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Song · David Byrne and Brian Eno

“Strange Overtones” by David Byrne and Brian Eno

“Strange Overtones” by David Byrne and Brian Eno appears on 19 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 2008 and 2026. Its best result is #8 on the WXPN Year in Review: Top 100 Songs of 2008. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #13 indie & aaa song of 2008, #658 indie & aaa song of all time and #31 of the '00s.

19countdowns
10stations
#8best position
0#1 finishes
2top 10 finishes
2008–2026years charted

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David Byrne and Brian Eno - Strange Overtones

Video from YouTube (Ricardo Laguna). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

"Strange Overtones" was the first taste of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, David Byrne and Brian Eno's second album together, and they gave it away as a free download on August 4, 2008; within three days it had been grabbed 40,000 times. Byrne and Eno wrote it with Leo Abrahams, the three of them produced it, and Todo Mundo put it out.

The album was hatched over dinner, while the two were talking about the 2006 remix of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts: Eno suggested finishing some songs of his that still had no words, Byrne came by his studio to hear the demos, and they finished them between New York and London, trading emails. This one is upbeat electronic gospel, a song about people getting the better of their machines, and critics took to it.

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

RockLists rankings

Indie & Adult Alternative

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
2008 8 WXPN Philadelphia, PA WXPN Year in Review: Top 100 Songs of 2008 100
2008 8 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Milwaukee, WI 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Top 100 Songs of 2008 100
2008 88 Lightning 100 Nashville, TN Lightning 100 Top 100 Songs of 2008 100
2008 25 107.1 The Peak Westchester County, NY WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2008 107
2009 32 The Current Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN The Current Top 89 Songs of 2009 89

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
2009 121 WYEP WYEP 913 Songs That Matter from the Last Decade 913
2009 87 WYEP WYEP 913 Essential Songs 913
2013 345 WXPN WXPN 885 Greatest Songs of the New Millennium (2013) 885
2018 114 WTMD WTMD Listeners' Top 897 Songs, 2003-2018 896
2019 565 KEXP KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time 627
2019 263 WYEP WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 1017
2019 263 WYEP WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 1099
2022 509 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 2000s 907
2022 659 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time 1055
2024 586 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs of the 21st Century 1055
2024 557 WXPN WXPN The 885 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century (2024) 885
2025 368 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century 909
2025 754 The Current 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now 893
2026 850 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound 1055

Charting alongside it in 2008

Best songs of 2008 →
  1. 1Sex On FireKings of Leon
  2. 2Viva La VidaColdplay
  3. 3I Will Possess Your HeartDeath Cab for Cutie
  4. 4Pork And BeansWeezer
  5. 5Let It DieFoo Fighters
  6. 6HumanThe Killers

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