David Byrne's Who Is The Sky? Is Another Stop on His Long Road to Nowhere

David Byrne’s new album, Who Is The Sky?, is his first since 2018’s American Utopia, and marks a collaboration with New York City-based ensemble, Ghost Train Orchestra. It arrived on Friday, Sept. 5, with a cover featuring Byrne in a very Byrne-esque bodysuit that’s as colorful as it is pointy, which only makes sense if you’ve seen it. It reminded us of the Firelei Báez painting Adjusting the Moon (The right to non-imperative clarities), which, whether by coincidence or deeply subtle intention, is part of a series titled Utopian Imagination.

Who Is The Sky? lands 12 songs at 37 minutes, the latest in a career of album-length collaborations, including 2012’s Love This Giant with St. Vincent, 2010’s Here Lies Love with Fatboy Slim, and two with Brian Eno, 1980’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and 2008’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

Even at 73 years old, Byrne remains experimental on Who Is The Sky?, with the Brian Carpenter-led Ghost Train Orchestra bringing a soothing, swelling core to Byrne’s recognizably unrecognizable offbeat melodies. It’s that certain no-frills, throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks energy that differentiates Byrne’s solo material from the Talking Heads. Of course, the two catalogs will always be deeply connected, and Byrne still plays songs from his old band live, but it’s as if the same chef is cooking with entirely different ingredients, with a new sous chef each time.

If we can call the Talking Heads undeniable, the perfect storm of originality and easily-to-follow pop hooks, then Byrne’s solo output is like a slow-growing seed, indistinguishable for a period after planting, before sprouting, blossoming and sticking to your eardrums for life. Consider the ‘08 Eno collaboration, “Life Is Long,” which can come across like a plodding pub singalong on first listen, until you’re swaying to the chorus as if you’re literally arm-in-arm with a dozen like-minded strangers. Or “Empire” from 2004’s Grown Backwards, which festers into an increasing cinematic melancholy with each additional listen.

Similarly, upon the first playthrough of Who Is The Sky?, we’re not rushing to hit the replay button on every track, but believe us when we say that our tickets to his two-night stand at the Music Hall at Fair Park are already secured.

So much of Byrne’s charm is the sort of buoyancy that he performs with. It’s so pure and so joyful, that it allows him to pull off certain melodies that other, more self-serious artists wouldn’t be able to. The album’s opener, “Everybody Laughs,” is Byrne at his most uninhibited, a nearly four-minute dance-y kumbaya, complete with piping strings backed by a playful vibraphone. The backing vocals in the song remind us of the equally endearing and cheesy breakdown at the end of Kanye West’s “Champion,” in the same unapologetically optimistic vein.
It’s the kind of song that you can just tell will come to life in a much more satisfying way, and we’re especially confident in that when it comes to Byrne, who by any metric, is one of the greatest live performers of all time.

Speaking of, based on a recent performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and rehearsal videos, it appears that this upcoming tour will be presented similarly to his masterpiece American Utopia album and tour, with a free-roaming cast of musicians, singers and dancers who ran around the stage like Byrne’s personal marching band and choreo-team. The experience was captured via a concert film on Broadway by Spike Lee. We’re not here to say crazy things like the American Utopia film being better than Demme’s Stop Making Sense, but maybe we’re crazy enough to say that it evokes such a wildly different sensation that it’s as good in its own key.

Whatever happens between Byrne finishing a record in the studio and the lights casting upon him on-stage is pure magic. Using American Utopia as an example, the album’s closer and live show’s opener, “Here,” is so much better in live form that it’s hardly worth listening to the recorded version. Byrne’s voice is stronger, louder and in a more fitting key to the haunting ballad, and we’re expecting (and excited for) a similar discrepancy in November.
On “When We Are Singing,” Byrne channels a late-period McCartney sound in both melody and instrumentation, which is a tremendous compliment. Later, on “I’m an Outsider,” Byrne has his best songwriting on the record, combining with Ghost Train’s strings for a mellow ‘70s psychedelia sound. On “My Apartment Is My Friend,” Byrne’s production is almost gloating, as if he knows that only he could make this sort of acoustic-clubbing song work.

The clear standout of the album is “What Is The Reason For It?” which features Paramore’s Hayley Williams for a duet over Spanish-inspired drums and brass. The verses are set to the melody, or at least very similar to, crooning standard “Sway,” or “Quien Sera,” originally composed by Luis Demetrio and Pablo Beltran Ruiz and made popular over the decades by Dean Martin and Michael Bublé.

Not everything here works, but the stuff that does is comfortably in the ranks of the best solo work Byrne has ever produced. Who Is The Sky? is further confirmation that there is a city in his mind, and for as long as he's around, we'll come along and take that ride.

David Byrne will perform on Friday, Nov. 28, and Saturday, Nov. 29, at 8 p.m. at the Music Hall at Fair Park, 909 1st Ave. Tickets are available starting at $97.50 on Ticketmaster.