David Byrne & Brian Eno

The last time these two oddball music pioneers made a record together, David Byrne was still a Talking Head and Brian Eno had yet to hook up with U2. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, released in 1981, was an ahead-of-its-time aural collage of African rhythms, radio evangelists, and...

By Michael Gallucci

November 6, 2008

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The last time these two oddball music pioneers made a record together, David Byrne was still a Talking Head and Brian Eno had yet to hook up with U2. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, released in 1981, was an ahead-of-its-time aural collage of African rhythms, radio evangelists, and other found sounds. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is a more conventional work, but no less committed to finding solace in the corners of its slightly shattered mind. Like he's done on records by U2, David Bowie, and, most recently, Coldplay, Eno builds layers of ambient echoes and wistful melodies on top of this album's solid foundation. At times those results sound a little like Talking Heads' 1980 masterpiece Remain in Light; other times Eno and Byrne hit listeners with assorted ideas — pop, country, and electronica — poured into traditional four-minute song formats. Either way, it's Byrne's best album since he broke up the Heads in the early '90s. Spurred by his best and most compatible collaborator, he eases into these 11 tracks with a casual fluency that's eluded his overly labored solo records. He brings a sort of anxious tranquility to "Home," gets tough on "I Feel My Stuff," and sways to the dance-floor groove of "Strange Overtones." It's all slippery, mind-bending, and right on time.

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