David Byrne, released in 1994 through Luaka Bop, Sire Records, and Warner (Bros.) Records, is the third solo album (and fourth studio album overall) by the Scottish-American Alternative Rock musician of the same name. A departure from the Latin worldbeat that had defined Byrne's sound since the late '80s, this record presents a more straightforward approach punctuated by darker lyrical touches in Byrne's distinctly offbeat style. Keeping in line with its eponymous title, Byrne moves away from the large quantity of session musicians that defined his previous albums in favor of playing most of the instruments here, a-la Paul McCartney's McCartney series, with session players only contributing accessory elements to the music after the fact. Additionally, the lyrical content becomes more introspective, moving away from story songs in favor of exploring what its advertising campaign billed as "songs of haunting reflection and hypnotic energy personified," altogether acting as a thorough examination of the implications behind the term "Self-Titled Album."
On a more trivial note, this album was Byrne's first to not receive an LP release in any region, only being put out on CD and cassette. While vinyl had been reduced to afterthought status by the start of Byrne's solo career in 1989, by this point it had gone completely dormant within the mainstream. As a result, the format was considered commercially unviable until the start of the Vinyl Revival in 2007; tellingly, Byrne wouldn't return to LP releases until a year after the latter phenomenon began, with 2008's Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.
David Byrne was supported by two singles: "Angels" and "Back in the Box".
Tracklist:
- "A Long Time Ago" (3:27)
- "Angels" (4:43)
- "Crash" (4:28)
- "A Self-Made Man" (3:51)
- "Back in the Box" (4:24)
- "Sad Song" (3:03)
- "Nothing At All" (4:51)
- "My Love Is You" (2:01)
- "Lilies of the Valley" (4:28)
- "You & Eye" (5:08)
- "Strange Ritual" (6:51)
- "Buck Naked" (3:51)
The clown will trope in your face:
- all lowercase letters: All the text on the album is rendered this way.
- Alternative Rock: Byrne's most straightforward foray into the genre, lacking most of the worldbeat stylings of his prior work.
- Boléro Effect: "Strange Ritual" starts out quiet and minimalistic, building up as its nearly seven-minute runtime progresses.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The album cover and liner notes are entirely in black and white, with the only color being a shot of Byrne's body hair on the jewel case spine.
- Driven to Suicide: Played for Laughs on "You & Eye", where the narrator's suicide happens offhandedly and results in him finding Hell way more fun than any of the alternatives.
- Epic Rocking: "Strange Ritual" falls just nine seconds short of the seven-minute mark.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Byrne grew his hair out for this album and the promotional cycle for it, tying in with the greater sense of self-exploration throughout the lyrical content. He would cut it short again for Feelings onward, corresponding with a return to his typical abstract story-songs.
- Face on the Cover: A shot of Byrne standing and staring at the camera.
- Happy Place: "Back in the Box" deconstructs this: the narrator's retreats into seclusion are portrayed as unhealthy and ultimately futile, with the light from the outside world finding its way into the box no matter how tightly it's sealed.
- A Hell of a Time: "You & Eye" describes the narrator as going to Hell for killing himself, only to find that it has better barbecues, beer, and music than Heaven and Earth, promising that the subject will love it there.
- LEGO Genetics: In "Self-Made Man", the characters literally swap chromosomes like they're baseball cards.
- List Song: "Strange Ritual" consists of the narrator listing off the various visions he has while contemplating his crops in a field, ranging from the mundane to the comically cartoonish.
- Logo Joke: The CD label prominently features the Luaka Bop logo at the top, but with a close-up of Byrne's own eye in place of the regular cartoon one.
- Loss of Identity: "Angels":I can barely touch my own self. How could I touch someone else?
I am just an advertisement for a version of myself. - Mythology Gag: The mention of "the policeman inside" in "Nothing At All" is a nod back to a concept described in Byrne's book Bicycle Diaries, where the figure acts as an unconscious manifestation of Sigmund Freud's concept of the superego that filters out maladaptive thoughts to keep society functioning.
- Naked People Are Funny: "Buck Naked" is a goofy-sounding ditty about streaking.
- New Sound Album: Mostly straightforward Alternative Rock with a few darker lyrical touches.
- One-Word Title: "Angels", "Crash".
- Roundabout Shot: The music video for "Angels" consists mostly of a single, extended one focusing on Byrne, cutting into various environments relevant to the song's lyrics.
- Shout-Out: "Strange Ritual" mentions "a young Indonesian girl possessed by the spirit of mutant ninja turtles."
- Self-Harm: The narrator of "Nothing At All" describes cutting himself to (unsuccessfully) try and create an opening through which he can reach his unconscious superego.
- Self-Plagiarism: While the choruses are substantially different, the verses of "Angels" are similar in style to "Once in a Lifetime"; Beavis and Butt-Head among others ribbed at this by claiming that Byrne had finally run out of ideas as an artist.
- Self-Titled Album: The album takes the "self" part to an unusually thorough (and literal) extreme. Like Paul McCartney's forays into this trope, the album title reflects the fact that Byrne wrote every song on it and played most of the instruments. Byrne also includes photos of his body throughout the liner notes, and the more introspective lyrics focus mostly on examination of the self.
- Silly Love Songs: "My Love is You", as the name implies, focuses solely on professing one's love with nothing else in the way of lyrical content.
- Splash of Color: The spine of the album's jewel case contains a full-color shot of Byrne's body hair amidst the otherwise black and white artwork, keeping in line with Lukua Bop's two-color spine designs.
- Streaking: The lyrics of "Buck Naked" revolve around running across the country — including "down the state highway" — without any clothes.
