Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Mojo APRIL 2018 - by Victoria Segal

DAVID BYRNE: AMERICAN UTOPIA

Quixotic state-of-the-union address from Talking Head.

Initiating a project called Reasons To Be Cheerful, David Byrne recently tried to offset the 'hell in a handcart' view of humanity with a database of global goodness: barrio libraries, Parisian bike-shares. American Utopia, his first solo album since 2004's Grown Backwards, accompanies the scheme, acknowledging the darkness while keeping its face to the light. Backed by collaborators including Sampha, Oneohtrix Point Never and enduring foil Brian Eno - co-writer of LCD Soundsystem clatter Everybody's Coming To My House - Byrne filters grace, wonder and apocalyptic portent through his fractured worldview. The jubilant Every Day Is A Miracle celebrates love, but there's unease and ambivalence on the sinister automated clang of I Dance Like This, the cryptic geopolitics of Here, or Doing The Right Thing's flaunting of rulingclass good taste. If, as Byrne sings on Everybody's Coming To My House, "we're only tourists in this life," he remains a fine guide through its disruptions and disturbances.