Love This Giant is a studio album made in collaboration between musicians David Byrne and St. Vincent (Annie Clark), released on 4AD and Todo Mundo on September 10, 2012, in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States. Marking Byrne's ninth studio album overall and Clark's fourth, Byrne and Clark began working together in late 2009,[2] using a writing and promotion process that Byrne had previously used on his 2008 collaboration with Brian EnoEverything That Happens Will Happen Today.[3] The duo had previously played together live at an Actor Tour concert, and on the album Here Lies Love.[4] The performers enlisted a variety of brass musicians to augment their songwriting and toured over the following year to promote the album.
David Byrne incorporated a reworked performance of "I Should Watch TV" in the Broadway production and film American Utopia.
Composition, recording, and production
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra is one of several guests on the album, augmenting the songs with their horn sections.
The two artists met in 2009 at a Radio City Music Hall benefit concert for the AIDS/HIV charity Dark Was the Night.[5] However, the collaboration stemmed from a second meeting, at New York thrift shop Housing Works, where Björk and Dirty Projectors were performing. A concert organizer suggested Byrne and Clark try a similar collaboration.[6] Their work was initially slated just for a single live performance, but Clark suggested adding brass[7] to their line-up [6] and the two realized they could write original music around horns.
"I suggested brass as a prominent voice because, at the time David and I decided to write songs together, I had just done the Actor record with a lot of woodwind and a lot of strings on it. So I hadn't explored brass and I wanted to. Originally, we were going to do a night of music at a bookstore for charity. So I was thinking, Okay, it could be a small ensemble: just me and David and a couple of guitars and we'll call it a day. But then obviously it grew and grew and grew. Brass was a way to bridge what we do in some sort of neutral, middle ground. When we toured the album, just the sheer number of people onstage was exciting and overwhelming, and these people organised the stage movement in really fun and idiosyncratic ways and it made for such a lighthearted, beguiling show." – Annie Clark[8]
The musicians composed lyrics in person and via e-mail,[6] which resulted in an entire album's worth of material. Byrne and Clark each wrote and sing their own lyrics, with the exception of "The Forest Awakes"—which Byrne wrote, but Clark sings.[9] The instrumentation and funkgrooves discouraged Byrne from writing his typical personal lyrics to writing about larger themes and Clark emphasized the art music nature of the recordings while composing.[10]
The album cover was inspired by Beauty and the Beast, with Byrne as a "Buzz Lightyear-like" beauty and Clark as a grotesque beast.[11] The duo originally intended a plastic beauty and feral beast as a joke about the age difference between the two, but altered their idea when they met the prosthetics designer.[10]
David Byrne and St. Vincent worked with digital promotions company Topspin Media to distribute the promotional single "Who" and create embeddable widgets to stream the album. A music video directed by Martin du Thurah was released on September 4 for "Who".[12] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone gave the song three and a half out of five stars, calling the collaborators' chemistry "shocking."[13] In reviewing the track, WNYC's John Schaefer drew parallels between their use of brass instruments and Byrne's previous work on The Knee Plays.[14] On July 30, the track "Weekend in the Dust" became available for streaming on the album's official website. On September 2, the full album became available for streaming via NPR.[15]
The duo embarked on the Love This Giant Tour to promote the album between September 2012 and September 2013, with a backing band that includes eight brass players (led by Kelly Pratt of Bright Moments), St. Vincent's keyboardist Daniel Mintseris, and My Brightest Diamond's drummer Brian Wolfe. Like Byrne's previous Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour, the performers engaged in complex choreography onstage while performing.[11] Byrne also simultaneously did book readings to promote his book How Music Works.[18]
Brass Tactics is a promotional EP that was released via Topspin's platform on May 28, 2013. Contains a new song, remixes from Love This Giant and live recordings from the Love This Giant Tour.
"Cissus" (previously unreleased album track) – 3:14
Love This Giant has received generally positive reviews; aggregator Metacritic scores it a 77 with 36 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews."[20] Reviewing the album, BBC Music's Jude Clarke calls it "a perfect cerebral pop pairing" that "improves and deepens on each listen" due to the songwriting and the singers' voices.[31] Bram E. Gieben of The Skinny also praised the "engaging musical conversation" between the two singers, but criticized the musicianship for lacking experimentation[32] and Heather Phares of AllMusic agrees that the album is lacking in Clark's "guitar acrobatics."[21]The Guardian's Maddy Costa has praised the vocals as well, contrasting them from subtle and seductive to "soft and whispy... with the glint of a razor blade."[23]
The Independent's Andy Gill[24] and Simmy Richman[33] consider the brass instrumentation the greatest strength of the album with the latter declaring the work "a skewed and funky instant classic." Robert Leedham of Drowned in Sound praised the "jaunty trombones" and "jubilant trumpet-lead fanfare" as well, but found the alternating vocals weak and Byrne-centric.[1]
Commercial reception
In 2012 it was awarded a silver certification from the Independent Music Companies Association,[34] which indicated sales of at least 20,000 copies throughout Europe. The album was Byrne's first solo effort to reach the Billboard Top 40, peaking at 23; this was subsequently surpassed by 2018's American Utopia, which debuted at No. 3.[35]
Track listing
All songs written by David Byrne and Annie Clark, except where noted
"Who" – 3:50
"Weekend in the Dust" – 3:05
"Dinner for Two" – 3:43
"Ice Age" (Clark) – 3:13
"I Am an Ape" – 3:05
"The Forest Awakes" (Byrne, Clark, and Walt Whitman) – 4:52
"I Should Watch TV" – 3:08
"Lazarus" – 3:13
"Optimist" – 3:49
"Lightning" – 4:15
"The One Who Broke Your Heart" – 3:46
"Outside of Space & Time" (Byrne) – 4:34
Personnel
Byrne and St. Vincent performing in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 10, 2013
David Byrne – guitar, vocals, production; percussion programming on "The Forest Awakes" and "The One Who Broke Your Heart"; Omnichord on "Optimist"
St. Vincent – guitar, vocals, production; synth bass on "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", and "Lightning"; piano on "Dinner for Two"
Additional musicians
Jacquelyn Adams – French horn on "Who", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", and "Out of Space and Time"
Jack Bashkow – saxophone on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", and "Lightning"; clarinet on "Optimist"
Lawrence Di Bello – French horn on "The Forest Awakes"
Ravi Best – trumpet on "Weekend in the Dust"
Ron Blake – saxophone on "Weekend in the Dust"
Jeff Caswell – bass trombone on "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
Eric Davis – French horn on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
Dominic Derasse – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "The Forest Awakes", and "Lazarus"
Rachel Drehmann – French horn on "The Forest Awakes" and "Lazarus"
Steve Elson – saxophone on "Who", "Weekend in the Dust", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning"
Kenneth Finn – euphonium on "Dinner for Two"; trombone on "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning"
Gareth Flowers – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
Josh Frank – trumpet on "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", and "Lighting"; trumpet and flugelhorn on "Outside of Space and Time"
Paul Frazier – bass guitar on "Who" and "Outside of Space and Time"
Earl Gardner – trumpet on "Weekend in the Dust"
Mike Gurfield – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
