Rhino’s Super Deluxe reissue treatment of Talking Heads’ catalogue continued last Friday with the release of a new 2LP version of the band’s second album, the Brian Eno-produced More Songs About Buildings And Food. There’s a black vinyl version (€42) and a limited-edition translucent red vinyl (€48). I ponied up for the latter because I’m a sucker for coloured vinyl and because I don’t buy into the idea that black vinyl always carries fewer clicks and pops. The red vinyl pressing is reasonably quiet – but not perfectly so.
The second record in this set features eleven ‘alternative’ versions with “Take Me To The River” making way for an instrumental take on “Electricity” (which would later become “Drugs” on Fear Of Music). The gatefold sleeve is new with song lyrics printed on the inside of the jacket.
A 60-page hardback book featuring archive photos and liner notes from each of the four band members can be found in the 4LP box set (€159, which I didn’t buy): the first two black vinyl discs mirror the tracklisting of the 2LP set with the third and fourth black vinyl discs given over to a 19-song live set recorded at the Entermedia Theatre in New York in August 1978. The box also contains four 7″ singles with reproduction picture sleeves, again on black vinyl. No colour here!
However, that same book houses the 3CD + Blu-Ray edition (€82) that gives us yet more material: the original album, the alternative versions and the Entermedia live show occupy the three CDs but on the Blu-Ray we find hi-res stereo, Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mixes of the album, six songs of live show video footage from the Entermedia show and eleven songs of live show video filmed at a Sproul Plaza, Berkeley show in 1978.
As you might expect, the album has been remastered for its 2025 reissue. The hype sticker states that Rhino (and mastering engineer Ted Jensen) returned to the original 2-track master tape for a fresh extraction. But how does this new version compare to the original CD master and the 2005 Brick Dual-Disc remaster (also done by Ten Jensen and Ryan Smith)?
If you’re aware of the loudness wars, you won’t be surprised to learn that the 2025 remaster surrenders a decent amount of dynamic range to the original master (DR13). The original CD was mastered at Masterdisk — before the liberal use of dynamic range compression became fashionable among mastering engineers and their overlords (the labels). What you might be surprised about is that it pulls up on the wrong side of the 2005 remaster (DR9). Yep, run through MAAT’s DR Offline MKII, the 2025 remaster says hello at DR7.
Put the new one in the bin to drop $20 on a Canadian Don Mills vinyl pressing? Nope, not yet. A single measurement can provide only a through-the-letterbox look at what lies within.
Played on a high-end CD player – the Michi Q5 from Rotel – the 2025 remaster of More Songs About Buildings And Food sounds better separated, airier and punchier in the low-end than the original CD played on the same machine. You could also say that about the 2005 remaster, but the latest version doesn’t sound quite as dynamically rigid as the 2005 version, and it gives us a better look at the smaller details, especially Chris Frantz’s cymbals and David Byrne’s rhythm guitar.
Further information: Rhino