It feels crazy that a new David Byrne album is just getting a regular rollout, with multiple advance singles and everything, but that's what's happening. Next month, the Talking Heads legend will release Who Is The Sky?, his first LP since American Utopia in 2018. Byrne recorded the album with producer Kid Harpoon, and it's got appearances from people like Hayley Williams, St. Vincent, and the Smile's Tom Skinner. We've posted Byrne's early singles "Everybody Laughs" and "She Explains Things To Me," and another new Byrne song is out today.
The new David Byrne song is called "The Avant Garde." It's about being into the idea of avant-garde art but not being certain whether you actually like that art. That is a very funny thing for David Byrne to write about! The song itself has all kinds of strange melodic things going on, at least until it bursts into the big chorus. Here's what Byrne says about it:
Some people will hear this and say, "David is calling bullshit on his friends," but it's more nuanced than that. Anyone who knows me knows that I go to plenty of shows that might be classified as avant-garde or experimental. Edgy and untraditional work is hugely inspiring to me, as it often changes the way I think and influences what I do (without me simply appropriating the ideas, I hope). That said, trying something unproven and radically new is risky. Sometimes, as with anything risky, it doesn't quite hit the bullseye. There's no guarantee that it will achieve what it aims to do, but when it does, the emotional and intellectual rewards are worth it. That is the risk one takes while making something new and unconventional. So yes, there are times when it doesn't mean shit, but often there are times when something wholly original comes into being and it's all worth it. I love that the Ghost Train folks and Kid Harpoon took what could have been a fairly conventional song I'd written (musically at least), and steered it into something that to me sounds like Led Zeppelin meets Dirty Projectors.
Listen below.
Who Is The Sky? is out 9/5 on Matador. Byrne also wrote songs for The Twits, Netflix's upcoming animated Roald Dahl adaptation.
