Remain In Light
	Produced by Brian Eno
	Released on October 1980
	US CHART POSITION #19 . . . GOLD RECORD (9/17/85) . . . UK CHART POSITION #21
	Find it at GEMM
SRK 6095 cover [high resolution photo]

I mpetuous music filtered through intellectualism and experimentation, Remain In Light remains one of the most important rock albums from the latter half of the 20th century. 1980 was a groundbreaking year musically, as leading artists anticipated 1984 and the milestone of futurism implicit in it. Much as Peter Gabriel sought to achieve with his third album, Talking Heads and Brian Eno were after a pancultural futurism that fused together the bookends of the current social climate, the third world and an as-yet undetermined futureworld. The result is sonically stunning, intoxicating and thought-provoking at once, beginning with the opening “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On).” This music leaps from the printed page of intellectual speculation to inhabit the realm of flesh and blood, concrete buildings and green-brown choked forests colliding. The remaining tracks are variations on the same theme, increasing or decreasing the drones, giddy romps, detached narratives, and exotic sounds as suits the song. Many of these musical machinations were also at work on Fear of Music, minus the febrile arrangements created by instruments cast in non-musical roles (Eno’s handiwork). Thus the music moves through the ears and under the skin as both an impulse and a collection of clear thoughts; “Seen And Not Seen” and “The Overload” for example are experienced as tactile narratives. Of course it’s not all abstract art but rather art tempered by pop utility. “Houses In Motion,” “Crosseyed And Painless” and “Once In A Lifetime” incorporate familiar elements of funk and pop that serve as an entrypoint for listeners, allowing otherwise elastic constructs to snap back to a familiar shape and thus divide the digestion of this music into flavorful parcels. To my tastes (which favor the exotic), Remain In Light is the Heads’ finest hour. If you agree, seek out the Byrne/Eno collaboration My Life In The Bush of Ghosts, a less commercial offering that follows the same vein with the new wrinkle being “taped” vocals from other (and sometimes otherworldly) sources.

SRK 6095 back cover	SRK 6095 picture sleeve	SRK 6095 lyric insert

TRACK LISTING

1. BORN UNDER PUNCHES (THE HEAT GOES ON)    (David Byrne/Brian Eno)    5:46
2. CROSSEYED AND PAINLESS    (David Byrne/Brian Eno)    4:45
3. THE GREAT CURVE    (David Byrne/Brian Eno)    6:26
4. ONCE IN A LIFETIME    (David Byrne/Brian Eno)    4:19
5. HOUSES IN MOTION    (David Byrne/Brian Eno/Jerry Harrison)    4:30
6. SEEN AND NOT SEEN    (David Byrne/Brian Eno)    3:20
7. LISTENING WIND    (David Byrne/Brian Eno)    4:42
8. THE OVERLOAD    (David Byrne/Brian Eno/Jerry Harrison)    6:00
   
   All arrangements by The Musicians except vocal arrangements by David Byrne and Brian Eno

CREDITS

DAVID BYRNE -- voices, guitars, basses, keyboards, percussion, mixing
CHRIS FRANTZ -- drum kit, percussion, keyboards
JERRY HARRISON -- guitars, keyboards, basses, percussion
TINA WEYMOUTH -- basses, keyboards, percussion
BRIAN ENO -- keyboards, voices, percussion, basses, mixing
Adrian Belew -- guitars
Jon Hassell -- trumpets and horn arrangements (5)
Nona Hendryx -- voices
Robert Palmer -- percussion
Jose Rossy -- percussion
Dave Jerden -- engineer, mixing
Rhett Davies -- additional engineering
Jack Nuber -- additional engineering
John Potoker -- additional engineering, mixing
Stephen Stanley -- additional engineering
M & Co. -- graphic design

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