David Byrne's American Utopia review, Culture Whisper (LFF 2020)
The 1984 Talking Heads concert-movie Stop Making Sense is widely considered the best in the genre. When lead singer David Byrne entered that stage wearing a grey suit many sizes too big, his body seemed to wiggle inside the band’s funky, new wave sound.
Thirty-six years later, in American Utopia, Byrne sits at a grey table on a grey Broadway stage. Even his hair, inevitably, is a wavy shade of grey. The only colour emanates from the brain on the table. He bursts into Here, a song about connection and – interpretively – looking after yourself. The borders around the stage ascend, surrounding him in vertical chains.
