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When\u00a0David Byrne<\/a>\u00a0last released an album, Donald Trump was president, and the world was still two years away from the COVID-19 pandemic. Byrne delivered 2018’s American Utopia<\/em>, an album of hope and positivity, amid the turmoil caused by Trump’s presidency, setting aside his cynicism to spread\u00a0encouragement at a time when optimism was in short supply.<\/p>\n By the time Byrne’s hit Broadway show based on\u00a0American Utopia\u00a0<\/em>premiered\u00a0as a film directed by\u00a0Spike Lee\u00a0in September 2020 \u2014 with the world in lockdown and less than two months before Trump was voted out of office\u00a0\u2014 the timing couldn’t have been more fortuitous. Five years later, Trump has returned to office, and\u00a0the hope that seemed possible then has been\u00a0suppressed by a flurry of new, even more hostile policies.<\/span><\/p>\n So it’s unsurprising that Byrne’s ninth solo album,\u00a0Who Is the Sky?<\/em>, picks up where American Utopia<\/em> left off. That record, his first solo LP in 14 years, gave him his biggest multimedia hit since Talking Heads<\/a> were still a band; more importantly, faith\u00a0that good\u00a0can overcome evil is needed now more than ever.\u00a0Byrne drives home that message throughout Who Is the Sky?<\/em>‘s\u00a012 songs.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> More 2025 Album Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n For the man who wrote and sang “I wouldn’t live there if you paid me<\/em>” about Middle America in 1978’s “The Big Country,” it’s disarming at times to hear\u00a0Byrne\u00a0disclose such sincere empathy\u00a0in lines\u00a0like “Everybody’s going through the changes<\/em>” here. Recorded with New York ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra, known for their melding of classical, jazz and avant-garde,\u00a0Who Is the Sky?\u00a0<\/em>sounds more fully formed than much of Byrne’s past solo work. Not since 1997’s Feelings<\/em> has he covered so much musical ground on a record.<\/p>\n Whether collaborating with St. Vincent<\/a> or Paramore’s Hayley Williams, or employing the Smile<\/a> drummer Tom Skinner to play a West African djembe, Byrne finds joyous freedom in “Everybody Laughs,” “My Apartment Is My Friend” and “What Is the Reason for It?” Musically, he jumps from skittering world pop to existential strings-adorned ballads; there’s rarely connective tissue between the songs. It can make\u00a0Who Is the Sky?\u00a0<\/em>unfocused, even as Byrne\u00a0espouses universal happiness and acceptance, the driving point anyway. “All of this suffering is just a temporary thing<\/em>,” he sings in “I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party,” spreading hope to a world in desperate need of it.<\/p>\n For the decade and a half that they held it together, Talking Heads led a charmed musical career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Bryan Wawzenek<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTalking Heads Albums Ranked Worst to Best<\/h2>\n