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NYFF: 'American Utopia' Sets a Glorious Tone for Our Difficult Times

Spike Lee's crisp concert film of David Byrne's Broadway show, American Utopia, embraces the hopes and anxieties of the present moment.

                                      
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PopMatters is moving to WordPress. We will publish a few essays daily while we develop the new site. We hope the beta will be up sometime late next week.

Spike Lee's crisp concert film of David Byrne's Broadway show, American Utopia, embraces the hopes and anxieties of the present moment.

From forward-looking electronic and experimental to new approaches in the ever-evolving R&B scene, from hip-hop and punk to rock and pop, 2018 bestowed an embarrassment of musical riches upon us.

The year in song reflected the state of the world around us. Here are the 60 songs that spoke to us this year.

Will David Byrne transform American Utopia, one of the best shows of 2018, into a Broadway spectacle?

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Young bands like Alvvays and Hozier get their chance to shine at ACL, but it's legends like David Byrne and Paul McCartney who dazzle the most.

Still one of the boldest artists in the music world, both a new album and tour find David Byrne exploring the concept that music can influence society in a more positive direction.

The 13th edition of Croatia's open-air festival INmusic kicked off with an epic performance from David Byrne and Queens of the Stone Age's thunderous headlining set.

One of Europe's most popular summer festivals will welcome a bevy of rock giants with plenty of new material to show off.

David Byrne's American Utopia looks for a spot closer to the center of the American conversation.

On "Everybody's Coming to My House" David Byrne turns out a LCD Soundsystem-esque, disco freak out that, in a parallel universe, could be the theme to the trippiest Bond film ever.

These are multiple works of genre history and works tackling important issues of race, class, and gender. All challenge dominant narratives of music.

Put away that gun. This party's simple. We're talking about the 1137th most acclaimed album of all time. (That Talking Heads' 1983 commercial smash is this week's Counterbalance. Turn like a wheel inside a wheel.

The 'Marshall McLuhan' message borne by the MP3 revolution is clear: music is endlessly plentiful and entirely disposable. So what's the message of streaming?

Peter Gabriel waits three years for his back to be scratched, and the wait wasn't necessarily worth it.

This smart, bemusing film explores themes of maturity and redemption.

"... it is the music and the lyrics that trigger the emotions within us, rather than the other way around. We don't make the music—it makes us."

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If there’s a lesson to be learned from Love This Giant, it’s that collaboration is the sincerest form of flattery.

Live at Carnegie Hall may be forgettable, but it’s a harmless and occasionally pleasing aside in the oeuvre of two undeniably necessary artists.

Facts all come with points of view, like the fact that Talking Heads’ 1980 Afro-funk opus is the 35th Greatest Album of All Time. Counterbalance gives Remain in Light a listen—don’t you miss it. (Some of you people just about missed it.)

If By Yes is a sort of alternative rock supergroup featuring members from the now defunct That Dog and Cibo Matto, with special guest turns from David Byrne and Wilco guitarist Nels Cline.

In 1979 David Byrne, Brian Eno, and Talking Heads obsessed with grace on the claustrophobic pop indulgences of Fear of Music.

Delicate Steve 's debut lives up to the eccentric, literate and free-spirited ideals of David Byrne's Luaka Bop label.

The American radio scene has expanded online with countless offerings for the listening worldwide.

It's not often that a purely musical work can make us see a historical figure in a new light, but Here Lies Love is a fascinating exception.

Words by John Bohannon and Pictures by Karen Dunbar

The first album from The Brighton Port Authority (aka Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook) is pretty stupid. But also pretty fun.

Two of pop's elder statesmen give you a big musical hug. You're welcome.

The choreographed spectacle was almost like watching a long artistic music video or a postmodern ballet with exceptionally good music.

Nonesuch reissues famous score by David Byrne, featuring the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and written for a section of Robert Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning (not really) the CIVIL WarS.

A lot of good movies are still missing from DVD. Here is a list of 25 that PopMatters feels have been unceremoniously left to simply fade away.

Nearly 40 years after the Brazilian psychedelic rock band helped spearhead the Tropicalista movement, Os Mutantes return with this double-live celebration.

None of the mixes are bad, none are exceptionally good, they're just sort of there.