Remain in Light (1980)

Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Talking Heads, released on October 8, 1980, by Sire Records. The band's third and final album to be produced by Brian Eno, Remain in Light was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and Sigma Sound Studios in New York in July and August 1980.

After the release of Fear of Music in 1979, Talking Heads and Eno sought to dispel notions of the band as a mere vehicle for frontman and songwriter David Byrne. Drawing influence from Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, they blended African polyrhythms and funk with electronics, recording instrumental tracks as a series of looping grooves. Session musicians included the guitarist Adrian Belew, the singer Nona Hendryx, and the trumpeter Jon Hassell.

Byrne struggled with writer's block, but adopted a scattered, stream of consciousness lyrical style inspired by early rap and academic literature on Africa. The album artwork was conceived by bassist, Tina Weymouth, and drummer, Chris Frantz, with the help of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computers and design company, M & Co. The band hired additional members for a promotional tour, after which they went on a year-long hiatus to pursue side projects.

Remain in Light attained acclaim for its sonic experimentation, rhythmic innovations, and merging of disparate genres into a cohesive whole. The album reached No. 19 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and No. 21 on the UK Albums Chart, and produced the singles "Once in a Lifetime" and "Houses in Motion". It has been featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 1980s and of all time, and is often considered Talking Heads' magnum opus. In 2017, the Library of Congress deemed the album "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

Background

In January 1980, the members of Talking Heads returned to New York City after touring in support of their previous studio album Fear of Music (1979), and took time off to pursue personal interests. Lead vocalist David Byrne worked with Brian Eno, the record's producer, on the collaborative studio album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981). Keyboardist Jerry Harrison produced an album for funk singer Nona Hendryx at Sigma Sound Studios' secondary facility in New York City; Talking Heads would later record at Sigma and employ Hendryx as a backing vocalist on Harrison's advice.

Drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth, a married couple, discussed leaving Talking Heads after Weymouth suggested that Byrne was too controlling. Frantz did not want to leave, and the two took a long vacation in the Caribbean to ponder the state of the band and their marriage. They became involved in Haitian Vodou religious ceremonies, practiced native percussion instruments, and socialized with the Jamaican rhythm section and production duo Sly and Robbie.

Frantz and Weymouth ended their holiday by purchasing an apartment above Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, where Talking Heads and Eno had recorded More Songs About Buildings and Food in 1978. Byrne joined the duo and Harrison there in early 1980. The band members realized that songwriting had thus far been largely Byrne's responsibility, and that they had become tired of the notion of being a singer and a backing band; the ideal they aimed for, according to Byrne, was "sacrificing our egos for mutual cooperation". Byrne also wanted to escape "the psychological paranoia and personal torment" they had been feeling and writing about in New York. Instead of writing music to Byrne's lyrics, the group performed extended instrumental jams, using the Fear of Music track "I Zimbra" as a foundation.

Eno arrived in the Bahamas three weeks after Byrne. While reluctant to work with the band again after collaborating on their previous two studio albums, he changed his mind after hearing the instrumental demo tapes. He and the band experimented with the communal African way of making music, in which individual parts mesh as polyrhythms. Nigerian musician Fela Kuti's studio album Afrodisiac (1973) became their template. According to Weymouth, the emergence of hip-hop made the band realize that the musical landscape was changing. Before the studio sessions began, the band's friend David Gans told them that "the things one doesn't intend are the seeds for a more interesting future", encouraging them to experiment, improvise and make use of "mistakes".