Talking Heads "77" LP

Among the most adventuresome bands in rock history, the Talking Heads drew from funk, minimalism, and African and Brazilian music in promulgating a new sound that was both visionary and visceral. They were invariably challenging and inventive, using infectious rhythms as a form of sorcery to introduce their ever-expanding audience to exotic influences from abroad that they might otherwise have never heard. In so doing, they helped pave the way - along with the likes of Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno - for the "world music" phenomenon of the Eighties and beyond. They also created a body of highly original work, crowned by such albums as Fear of Music and Remain in Light, that didn't so much appropriate its sources as transmute them into something that felt startlingly new and improbably accessible.