Byrne hits high notes on 'Grown'
Now defined by his own
genre, the ex-Talking Head
ventures into opera with his
new album, out March 16
By Aaron Shakra
Pulse Editor
I half-expected David Byrne's
"Grown Backwards" to be a hip-hop
album. After all, the musician, pho
tographer, writer and digital artist's ,
collaboration with X-Press 2 yielded j
"Lazy," a techno, beat-driven romp
which hit No. 2 on United Kingdom
pop charts in 2003.
Instead, we get opera. *
These two genres might ring of the
label "eclectic," but the fact is, Byrne
has transcended so many boundaries
and borders during his musical career
that the only genre he's in is his own.
David Byrne is David Byrne.
REVIEW
"Grown
Backwards"
represents
an organic
_ fusion of a
lot of the
musical themes on Byrne's three pre
vious "song" albums, including 1994's
"David Byrne," 1997's "Feelings" and
2001's "Look into the Eyeball."
The core band from Byrne's
"Eyeball" album and tour —
Paul Frazier on bass, Mauro Re
fosco providing percussion, and
the Tosca Strings — remains in
tact. On the whole, the album is
driven by strings and percussion,
but on top of that, sections of these
tunes include Indonesian gamelan
instruments, a theremin and horn
sections, not to mention Byrne on a
number of guitars.
While Byrne's lyrics have always
embraced life's contradictions, the 14
songs of "Grown Backwards" have a
newfound power because they navi
gate these contradictions, Finding
both a middle ground and conclusion
that just wasn't there before.
Furthermore, the tunes have
stronger thematic linkage than previ
ous albums. Here, the musician is
clearly in love with life and looks at
the details of the world with a new
found sense of awe and humbleness.
This not need indicate
complicated subject matter or a lack
of humor, however. A tune such as
"Glad" — easily one of the al
bum's strongest — has lyrics wo
ven around a simple theme: "I'm
glad I got skin / I'm glad I've got
eyes / I'm glad I got hips / I'm
glad I got thighs / I'm glad I'm al
lowed to say the things I feel."
Toward the middle of the song,
Byrne hauntingly sings,
"I'm glad I
got lost / I'm glad I'm con
fused / I'm glad I don't know what I like
/1 glad I got stoned /1 glad I got high /
I'm glad I found out / I'm all right."
This string-driven piece is not too
intrusive but perfectly lends emotion
al resonance to Byrne's vocals. Total
running time: less than two minutes.
The cello-driven opener, "Glass,
- Concrete, Stone," has the
Kf singer reminding us that such
1 things are "Just a house and
f not a home," and, later,
f "Nothing is impossible /
I When you're an animal / Not
I inconceivable / How things can
[ change/I know."
1 M In interviews, Byme explained that
I W his process for creating the core
II tunes for "Grown Backwards"
stemmed from humming
melodies onto a microcassette
tape recorder. This melodic ap
proach lends itself perfectly to a string
section, so it comes as no surprise that
orchestral instruments have never
matched Byrne's voice so perfectly.
The melodies, while often saccha
rine, work as disguise for the less
than-sunny subject matter. This is es
pecially evident in "The Other Side of
This Life," an over-the-top romp with
the singer ironically delivering lines
such as: "I don't have any more prob
lems / All of my worries are gone /
Beautiful angels appear at my side /
And corporate sponsors will act as my
guide." In an earlier tune called "She
Only Sleeps," Byrne calls out one of
the album's best lines: "The world is
queer / And the human is the
strangest of all."
The tune "Civilization" is some
thing that would amuse an anarchist.
Accompanied by accordion, Byrne
continually pokes at the song's sub
ject matter: "Civilization, it's all
about knives and forks," or, "Just be
l m yourself / well that's what they say /
k % but I barely knew who I was yes
■ % terday / I'm going to be that civi
n % lized guy someday."
Ml "Dialog Box" is the album's
most rocking tune. Wah-wah
electric guitar and horns
cross musical territory to the
IppSP I point where they're indis
tinguishable. The whimsi
cal and bouncy "Pirates" is
probably the album's musical
highlight, with Byrne's downright
Caribbean-sounding guitar mixing
with interlocking string and percus
sion sections.
Weak spots on the album are the
tunes "Empire" and "The Man Who
Loved Beer." The latter has been kick
ing since 1994 and was actually on
the Japanese import of his last re
lease. This says nothing about the
tune, but it sounds musically out of
place with everything else. The same
goes for the former, a cover by the
band Lambchop.
And yes, there's opera. Byrne's ap
proach to this is interesting, because
he said the decision to record the
arias "Au fond du temple saint" and
"Un di felice, eterea” were because he
believed they were ancestors of West
ern pop songs. Rufus Wainwright
sings with Byrne on "Au fond du
temple saint."
"Grown Backwards" will be avail
able in music stores on Tuesday.
David Byrne performs Friday on "Late
Night with Conan O'Brien," which
begins at 12:35 a.m. on NBC.
Contact the Pulse editor
at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com.
‘Void’ re-creates nature struggle memorably
Touching the Void' tells
the story of two mountain
climbers who face immense
challenges during descent
By Ryan Nyburg
Senior Pulse Reporter
If nothing else, "Touching the Void"
has successfully done what thousands
of television news features have failed
to do: Create a dramatization that
feels real. A dubious honor, but an
honor nonetheless.
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Most dramatizations, by their very
nature, feel fake and unwieldy. Unable
to take much artistic license with the
story, creators of such dramatizations
tend to fall
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flashy cam
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melodra
MOVIE
REVIEW
matic musi
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come further removed from reality.
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counterproductive.
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from the propulsive nature of its sub
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force of will go, this one is a doozy.
In 1985, mountain climbers Joe
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Subsequendy, Simpson took a 100-plus
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The story is told by those involved,
using the standard talking-head inter
view format. Meanwhile, the entire
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