The heads are in stunned silence with this one. David Byrne’s newest album, Who Is the Sky?, is due on September 5. Arriving several years after 2018’s epochal American Utopia, it comprises 12 tracks — the first of which, the morbidly joyous “Everybody Laughs,” is out now to chuckle to. “At my age, at least for me, there’s a ‘don’t give a shit about what people think’ attitude that kicks in,” Byrne explained. “I can step outside my comfort zone with the knowledge that I kind of know who I am by now and sort of know what I’m doing.” Referencing his SNL50 performance with Robyn, Byrne noted, as a thematic through-line for the album, that he “tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody.” And before you ask, settle down: Byrne is indeed taking Who Is the Sky? on a massive international tour starting this fall, not unlike his previous American Utopia expedition. The touring band, many of whom were monochrome members of the American Utopia crew, will have 13 musicians, singers, and dancers, and they’ll all be untethered yet again to move freely on the stage. They know a thing or two about keeping their feet on the ground and heads in the sky, after all.
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- How Saoirse Ronan Became the Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’
- David Byrne Expected a ‘Hard Audience’ for His SNL50 Performance
And he’s taking Who Is the Sky? on a massive tour with a brand-new live show.
