WXPN Radio

The premier guide for new and significant artists in rock, blues, and folk - including NPR-syndicated World Cafe

XPN2 - XPoNential Radio

24/7 Musical discovery. A unique mix of emerging and heritage blues, rock, world, folk, and alt-country artists.

World Cafe Archives

Join the World Cafe through performances and interviews with celebrated and emerging artists.
Listen
  • font size decrease font size decrease font size increase font size increase font size

David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - Independent

Available only on their website (www.everythingthathappens.com) David Byrne and Brian Eno's first collaboration since the eclectic, influential My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts in 1981 sounds similar to its' predecessor, but with a bit more of a mainstream songwriting flourish. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is a very listenable album, full of engaging songs and strange but beautiful sounds.

With Byrne handling the lyrics and singing and Eno making the music, the pair's ability to understand one another is really uncanny. Like the Eno-produced Talking Heads albums (1978's More Songs About Buildings And Food, 1979's Fear Of Music, and 1980's Remain In Light), Everything That Happens... allows him to interject a moodier, somewhat darker vision into Byrne's songwriting, and the results almost always work. "Strange Overtones" is a wonderfully intelligent pop song, a musically lush track and a sing-a-long chorus. Other standouts include "One Fine Day", the lovely album opener "Home", and the quintessential Byrne/Eno title track.

They're a couple of certified "old pros" by this time, but David Byrne and Brian Eno continue to show that they are capable of making music that sounds fresh and new. Their importance and influence over popular music already firmly established, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today will do nothing but further cement their legacy.

Written by Dan Reed