Mr. Byrne's lyrical approach, with his thick, involved poetic style, serves up the element which most distinguishes Talking Heads from other rock groups. His main topic (and he makes no attempt to disguise it) is love.

He couches his thoughts in abstract images—space, distance, time—and he delivers them in a uniquely disjointed manner that has become a Talking Heads trademark. Like an overstuffed suitcase, Mr. Byrne's lyrics are hard to unpack….

Mr. Byrne's lyrics are open to any number of interpretations. But, like Bob Dylan lyrics, sometimes accused of the same "fault," they may manage to outlive such criticism.

Mark Stevens, "Two Fresh Rock Groups on the Way Up," in The Christian Science Monitor (reprinted by permission from The Christian Science Monitor; © 1977 The Christian Science Publishing Society; all rights reserved), April 25, 1977, p. 27.∗