Day 103: David Byrne - Who Is the Sky?
If I had a list somewhere titled My Favourite Guys, David Byrne would probably be on it. Have I met him? No. Do I know a whole lot about him? Also, no. Have I listened to much of his solo stuff? Nope, I have not, so I might as well address that.
Album cover courtesy of Matador Records
David Byrne, as I’m sure we know, was a founding member, songwriter and frontman of Talking Heads. But a lesser known fact is that Byrne was actually born in Scotland – his family lived in Dumbarton and his father was Glaswegian. I think that’s probably why he’s so cool, there’s just something in the water over here.
His family moved to Canada, partly because there weren’t too many job opportunities but also because their extended family didn’t approve of Byrne’s parents having an inter-faith marriage, with Byrne having a Presbyterian mother and a Catholic father – a classic Glaswegian family conundrum.
I won’t go into Byrne’s Talking Heads era, I already wrote a bit about that in my Talking Heads review (and I’m short on time) so let’s get straight into the record. Parts of Who Is the Sky were compiled in lockdown, when Byrne wanted to make art about our collective experience but wasn’t able to put it into the right words, considering the gravity of what we were all going through. Because of this, some of his lockdown songs are on his recent 2025 release Who Is the Sky, most notably “My Apartment Is My Friend”, which I’m sure many of us can relate to. It was recorded with Ghost Train Orchestra, New York City-based musical ensemble.
The most notable thing about this one is that the whole record is absolutely jam-packed with a sense of whimsy. There’s a song about Byrne putting on some anti-aging cream and turning into a baby faced man, while another marvels at how good his wife is at understanding what’s going on in movies and TV shows since she understands it so intuitively. There’s also a very good Hayley Williams feature and a song about meeting the Buddha over some canapes and realising that nirvana is all right here in the present moment, if you can embrace it.
I said in my Talking Heads review that David Byrne is a true original, and I stand by that more than ever. No one is ever doing it like David Byrne, and this record is yet another thing to put in the pile of evidence that that guy rules. No one’s really thinking like him and putting that into lyrics, he’s got such a way with expressing himself that I think is a bit unparalleled. 8.5/10, a good, solid record that I’ll enjoy when I want to feel a little bit more alive.
I’m pressing publish at 23:59 because I’m living on the edge babyyyy, this is the closest I’ve come so far to missing my midnight deadline which I’d say is pretty good going!