At 73, a pop musician might be forgiven for stepping out of the public eye. Then again: why should they, if melodies and lyrics still come unbidden – and new collaborations present themselves? All of this applies to David Byrne’s latest solo album, Who Is the Sky?. The once most talkative head of Talking Heads has teamed up with New York’s Ghost Train Orchestra, a 15-piece ensemble bringing a big-band sound complete with strings and horns. While not an entirely new direction for Byrne’s solo career, here the arrangement sounds refreshingly unvarnished.
Byrne’s voice remains instantly recognisable: that slightly detached, reedy timbre that’s hard not to love makes itself felt from the opening bars of »Everybody Laughs«. Musically, Who Is the Sky? is accessible without ever being generic. Tracks like »My Apartment Is My Friend« or »Moisturizing Thing« reveal Byrne’s idiosyncratic perspective on the world – poetic at times, deadpan at others, often tinged with absurd humour. Stylistically, the album draws on past experiences without lapsing into nostalgia. The final track, »The Truth«, with its Latin influences, recalls Byrne’s 1989 solo debut Rei Momo – but rather than repetition, it feels like an update.