YMMV / More Songs About Buildings and Food

• Anvilicious: "Found a Job" caps off with this not-so-subtle moral:
  So think about this little scene; apply it to your life.
  If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right.
• Covered Up: More people are familiar with Talking Heads' "remake" of "Take Me to the River" than with the original recording by Al Green.
• Even Better Sequel: Talking Heads: 77 was an instant critical darling and is still a hit with fans today, but in hindsight it's agreed that producer Tony Bongiovi's Executive Meddling held back much of the band's potential. More Songs About Buildings and Food, meanwhile, was Talking Heads unleashed; it was an even bigger hit with fans and critics and is generally agreed to be the point where the band came into their own as musicians.
• Growing the Beard: Where Talking Heads: 77 was a good art-punk album with hints here and there of what Talking Heads were capable of, More Songs About Buildings and Food is commonly considered the point where they really started to flex their musical muscles.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The premise of "Found a Job" would later be repeated 11 years later in the film UHF, not to mention the similarities with YouTube and made-for-the-web videos later on. Given that Al is a fan who created an homage to Talking Heads in the form of the original "Dog Eat Dog," one wonders if he got the idea for the film from this song.
• Older Than They Think: Several songs, including "Warning Sign," "The Girls Want to Be With the Girls" and "Stay Hungry," were staples of their first CBGB's performances.
• Poe's Law: A mild example; many considered "The Big Country" to be an earnest snubbing of flyover country, but David Byrne stated that the song is actually meant to be a parody of said snubbing, poking fun at the public perception of city-slickers such as himself.
• Values Resonance:
  • In hindsight, the premise of "Found a Job" seems very prophetic of the rise of self-employed online content creators in the second half of the 2000's. Even more, it's quite sympathetic towards this type of profession as well when viewed from this perspective, with Bob and Judy's independently-produced shows being considered better than most of the schlock being aired elsewhere on TV.
  • While "Artists Only" may have been intended as a parody of pretentious art-school types, it comes off nowadays as sympathetic to the online art community, which is constantly faced with the stigma of not containing "true" artists due to the stronger emphasis on fanart and original characters rather than abstract works. The line "I don't have to prove that I am creative" is one that online artists can very much relate to in a world where stylized drawings of one's favorite fictional characters are looked down upon by mainstream art analysts.

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