Pitchfork 500: 7. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

I've never "got" the Talking Heads. A greatest hits record is mostly filler for me, and "Psycho Killer" is one of the filler tracks for me. I think it is because to me there is no song. Musically, there isn't much here, its pretty skeletal, all support for David Byrne. That's where the song is, in his vocals, in his delivery. And the song is stupid, just a series of non sequesters strung together and held together by that fact that they are next to each other. Or maybe it's the "Qu'est-ce que c'est?" and my longtime aversion to french gets in the way.

David Byrne is just one of "those" artists - if you get them, you love them, but if you don't, well, a lot of people can't get past Dylan's vocals, and I can't get past Byrne. Though having said that, I am a fan of the quirky vocalist, and I have no issue with Byrne's vocals. It's what he's singing that I can't get my head around. The almost collage aspect of the lyric, the french, the shifting perspectives, clever, I suppose, but not effective for me.

There is a brief moment in the outro, when the organ starts rocking, that the song makes an effort to be liked by me, but other than that it is as alienating to me now as it probably was to mainstream listeners back in '78.