Little Creatures

by Talking Heads

Overview

Talking Heads' most immediately accessible album, Little Creatures eschewed the pattern of recent Heads albums, in which instrumental tracks had been worked up from riffs and grooves, after which David Byrne improvised melodies and lyrics. The songs on Little Creatures, most of which were credited to Byrne alone (with the band credited only with arrangements) sounded like they'd been written as songs. Perhaps as one result, the band had been streamlined, with extra musicians used only for specific effects rather than playing along as an ensemble. Byrne, who was singing in his natural range for once, frequently was augmented with backup singers. The overall result: ear candy. Little Creatures was a pop album, and an accomplished one, by a band that knew what it was doing. True, Byrne's lyrics were still intriguingly quirky, but even his subject matter was becoming more mature. "I've seen sex and I think it's okay," he sang on "Creatures of Love," and suddenly the geek had become a man. Where he had once pondered the hopes of boys and girls, he was now making observations about children. And even if his impulses remained strange -- "I wanna make him stay up all night," he declared about a baby (presumably not his own) in "Stay Up Late" -- he retained his charm and inventiveness. Little Creatures was, in a sense, Talking Heads lite. It was hard to think of this as the same band that produced "Psycho Killer." But for the band's expanding audience, who made this their second platinum album, that was okay. And their popularity was being accomplished with no diminution in their creativity. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	10/20/2009
Label:	Emi
UPC:	5099930869424
Rank:	37297

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Talking Heads   Primary Artist
Nana Vasconcelos   Guest Artist,Percussion
Eric Weissberg   Guest Artist,Guitar (Steel)
Lenny Pickett   Guest Artist,Saxophone
Steve Scales   Guest Artist,Percussion
Kurt Yahijian   Vocals (Background)
Ellen Bernfield   Vocals (Background)
Andrew Cader   Washboard
Kurt Yahjian   Vocals (Background)
Chris Frantz   Drums
Diva Gray   Vocals (Background)
Jimmy Macdonell   Accordion
Ellen Bernfeld   Vocals (Background)
Erin Dickens   Vocals (Background)
Tina Weymouth   Vocals (Background),Bass,Guitar (Bass)
Lani Groves   Vocals (Background)
David Byrne   Guitar,Vocals
Jerry Harrison   Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards,Vocals (Background)
Gordon Grody   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Jack Skinner   Mastering,Mastering Engineer
Neil Selkirk   Photography
Melanie West   Second Engineer
Chris Frantz   Producer,Arranger,Composer
Talking Heads   Arranger,Producer
Eric "ET" Thorngren   Mixing,Engineer,Recording,Mixing Engineer
David Byrne   Arranger,Composer,Producer
Jerry Harrison   Arranger,Composer,Producer
Gordon Grody   Unknown Contributor Role
Tina Weymouth   Arranger,Composer,Producer