Talking Heads - Fear Of Music

Talking Heads — Fear Of Music

Super Deluxe Edition 2026 remaster 6LP Box Set

Talking Heads' Fear of Music (1979) channeled the raw, industrial energy of late-1970s New York City into one of the group's most rhythmically adventurous albums.

Rhino introduces a Super Deluxe Edition arriving November 13 that features rare and unreleased music, as well as new mixes.

Vinyl configurations are led by a 6LP Super Deluxe Edition that collects the remastered album, rarities, and concert recordings. Plus a custom LP2 Side B art etching. The vinyl edition also comes with a 60-page hardcover book featuring rare photos and deep-dive liner notes by Will Hermes, author of Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever.

Released on August 3, 1979, Fear of Music earned Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison their highest placement yet on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 21 and becoming their first gold album. Its dystopian anthem "Life During Wartime" — which officially achieves RIAA Gold certification status for the very first time today — cracked the Billboard Hot 100 as a left-field Top 40 success, introducing the band to an even wider audience. Critics praised the album's anxious songwriting and producer Brian Eno's dense, layered production — with NME, Melody Maker, and the Los Angeles Times all crowning it the best album of 1979.

Despite the breakout success of More Songs About Buildings and Food the previous year, the band was determined to record Fear of Music in a different way and at a new studio. Harrison explains, "We felt that if the process was different, the album would have an individual quality of sound as well as songwriting."

They bypassed commercial studios altogether, tracking the album over two days in Weymouth and Frantz's Long Island City loft rehearsal space. "The music for the album had been mostly written, arranged, and rehearsed there and we felt that the acoustics of our rehearsal space would make for an interesting contrast in sound to our previous two albums. Eno was keen on the idea, too," Frantz wrote in his memoir Remain In Love.