Tom Tom Club: Tom Tom Club (limited edition, tropical yellow & red vinyl) [REAL GONE]

Why you'll love it

Real Gone's limited tropical yellow & red pressing matches the album's bright James Rizzi cover. The record went platinum in the US, and both "Genius of Love" and "Wordy Rappinghood" topped the US dance chart.

This edition

• Limited edition
• Tropical yellow & red vinyl

About the album

Every band needs a holiday, and in 1980 Talking Heads' rhythm section took theirs in the Bahamas. Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz set up at Compass Point Studios in Nassau with engineer and co-producer Steven Stanley, three of Tina's sisters on vocals, Adrian Belew on guitar and Tyrone Downie on keys, and made a record that sounds like sunshine with a drum machine.

"Wordy Rappinghood" is a playful, chanted word game that went top ten in the UK, and "Genius of Love" is the slinky, giggling groove that hip hop fell for, sampled most famously on Mariah Carey's "Fantasy." "L'Elephant" and "Tom Tom Theme" lean into percussion and dub, and "Booming and Zooming" and "Lorelei" keep the island bounce going on side two. James Rizzi's cartoon cover art, all grinning faces and bright colours, says it all before the needle drops.

Slant ranked it among the best albums of the 1980s, and it reached No. 23 on the Billboard 200. Proof that a side project can be the main event; Frantz and Weymouth went home to their day jobs anyway, which seems very sporting of them.

Also at Kops: more Tom Tom Club on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Sire / Real Gone Music, a reissue of the 1981 album.