Little Creatures by Talking Heads

Little Creatures, Talking Heads' sixth album, came out on Sire on June 10, 1985, and it finds the band taking a detour down a dusty back road. The band produced it themselves, with Sigma Sound Studios in the credits. What they came up with are short, sunny, tightly built songs soaked in Americana, country touches and a whole lot of steel guitar.

It's still new wave at heart, still nervy and a little sideways, but the sound is warmer and plainer, like a band that had discovered front porches. "And She Was" floats off the ground on a bright, bouncing melody; "Stay Up Late" is sweetly giddy; "The Lady Don't Mind" struts; and "Road to Nowhere" is a marching, singalong chant, doom delivered with a grin. "Television Man" adds a sly, glassy-eyed shuffle.

The critics bit: it was voted album of the year in the Pazz & Jop poll. So did the public, who bought more than two million copies in the United States, more than any other Talking Heads studio album. Even the cover got its own prize, a painting by the outsider artist Howard Finster that was named album cover of the year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.