Track Listing

1. Glass, Concrete and Stone
2. The Man Who Loved Beer
3. Au Fond du Temple Saint
4. Empire
5. Tiny Apocalypse
6. She Only Sleeps
7. Dialog Box
8. The Other Side of This Life
9. Why
10. Pirates
11. Civilization

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17376 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.com
With 2003's Once In A Lifetime box set stirring old feelings for the Talking Heads' intelligent and angular pop music, this album could not arrive at a more appropriate time. After years of experimenting with salsa and strings, David Byrne returns with a cohesive record that catches him at his incohesive best: the stream-of-consciousness lyrics, the sly rhythms, the unexpected bursts of melody. Like recent works by Elvis Costello and David Bowie, Grown Backwards represents a return to form, particularly on leftfield songs like "Tiny Apocalypse" and "Dialog Box," which could have easily fit alongside the classics on his former band's retrospective. Meawhile, a duet with Rufus Wainwright on a cover of Bizet's "Au Fond du Temple Saint" points the way forward. --Aidin Vaziri

Customer Reviews

Beautifully crafted, sonically stunning - his best yet....
I'm a big fan of David Byrne, I love his music - all the way from "Talking Heads '77" through crazy sound experiments like "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" and "The Catherine Wheel" to the recent masterpieces "Feelings" and "Look Into The Eyeball". I know of no more consistently inventive artist still going strong...

"Grown Backwards" however feels like something special. A limited pallette of minimal guitar, lush strings and inventive percussion opens up a world of musical possibilities - swooningly beautiful one moment, dark and melancholy the next and with a few diversions into full on funkyness in between. Add to that Byrne's voice at is richest and most controlled and the result is a truly incredible, satisfying listening experience.

The opener "Glass, Concrete and Stone" sets the scene with it's "Eleanor Rigby" esque verses bursting to life with a soaring vocal and pulsating tabla drumming. "The Man Who Loved Beer" is a wonderfully melodic string drenched interpretation of the Lambchop original. "Au Fond Du Temple Saint" is almost painfully beautiful, Rufus Wainwright's deeper tones wrapping around Byrne's own strained but utterly disarming delivery...

"Empire" is by far the weakest track - but it's supposed to be. Basically an imagined anthem for a rightwing administration it's swathed in an unsettlingly subtle backdrop of discordant horns and gently picked guitar... It definitely serves to musically undermine the pompous lyrics and vocal melody. A pretty effective piece of political Satire on Byrne's part but not the most wonderful listening experience!!

"Little Apocalypse", more lush strings, more offbeat percussion and a brilliant transition from the rapped verses to the soaring chorus. Definitely one of the best tracks on the record. "She only Sleeps" is one of the many slow burning tracks on the record. It starts innocuously enough but goes all sorts of weird places lyrically and melodically... "The world is queer/and the human is strangest of all..."

"Dialog Box" is the centrepoint of the record, the only properly danceably funky track with its Stax/Motown horns and rhythm. Its a difficult number to keep still to and should be a hit single if there were any justice! It's up there with Byrne's best. "The Other Side of This Life" is another potential single with its swaying rhythm and wonderful syncopated strings... "Why" is just a beautiful melody, strings counterpoint and swirl around as once again subtle percussion drives the song towards spine tinglying key changes.

"Pirates" is a real curiosity, seemingly a description of a dream or imagined scenario. It's great fun but has some amazing musical flourishes and a subtle hint of the "Latin" sound Byrne has been famed for in the past...
"Civilization" is probably my favourite track - a perfect musical construction. It's perfect pop on the surface but all sorts of undercurrents swirl around that point up the confusion of the character as described in the wonderful lyrics...

"Astronaut" is a dream put to music with a music to match... It drifts along beautifully with nothing more than what sounds like muffled slide guitar and subtle percussion...
"Glad" is incredible - the real grower on the record. It begins like a simply recited nursery rhyme but moves into much darker and musically complex territory - unfortunately it's only a minute and a half long!! The second of the two operatic pieces "Un Di Felice, Etera" again tests the limits of Byrne's voice but still comes across as being utterly compelling - it's yearning melody caps off an album with a strangely melancholy feel.

A remix of "Lazy" completes the package but to me this is an unnescessary addition, too obviously an afterthought... It's still great though, replacing the techno stylings of the original with swooping strings and a great mix of live and sampled percussion - a bit like the live versions premiered a couple of years ago...

This is a record filled with delights that just get better and better with every listen. It's also extremely coherent as an album - songs compliment and grow from each other quite effectively, particularly on "Side 2" following "Dialog Box"...
I'd say anyone who likes good music could get into this album - Already two of my housemates not known for their love of David Byrne have asked to borrow the CD! The production and sound quality alone are worth the price. However for Byrne Fans this album is an absolute treat, in my opinion the summation of his career to date.

Another in a series of shocks...
Each new David Byrne solo album packs a surprise. In 1989, Byrne completely abandoned his Talking Heads heritage for highly infused Latin pop. Suddenly he sang in Spanish and Portugese and collaborated with the likes of Celia Cruz. Then, the heavily distorted and disturbing guitars - on songs such as "Angels" and "Crash" - lashed out in 1994, supposedly signaling an end to Byrne's "fase del Latino". Well, 1997's "Feelings" slapped that rumor in the forbidden dance pants. "Miss America" fully embraced Latino culture both musically and politically, but "Feelings" dripped eclectic throughout. Byrne included a grunge song, a rewrite of "Burning Down the House", and songs backed by string quartets, accordians, and fuzz guitar. "Look into the Eyeball" emphasized Byrne's happiness with the ecelectic, and included "Desconocido Soy" sung completely in Spanish. Where does all this lead?

No longer a hit machine, Byrne focuses instead on new musical horizons. He keeps his legions of dedicated fans interested by experimentation, some more interesting than others but overall largely successful. "Grown Backwards" should not only further engage his drooling and virulent fans, but add numbers to his scattered flocks of followers. Delicious strings dominate the album. Not sythesizer strings, but real strings in the form of the Tosca Quartet (who also toured with him). Byrne's past experiments with string quartets find juicy fruit here. Years of sculpting Latin and South American rhythms also find their place here amidst mostly meditative but powerful beats. Byrne claimed (on BBC radio) that his approach for this album differed greatly from the past. Instead of pounding out songs by turning guitar lines and spoken in tongue phrases into fully developed songs, Byrne began with lyrics. This, he said, made for a more idiosyncratic approach to the vocal melodies. This accounts for the different feel that pervades "Grown Backwards", with fewer dance-oriented tracks and more emphasis on singing and dominant lyrics. Actually, the bonus track "Lazy" has the most foot-pounding beat. What an enormous change from 2001's "Look Into the Eyeball". The shocking evolution from "Fear of Music" to "Remain in Light" comes to mind. Byrne has arguably made a career out of shocking evolutions and double-take inducing change.

"Grown Backwards" contains many great songs. "Glass, Concrete & Stone" nearly won an oscar (for inclusion in the film "Dirty Pretty Things"); "The Man Who Loved Beer" is a rare cover song; "Empire" revels in contemporary social darwinism; "Tiny Apocalypse" plays with the new American obsession of fear and dread following 911 and appropriately ends with a subtle explosion; "The Other Side of This Life" sounds like it fell from a twisted musical with its great opening line "I don't have any more problems". The opera arias seem strangely in place. They add a dimension not present on Byrne's other albums, and likely point to the future. Many typical Byrne themes get coverage here, all happily drowned in great music.

Do we have Byrne's "comeback album" here? Strange to say so, since he never really went away. Nonetheless, Byrne showcases a new energy and umph on this album. We can only hope that the future will shine as bright as the present for the music of David Byrne.

GrownUpMusic.com recommended!
Don't hate David Byrne for evolving. Sure, we miss the big suit, too, and still get a little misty when we hear "same as it ever was." But do we really want to see David Byrne on some reunion tour along with Kajagoogoo and Bananarama? No. "Grown Backwards" is Byrne's masters thesis after years of musical exploration around the world He combines pop, world music elements, sexy rhythms and even classical
music into smart-yet-listener-friendly songs worth repeating. Think of it like an Impressionist painting for your ears. When Byrne duets with Rufus Wainwright on Au Fond du Temple Saint, you may even change your mind about opera.