The new Talking Heads Box set is packed in a mysterious looking white box. It is all white, and covered with the names of all there songs written out sort of like this:

LOVEFORSALE ANDSHEWAS STAYUPLATE WILDWILDLIFE
CROSSEYEDANDPAINLESS STAYHUNGRY MAKINGFLIPPYFLOPPY GIRLFRIENDISBETTER LIFEDURINGWARTIME PSYCHOKILLER

Except of course they are not all in the same direction. Some songs are written up, others down, still others sideways. Moreover, the letters are raised up, so you can feel them. Its really cool looking.

In large recessed letters on the side and back of the box it says TALKING HEADS. Inside the box, are all eight of the studio albums packaged in plain white jewel cases. In fact one of my very few complaints about the box set is that you have to pull the Dual Disc out of the box to figure out which one it is, because the names of each album are not listed on the side of the jewel cases. All the albums are in Dual Disc format. Sometimes people have trouble playing Dual Discs. The CDs played fine in my car stereo, and all my DVD and CD players. The DVD-Audio and DVD portions played just fine on my Pioneer Elite Universal DVD players (the 45A and the 47A). I was unable to play either the DVD or the DVD-audio portion on a cheap Pioneer 536A Universal DVD player.

Lets explore the inner boxes, one by one. For a full review and track listings, just press the pretty blue hyperlink to read my review of that individual Dual Disc. In order of release, the albums contained within the uber cool white box are:

'77 (1977) This is the one with a plain red cover, marked only with Talking Heads '77 on the front. This of course was the Talking Heads debut album, and has a gentler sound with less production and complex rhythms as their later albums. However it is still a good album and a taste of things to come. My favorite song on this album? Psycho Killer in regular format, surround format, acoustic format and surround acoustic format! I gave it 3 and a half stars.

More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978) Ah, the Talking Heads cut up into squares album.The band starts to get more complex and evolve. This album also has Brian Eno on it. My favorite song on this album is Take me to the River It gets four and a half stars!

Fear of Music (1979) The corrugated black steel album appears only in plain black in the box set. The simple green title is the same. On only their third album in two years, the band has perfected that complicated world music blend of popular (but not pop) music just outside the mainstream. Only the cool kids listened to the Talking Heads. Popular tunes Life During Wartime and Heaven are on this album. It gets four stars!

Remain in Light (1980) The album with the faces blocked in red adorns the cover of this Dual Disc. This album was my first experience with the Talking Heads, and what a fun experience it was. The band goes full force with that complex sound of rich complex rhythms. My favorite songs here are Born Under Punches (the heat goes on) and Once in a Lifetime. It gets four and a half stars.

Speaking in Tongues (1983) The odd modern art graces this Dual Disc cover and contains more of my favorite songs than any other Talking Heads album. Burning Down the House, Making Flippy Floppy, Girlfriend is Better, Slippery People and Swamp to name a few are on this, my favorite Talking Heads album. The sound on this has the coolest bass! As such it of course gets a full five stars!

Little Creatures (1985) Outsider art is emblazoned on this cover. Hit songs And She Was, Stay Up Late and Road to Nowhere are all on this disc. I really enjoyed the sound of this album. Although I wouldn't quite give it four stars, it gets rounded up to four stars anyway.

True Stories (1986) My least favorite Talking Heads album, but a decent one has only the name of the band and album title in bright red black and white on the cover and features the song Wild, wild life. My favorite songs are the two versions of Papa Legba and Dream Operator though. Music videos of Love for Sale and Wild Wild Life are included on the DVD. Although I thought it was a bit below average for the Talking Heads, a couple great songs gets the album rounded up to three stars which is good.

Naked (1988) The final studio album by the Talking Heads has a portrait of a grinning monkey on the front, and includes the bands final return to multi layered complex rhythmic songs. My favorite songs are the first two cuts on the album Blind and Mr. Jones. It also gets a solid five stars from me. Sadly, this is the last of the Talking Heads studio albums.

Each album is presented in the Dual Disc format. On each album the CD side has not only the studio album with great remastered sound, but also at least a few extra songs per album. The extra songs are usually alternate or acoustic versions of songs or in many cases songs not on any of the studio albums. I found that I enjoyed most of the extra songs included.

The DVD side of each disc has the album in DVD-Audio with 96 kHz sampled at 24 bit. It is offered in advanced resolution 5.1 surround sound or stereo. For those without DVD audio players, it is also offered in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and PCM stereo. The surround sound mixes are all terrific, and the band really lends itself well to the multi channel mixes. Every DVD side also includes bonuses, usually a concert or club performance video or a music video, or 5.1 mix of an alternate version of a song.

Each Dual Disc also features an extensive Liner Notebook with song lyrics, notes on the surround sound mix, interesting photos, sketches and notes, and one cardboard picture of some significance in each. The sound quality on all these discs is fantastic, the stereo is clean and pure, and the surround sound mixes are a joy to listen to.

My only complaint on these is that the jewel cases are white, and have no listing of songs on the back, and no album listing on the side. To know the album, you have to pull it out and look at the cover, and to recall the songs on the disc, you have to take out the liner notes, and turn to the page listing the songs. It is also not much cheaper than buying each Surround Sound Dual Disc separately. If you only want a couple Talking Heads albums, you may be better off just purchasing them individually, but if you love box sets, the Talking Heads or want 6 or more of the Dual Discs, you may as well get the Box. It is uber cool!

(and of course it gets a full five stars!)

If you would like to read more SACD reviews and DVD-Audio Reviews, please look at my list of reviews on my homepage here at epinions! (Click the link next to my name over there on the right side, yeah, thats it!). I also have several DVD concert reviews.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening