Remain in Light

Remain in Light
Studio album by Talking Heads
Released	October 8, 1980 (1980-10-08)
Recorded	July–August 1980
Studio	Compass Point, Nassau, Bahamas Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre	New wave post-punk dance-rock afrofunk worldbeat art rock art pop
Length	40:10
Label	Sire
Producer	Brian Eno
Talking Heads chronology
Fear of Music (1979) Remain in Light (1980) The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads (1982)
Singles from Remain in Light
Once in a Lifetime Released: January 1981 Houses in Motion Released: May 1981 Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) Released: August 1981 (Japan) Crosseyed and Painless Released: November 1981 (Germany)
Back cover
Album cover containing a drawing of a mountain range and four mostly red warplanes flying in formation. There is green text on the left hand side and a barcode in the top right corner. Artwork originally created as front cover

Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by Talking Heads, released on October 8, 1980, by Sire Records. Produced by Brian Eno, his third album with the band, the audio was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia during 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 musician Fela Kuti, they blended African polyrhythms and funk with electronics, recording instrumental tracks as a series of loopin grooves. The sessions incorporated a variety of side musicians, including guitarist Adrian Belew, singer Nona Hendryx, and trumpet player 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 artwork was conceived by bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, and crafted 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, and following its completion, they went on a year-long hiatus to pursue side projects.

Remain in Light was acclaimed by critics, who praised its sonic experimentation, rhythmic innovations, and cohesive merging of disparate genres. The album peaked at number 19 on the US Billboard 200 and number 21 on the UK Albums Chart, and spawned the single 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 artistically significant", and selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

Background

Choosing a Producer

Brian Eno had previously worked with Talking Heads to producer their previous two album, More Songs About Buildings And Food and Fear of Music. However, Eno was initially uninterested in continuing to work with the band. In an interview from 2024, Harrison has stated that "[Eno] was not going to do the record. In fact, Rhett Davies was going to be the producer. Rhett Davies was the engineer that Brian brought in on More Songs About Buildings and Food, and he had gone on to produce Dire Straits and various other acts. So he was a producer/engineer."

African Influence

Remain in Light was heavily influenced by African dance music, most notably the High Life and Afrobeat music of Fela Kuti. Some articles following the release of the album, and continuing to today, often credit Brian Eno with alerting the group of this genre of music. In multiple interviews since then, all four core band members have discussed being interested in African music long before the recording of the album. In a 2024 interview, Harrison stated "We were all in love with Fela Kuti. But I don’t know if Brian is the one who introduced us to it. Everyone in the band loved African music, like Manu Dibango and King Sunny Adé. I’d say if there was one single African artist I fell in love with it would be Fela."

This African influence had begun on the band's previous album Fear of Music, most notably on the track "I Zimbra." Harrison has stated that "we all realized we were really excited about that track and that we wanted to do more of that."

Disco Influence

While at times, Talking Heads was caught up in the friction between rock and disco in the 70's. the band was always influenced by disco music, and this can be seen on Remain in Light. Harrison has state that "In disco music, the kick drum is at least as loud as the snare drum for the whole song. So we worked with engineers that sort of embraced that."

Recording

Similar to Fear of Music, Talking Heads entered studio recording sessions with incomplete song ideas that originated from jam sessions. These would evolve into the full fledge songs for the record, involving complex and heavy layering of many different studio recorded tracks.

Eno Becomes Involved

At some point during the recording sessions, Eno went to Compass Point Studios. According to Harrison, this led to Rhett Davies leaving the project and as Eno began to work as both the studio engineer and producer, "everything kind of basically ground to a halt." Eventually Dave Jerdan would be chosen as engineer, and "we started to really move."

Eno had a "previous commitment" that lead to a break following the recording sessions in the Bahamas. Byrne, Eno and Harrison, would reconvene in New York to finish production work on the album. While Frantz and Weymouth were involved in this step, they were less involved in New York than they were at Compass Point.

Release and Promotion

Release

Remain in Light released on October 8, 1980.

Promotion

See also: The Remain in Light Tour

Before the record was released publiclly, the band began touring in support of the songs, first performing them live in August 1980 at Heatwave Festival. While Talking Heads had previously been performing live as a 4-piece, they felt as though a band of that size would be unable to capture the sound created on the record. This directly lead to the recruiting of 5 of touring musicians including Busta Jones, Bernie Worrell, Dolette McDonald, Adrian Belew, and Steve Scales.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by David Byrne, except Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) and Crosseyed and Painless, written by David Byrne and Brian Eno; all music is composed by Byrne, Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)"	5:49
2.	"Crosseyed and Painless"	4:48
3.	"The Great Curve"	6:28

Side two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Once in a Lifetime"	4:19
2.	"Houses in Motion"	4:33
3.	"Seen and Not Seen"	3:25
4.	"Listening Wind"	4:43
5.	"The Overload"	6:25

Personnel

Those involved in the making of Remain in Light were:Template:Sfn

Talking Heads

• David Byrne – lead vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass, percussion, vocal arrangements
• Jerry Harrison – keyboards, guitars, percussion, backing vocals
• Tina Weymouth – keyboards, bass, percussion, backing vocals
• Chris Frantz – keyboards, drums, percussion, backing vocals

Additional musicians

• Brian Eno – keyboards, guitars, bass, percussion, backing vocals, vocal arrangements
• Adrian Belew – guitars, Roland guitar synthesizer
• Robert Palmer – percussion
• José Rossy – percussion
• Jon Hassell – trumpets, horns
• Nona Hendryx – backing vocals

Production

• Brian Eno – producer, mixing
• Dave Jerden – engineer, mixing
• David Byrne – mixing
• John Potoker – additional engineer, mixing
• Rhett Davies – additional engineer
• Jack Nuber – additional engineer
• Steven Stanley – additional engineer
• Kendall Stubbs – additional engineer
• Greg Calbi – mastering at Sterling Sound (New York City, New York)
• Tina Weymouth – cover art
• Chris Frantz – cover art
• Walter Bender – cover art assistant
• Scott Fisher – cover art assistant
• Tibor Kalman – artwork
• Carol Bokuniewics – artwork
• MIT Architecture Machine Group – computer rendering