More Songs About Buildings and Food is the second studio album by American rock band Talking Heads, released on July 14, 1978 by Sire Records. It was the first of three albums produced by collaborator Brian Eno, and saw the band move toward a danceable style, crossing singer David Byrne's unusual delivery with new emphasis on the rhythm section composed of bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz. More Songs established the Talking Heads as a critical success, reaching number 29 on the US BillboardPop Albums chart and number 21 on the UK Albums Chart. The album featured the band's first top-thirty single, a cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River".
Artwork and title
The front cover of the album, conceived by Byrne and executed by artist Jimmy De Sana, is a photomosaic of the band comprising 529 close-up Polaroid photographs. The rear cover of the album shows a satellite image ofthe United States. Concerning the album's title, bassist Tina Weymouth was quoted in a 1979 interview with Creem: XTC frontman Andy Partridge later claimed, however, that he gave the title to Byrne.
Release
More Songs About Buildings and Food was released on July 21, 1978. It peaked at number 29 on the BillboardPop Albums chart. The album's sole single, a cover of the Al Green hit "Take Me to the River", peaked at number 26 on the pop singles chart in 1979. The single pushed the album to gold record status. The album was ranked at No. 4 among the top "Albums of the Year" for 1978 by NME, with "Take Me to the River" ranked at No. 16 among the year's top tracks. In 2003, the album was ranked number 382 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and 384 in 2012. It was ranked the 45th best album of the 1970s by Pitchfork Media in 2006. It was ranked number 57 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the greatest albums of 1967–1987. Warner Music Group re-released and remastered the album in 2005, on its Warner Bros., Sire and Rhino Records labels in DualDisc format, with four bonus tracks on the CD side—"Stay Hungry", alternate versions of "I'm Not in Love" and "The Big Country", and the 'Country Angel' version of "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel". The DVD-Audio side includes both stereo and 5.1 surround high resolution mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital version and videos of the band performing "Found a Job" and "Warning Sign". In Europe, it was released as a CD+DVDA two-disc set rather than a single DualDisc. The reissue was produced by Andy Zax with Talking Heads.
Reception
Writing for ', critic Robert Christgau said: Reviewing the album for Pitchforks "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s", Nick Sylvester said: Reviewing the album for Rolling Stone'' magazine, Ken Emerson said:
