Review of Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense

Introduction

In the mid to late `80s, Talking Head`s Stop Making Sense was one of the main cult college movies. In many arthouse cinemas (but only those with a sound system good enough to satisfy the distributors, who were very fussy), it would alternate with Rocky Horror every Friday night. It was one of the greatest rock movies of all time, and it was also a party. People would dance and sing along and imagine that they were there, at one of the greatest concerts of all time. And, it wasn`t hard to imagine; the stunning visuals and amazing sound combined to create an atmosphere that was, I don`t know, authentic.

Now it`s back. David Byrne is in your living room, and he`s taking over.

Along with director Jonathon Demme (Silence of the Lambs), lead singer David Byrne created one of the weirdest, funkiest, slickest concert videos of all time. Palm Pictures have done a great job re-mastering the audio and cleaning up the visuals to give us a must-have music DVD. In addition to the 16 songs in the movie, we get a plethora of extras.

Video

Unusually for a concert video, the visuals really do matter. This isn`t just a band running through their material. This is performance art, choreographed to perfection. There are numerous set pieces, such as the intro to Psycho Killer, the jogging in Life During Wartime, the bird-like strutting in Take Me To The River. And, let`s not forget the "Big Suit", which must be one of the most iconic rock images of the last 20 years.

They look better than ever. The image has been cleaned up and it looks gorgeous in Anamorphic 16:9. It`s not absolutely perfect - you can detect some glitches and shimmering - but, overall, it`s excellent.

But, excellent though the images are, that`s not why we`re here.

Audio

Let`s forget about Dolby Digital and sound quality for a second. The important thing here is the music , and it is absolutely fabulous. From the nervy, acoustic intro of Psycho Killer, through the hot funk of Burning Down the House (y`gotta match?) to the euphoric gospel of Take Me To The River, this is some of the best music ever captured on film.

Given that, it is a good job that the sound quality is superb. The 5.1 Feature Mix will give your speakers a great workout. The bass is tight and controlled. Byrne`s vocals are locked tight in the center, and everything else, including the audience, is steered around the soundstage to perfection. It`s doesn`t necessarily try to create a natural ambience, but that doesn`t matter. It works and it`s exhilarating.

And, there`s more. There is a straight 2.0 Stereo mix which is pretty good and ideal if you haven`t got a DD setup or if you`re a Stereo purist for music.

Finally, there is another 5.1 mix. This is the Studio mix, which removes much of the audience ambience and gives you a much cleaner sound. It comes down to personal taste, I suppose, but I don`t like it. It is just too clean. There is no weight to the sound. I think it removes all the atmosphere, and I don`t know why you would want to listen to this over the Feature Mix

All in all, if you choose the right track, the sound is magnificent.

Features

As mentioned earlier, there are 3 bonus music tracks. These have been released on VHS before, though. There is an interesting Trailer, which is a little art film in itself. There is a storyboard-to-film comparision which is not particularly interesting. The director and the 4 band members have recorded a commentary track. Each individual recorded their section separately and these were cut together later. It`s good, and interesting for a fan, but not the best commentary out there.

The menus are very good. The Song Selection is particularly fine, giving you a horizontal film strip for each song, with each frame moving independently.

Finally, we have a very weird segment where David Byrne interviews David Byrne. As I say, very weird; Byrne does his best nervy psychopath impression (at least, I hope it`s an impression). Weird and largely unwatchable.

Note that the picture and sound quality of some of the extra features (including the bonus tracks) is pretty poor but this probably couldn`t be helped, given the source.

Overall, a good selection of features, but most will be discarded very quickly. The music`s the thing.

Conclusion

Great concert, great movie, great DVD.

If you are a Stop Making Sense fan, you have already discarded your treasured VHS copy for this DVD. If you are a music fan, I strongly recommend that you check out this DVD; it is the best concert DVDs out at the moment. Finally, if you want to show off your 5.1 speaker system with something other than explosions and gunshots, Stop Making Sense will be an excellent demo disk.