Audio CD review:
Talking Heads - The Best of Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

Talking Heads - The Best of Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

Band: Talking Heads Title: The Best of Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime Rating: Release Date: 2000-05-09 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Psycho Killer 2: Take Me to the River - Talking Heads, Green, Al 3: Once in a Lifetime 4: Burning Down the House 5: This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) 6: Slippery People 7: Life During Wartime 8: And She Was 9: Road to Nowhere 10: Wild Wild Life 11: Blind 12: (Nothing But) Flowers 13: Sax and Violins 14: Lifetime Piling Up

Buy the original albums! This compilation truly is a poor representation of the Talking Heads' oeuvre. I mostly agree with the previous reviewer but would consider 'Remain In Light' to be the band's artistic peak. Off the first four albums (IMHO their best) only four songs are included here, one of them as a live version. Do yourself a favour and obtain the original albums. If you must buy a compilation, get 'Popular Favorites 1976-1992/Sand In the Vaseline'. I Love the Talking Heads, but... . . this compilation gives a fairly poor overview of their career. Though I enjoy all these songs thoroughly, for a greatest hits album, it does a poor job of culling the best from their career. Their first three albums, 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food & Fear of Music, which many consider to be there best efforts, are not well represented on this disk. Not conincidentally, I suspect, these albums also represent their more esoteric, late 70s NY punk sound, whereas the albums from which the majority of these songs come are from the "fun-lovin' 80s band" era in which the Talking Heads are often unfairly lumped. If you want a good udnerstanding of their diverse and impressive catalog, try ponying up some extra cash for the double disc retrospective Sand in the Vaseline, or for the 4-disc Once in a Lifetime Box Set, on whose success this same-named but shorter release seems to be trying to piggyback. Prime Talking Heads Without Any Bulk Material A much better hit purchase selection than `Sand In The Vaseline` as all their most accomplished tracks are represented yet not on two extended haphazard discs. Without question an almost ideal anthology of the Talking Heads and their memorable recording moments. (Nothing But) Flowers, Blind, Once in a Lifetime, Burning Down the House, Take Me to the River, Lifetime Piling Up, And She Was, Psycho Killer and Wild Wild Life all are included here on this skillfully designed retrospective. In accord, well over half the song titles of `Once In A Lifetime` represent Talking Heads at their talented best. The couple of extra live recordings [Slippery People, Life During Wartime] also give added dimension and insight to this wonderful band amongst subtle but positive crowd interaction. Had only Houses In Motion from `Remain In Light` been added, I wouldn't be expecting anything else from this near perfect chart lineup. That trivial blemish put aside, still ultimately the most impressive/gratifying Heads `greatest hit` compilation today out there available on the market and well worth its cost price. Five stars proudly deserve to shine in my opinion for this superior compilation undertaking. Letting the Days go by... If someone were to ask me "Are Talking Heads good? I would say "Yes". I like Talking Heads. This album has all of their very popular songs, So does the greatest hits album, but the other album also has a bunch of not so popular songs, and I didn't want those. So I did some research and decided that the compact version would be the better buy. I bought it. You can see a complete list of all Talking Heads discography, or go back to the Talking Heads tabs