, could have been a lot better
(some rays they pass right through)
Take a little consideration, take every combination
Take a few weeks off, make it tighter, tighter
But it was never, it was never written down
Still might be a chance that it might work out (if you)
Hold on to that paper
Hold on to that paper
Hold on because it'll be taken care of
Hold on to that paper
Don't think I can fit it on the paper
Don't think I can get it on the paper
Go ahead and rip up, rip up the paper
Go ahead and tear up, tear up the paper
04 Cities (04:10)
Think of London, a small city
It's dark, dark in the daytime
The people sleep, sleep in the daytime
If they want to, if they want to
CHORUS
I'm checking them out
I'm checking them out
I got it figured out
I got it figured out
There's good points and bad points
But it all works out
I'm a little freaked out
Find a city
Find myself a city to live in.
There are a lot of rich people in Birmingham
A lot of ghosts in a lot of houses
Look over there!...A dry ice factory
A good place to get some thinking done
Down el Paso way things get pretty spread out
People got no idea where in the world they are
They go up north and come back south
Still got no idea where in the world they are.
Did I forget to mention, to mention Memphis
Home of Elvis and the ancient greeks
Do I smell? I smell home cooking
It's only the river, it's only the river.
07 Air (03:34)
Air...Air
Hit me in the face
I run faster
Faster into the air
(I say to myself)
What is happening to my skin?
Where is that protection that I needed?
Air can hurt you too
Air can hurt you too
Some people say not to worry about the air
Some people never had experience with...
Air...Air
It can break your heart
So remember when the weather gets rough
(You'll say to yourself)
What is happening to my skin?
Where is that protection that I needed?
Air can hurt you too
Air can hurt you too
Some people say not to worry about the air
Some people don't know shit about the...
Air...
08 Heaven (04:00)
Everyone is trying to get to the bar.
The name of the bar, the bar is called Heaven.
The band in Heaven plays my favorite song.
They play it once again, they play it all night long.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
There is a party, everyone is there.
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time.
Its hard to imagine that nothing at all
could be so exciting, and so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
When this kiss is over it will start again.
It will not be any different, it will be exactly
the same.
It's hard to imagine that nothing at all
could be so exciting, could be so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing every happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing every happens.
09 Animals (03:30)
I'm mad...And that's a fact
I found out...Animals don't help
Animal think...They're pretty smart
Shit on the ground...See in the dark.
They wander around like a crazy dog
Make a mistake in the parking lot
Always bumping into things
Always let you down down down down.
They're never there when you need them
They never come when you call them
They're never there when you need them
The never come when you call them down down down down.
I know the animals...Are laughing at us
They don't even know...What a joke is
I won't follow...Animal's advice
I don't care...If they're laughing at us.
They're never there when you need them
They never come when you call them
They're never there when you need them
The never come when you call them down down down down.
They say they don't need money
They're living on nuts and berries
They say animals don't worry
You know animals are hairy?
They think they know what's best
They're making a fool of us
They ought to be more careful
They're setting a bad example
They have untroubled lives
They think everything's nice
They like to laugh at people
They're setting a bad example
(Go ahead) Laugh at me.
11 Drugs (05:09)
And all I see is little dots
Some are smeared and some are spots
Feels like a murder but that's alright
Somebody said there's too much light
Pull down the shade and it's alright
It'll be over in a minute or two.
I'm charged up...Don't put me down
Don't feel like talking...Don't mess around
I feel mean...I feel O.K.
I'm charged up...Electricity
The boys are making a big mess
This makes the girls all start to laugh
I don't know what they're talking about
The boys are worried, the girls are shocked
They pick the sound and let it drop
Nobody know what they're talking about
I'm charged up...I'm kinda wooden
I'm barely moving...I study motion
I study myself...I fooled myself
I'm charged up...It's pretty intense.
I'm charged up...Don't put me down
Don't feel like talking...Don't mess around
I feel mean...I feel O.K.
I'm charged up...Electricity.
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Other reviews
By David Bowie
"Fear of Music serves as the soundtrack to the small (and large) obsessions threatening to imprison the common individual in a spiral of indecipherable alienation."
"Fear of Music, aside from being a great testimony of cultured and varied New Wave, is pure modern art."
