''Love This Giant'' is a studio album made in collaboration between musicians

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

and St. Vincent, released on

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name Axis Records by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD after the release of th ...

and Todo Mundo on September 10, 2012, in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States. Marking Byrne's ninth studio album overall and Annie Clark's fourth, Byrne and Clark began working together in late 2009, using a writing and promotion process that Byrne had previously used on his 2008 collaboration with

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today ''Everything That Happens Will Happen Today'' is the second collaborative studio album by David Byrne and Brian Eno, released on August 18, 2008, by Todo Mundo. Marking Byrne's eighth studio effort overall and Byrne and ...

''. The duo had previously played together live at an Actor Tour concert, and on the album '' Here Lies Love''. The performers enlisted a variety of

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

musicians to augment their songwriting and toured over the following year to promote the album. David Byrne incorporated a reworked performance of "I Should Watch TV" in his American Utopia Tour, and later in its Broadway production, documented in the film of the same name.

Composition, recording, and production

The two artists met in 2009 at a

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...

benefit concert for the AIDS/HIV charity

Dark Was the Night Dark Was the Night may refer to: *Dark Was the Night (album), ''Dark Was the Night'' (album), a 2009 compilation album *Dark Was the Night (2014 film), ''Dark Was the Night'' (2014 film), an American thriller film *Dark Was the Night (2018 film), ' ...

. However, the collaboration stemmed from a second meeting, at New York thrift shop Housing Works, where

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct voice, three-octave vocal range, and eccentric public per ...

and

Dirty Projectors Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The b ...

were performing. A concert organizer suggested Byrne and Clark try a similar collaboration. Their work was initially slated just for a single live performance, but Clark suggested adding

to their line-up and the two realized they could write original music around horns. : The musicians composed lyrics in person and via e-mail, which resulted in an entire album's worth of material. Byrne and Clark each wrote and sing their own lyrics, with the exception of "The Forest Awakes"—which Byrne wrote, but Clark sings. The instrumentation and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

grooves discouraged Byrne from writing his typical personal lyrics to writing about larger themes and Clark emphasized the

art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high culture, high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJa ...

nature of the recordings while composing. The album cover was inspired by ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

'', with Byrne as a "

Buzz Lightyear Buzz Lightyear is a fictional character in the The Walt Disney Company, Disney–Pixar Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise. He is a superhero action figure from an Story within a story, in-universe media franchise. Buzz is recognizab ...

-like" beauty and Clark as a

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German, as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

beast. The duo originally intended a plastic beauty and feral beast as a joke about the age difference between the two, but altered their idea when they met the prosthetics designer.

Promotion

David Byrne and St. Vincent worked with digital promotions company Topspin Media to distribute the promotional single "Who" and create embeddable widgets to

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

the album. A music video directed by Martin du Thurah was released on September 4 for "Who". Jon Dolan of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' gave the song three and a half out of five stars, calling the collaborators' chemistry "shocking". In reviewing the track,

WNYC WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...

's John Schaefer drew parallels between their use of

brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by Sympathetic resonance, sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meani ...

s and Byrne's previous work on '' The Knee Plays''. On July 30, the track "Weekend in the Dust" became available for streaming on the album's official website. On September 2, the full album became available for streaming via

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

. Byrne and Clark appeared on the September issue of '' Filter'' and performed on the September 10 episode of ''

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of the '' Late Night'' franchise. Hosted by Jimmy Fallon,

''. On November 1, 2012, the duo performed on ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late night television, late-night Late-night talk show, talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December ...

''. The duo embarked on the Love This Giant Tour to promote the album between September 2012 and September 2013, with a backing band that includes eight brass players (led by Kelly Pratt of Bright Moments), St. Vincent's keyboardist Daniel Mintseris, and

My Brightest Diamond My Brightest Diamond is the project of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Shara Nova. The band has released five studio albums and a remix album, five studio EPs and four remix EPs, and made several tours across the United States. Hist ...

's drummer Brian Wolfe. Like Byrne's previous Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour, the performers engaged in complex choreography onstage while performing. Byrne also simultaneously did book readings to promote his book ''How Music Works''.

''Brass Tactics''

''Brass Tactics'' is a promotional EP that was released via Topspin's platform on May 28, 2013. Contains a new song, remixes from ''Love This Giant'' and live recordings from the Love This Giant Tour. # "Cissus" (previously unreleased album track) – 3:14 # "I Should Watch TV" (M. Stine remix) – 3:32 # "Lightning" (Kent Rockafeller remix) – 3:12 # "Marrow" (live) – 3:46 # "

Road to Nowhere "Road to Nowhere" is a song by the American band Talking Heads from their 1985 album '' Little Creatures''. The song was written by David Byrne and released as a single in 1985. It reached on the US '' Billboard'' Album Rock Tracks chart and ...

" (live) – 4:27

Reception

Critical reception

''Love This Giant'' has received generally positive reviews; aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

scores it a 77 with 36 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". Reviewing the album,

BBC Music BBC Music is the arm of the BBC responsible for the music played across its services. The current director of music is Lorna Clarke. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio operational division; however, its remit also includes music used i ...

's Jude Clarke calls it "a perfect cerebral pop pairing" that "improves and deepens on each listen" due to the songwriting and the singers' voices. Bram E. Gieben of '' The Skinny'' also praised the "engaging musical conversation" between the two singers, but criticized the musicianship for lacking experimentation and Heather Phares of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

agrees that the album is lacking in Clark's "guitar acrobatics". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''s Maddy Costa has praised the vocals as well, contrasting them from subtle and seductive to "soft and whispy... with the glint of a razor blade." ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''s Andy Gill and Simmy Richman consider the brass instrumentation the greatest strength of the album with the latter declaring the work "a skewed and funky instant classic". Robert Leedham of '' Drowned in Sound'' praised the "jaunty trombones" and "jubilant trumpet-lead fanfare" as well, but found the alternating vocals weak and Byrne-centric.

Commercial reception

In 2012 it was awarded a silver certification from the

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

, which indicated sales of at least 20,000 copies throughout Europe. The album was Byrne's first solo effort to reach the ''Billboard'' Top 40, peaking at 23; this was subsequently surpassed by 2018's ''

American Utopia ''American Utopia'' is the eighth studio album by Scottish-American Rock music, rock musician David Byrne, released on March 9, 2018 through Todo Mundo and Nonesuch Records. The release is his first solo studio album since 2004's ''Grown Backwar ...

'', which debuted at No. 3.

Track listing

All songs written by David Byrne and Annie Clark, except where noted # "Who" – 3:50 # "Weekend in the Dust" – 3:05 # "Dinner for Two" – 3:43 # "Ice Age" (Clark) – 3:13 # "I Am an Ape" – 3:05 # "The Forest Awakes" (Byrne, Clark, and

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

) – 4:52 # "I Should Watch TV" – 3:08 # "Lazarus" – 3:13 # "Optimist" – 3:49 # "Lightning" – 4:15 # "The One Who Broke Your Heart" – 3:46 # "Outside of Space and Time" (Byrne) – 4:34

Personnel

– guitar, vocals, production; percussion programming on "The Forest Awakes" and "The One Who Broke Your Heart";

Omnichord The Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It allows users to play distinctive harp-like arpeggios produced through an electronic strum plate, simulating the experience of ...

on "Optimist" * St. Vincent – guitar, vocals, production; synth bass on "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", and "Lightning";

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

on "Dinner for Two" Additional musicians * Jacquelyn Adams –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

on "Who", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", and "Out of Space and Time" * Randy Andos –

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

on "Weekend in the Dust" * Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra – "The One Who Broke Your Heart" ** Stuart D. Bogie – saxophone ** Jordan McLean – trumpet ** Martín Perna – saxophone * Jack Bashkow – saxophone on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", and "Lightning"; clarinet on "Optimist" * Lawrence Di Bello – French horn on "The Forest Awakes" * Ravi Best – trumpet on "Weekend in the Dust" * Ron Blake – saxophone on "Weekend in the Dust" * Jeff Caswell –

bass trombone The bass trombone (, ) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and u ...

on "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time" * John Congleton – production, drum programming; synth on "I Should Watch TV" * The Dap-Kings – "The One Who Broke Your Heart" ** Cochemea Gastelum – saxophone ** David Guy – trumpet * Eric Davis – French horn on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time" * Dominic Derasse – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "The Forest Awakes", and "Lazarus" * Rachel Drehmann – French horn on "The Forest Awakes" and "Lazarus" * Steve Elson – saxophone on "Who", "Weekend in the Dust", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning" * Kenneth Finn – euphonium on "Dinner for Two"; trombone on "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning" * Gareth Flowers – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time" * Alex Foster – saxophone on "Weekend in the Dust" * Josh Frank – trumpet on "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", and "Lighting"; trumpet and

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

on "Outside of Space and Time" * Paul Frazier – bass guitar on "Who" and "Outside of Space and Time" * Earl Gardner – trumpet on "Weekend in the Dust" * Mike Gurfield – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time" * Stan Harrison – saxophone on "Weekend in the Dust" * Ian Hendrickson-Smith – saxophone on "The One Who Broke Your Heart" * Tom Hutchinson – euphonium on "Dinner for Two" * Aaron Johnson – trombone on "The One Who Broke Your Heart" * Ryan Keberle – trombone on "Weekend in the Dust" * R. J. Kelly – French horn on "Dinner for Two", "Lazarus", and "Optimist" * Chris Komer – French horn on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Optimist", and "Lightning" * Anthony LaMarca – drums on "Who" * William Lang – trombone on "Dinner for Two" and "The Forest Awakes" * Bob Magnuson – saxophone on "The Forest Awakes" * Brian Mahany – trombone on "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning" * Ozzie Melendez – trombone on "Weekend in the Dust" * Patrick Milando – French horn on "The Forest Awakes" * Lenny Pickett – saxophone and brass arrangement on "Weekend in the Dust" * Jonathan Powell – trumpet on "Weekend in the Dust" * Kelly Pratt – trumpet on "Dinner for Two" and "Optimist"; brass arrangement on "Dinner for Two" * Mauro Refosco –

snare drum The snare drum (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often u ...

on "The Forest Awakes",

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

on "I Should Watch TV", surdo on "Optimist" * Marcus Rojas – tuba on "Weekend in the Dust", "Ice Age", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time" * Mike Seltzer – trombone on "Ice Age" * Evan Smith –

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

and flute on "Who" and "I Am an Ape" * Bob Stewart – tuba on "The One Who Broke Your Heart" * Tom Timko – saxophone on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning" * Kyle Turner – tuba on "Dinner for Two" and "The Forest Awakes" * Steve Turre – trombone on "Weekend in the Dust" * Michael Williams – trombone on "The One Who Broke Your Heart" Technical * Jon Altschuler –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bishop ...

– mastering at Sterling Sound, New York City *

Patrick Dillett Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

– production, mixing, drum programming * Tony Finno – brass arrangements * Ken Thompson – brass arrangements on "The Forest Awakes" with Tony Finno * Yuki Takahashi – engineering Design * Gabe Bartalos – prosthetics * Richard Burbridge – cover photo * Catalina Kulczar – art * Juan Marin – art * Steve Powers – type design * LeeAnn Rossi – art * Noah Wall – package design and art

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2012 collaborative albums 4AD albums Albums produced by David Byrne Albums produced by John Congleton Albums produced by Pat Dillett David Byrne albums St. Vincent (musician) albums Todo Mundo albums Art pop albums