Personal questions

Quizzical as ever David Byrne and Blood Orange's questing Devonté Hynes in fine new albums.

- BY GRAHAM REID

WHO IS THE SKY?
By David Byrne

As the most self-aware man in popular culture, 73-year-old David Byrne might well ask, “Who is the sky?”

Well, he's this guy whose discomforts, droll observations and tinder-dry humour propelled Talking Heads into public consciousness then walked his audience through percussive Afro-influenced pop and world music in his solo career.

Here, with the Ghost Train Orchestra's horns and strings, he reverts to immediately familiar, mid-period Talking Heads for quizzical, rhythm-driven pop (Everybody Laughs) and pokes targets close to home: the typically quirky sentiment and sonic circus bleep-pop of My Apartment is My Friend; The Avant Garde aimed at his own brainy and hip constituency: “It's deceptively weighty, profoundly absurd. It's whatever fits, it's the avant garde. And it doesn't mean shit.”