- Words Yazzi Gokcemen
To celebrate the legendary concert film's 40th anniversary and cinema re-release, A24 drops an album paying tribute to the track list, featuring Paramore and others.
Fans of cinema, ’80s rock, Paramore or indeed any artists who’ve shaped the last decade of music, rejoice – A24 Music is here. In case you missed this week’s announcement, the maverick film production company is launching on streaming platforms with Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense. A first-of-its-kind, the music compilation sees award-winning artists, like Paramore, Lorde, Kevin Abstract and Miley Cyrus to name just a few, reinterpret the iconic tracklist of Talking Heads’ concert film Stop Making Sense.
Paramore’s highly anticipated rendition of ‘Burning Down the House’ is the first track on the tribute album. Maintaining the original’s allure of an ’80s hit, the band are at their most compelling, packing their punk power with a fresh funk twist.
There are 15 further Stop Making Sense songs to look forward to, spun by a range of fierce talents. The featured artists span eclectic musical genres and backgrounds, particularly intriguing will be the interpretations of Brockhampton’s founding member, the rapper and singer Kevin Abstract and jazz quartet BADBADNOTGOOD.
As well as memorialising a music group’s everlasting creative impact, the tribute album arrives to celebrate Stop Making Sense’s 40th anniversary and recent return to the big screen. Last autumn, A24’s restored version of the 1984 original, directed by Jonathon Demme, swept cinemas off their feet – audiences were bounding into the aisles, unable to resist a boogie as Talking Heads burst through the sound system. A24 is offering the public another chance to enjoy the film in all its glory with a rerun of monthly screenings, already underway, in London and major US cities until the summer.
By completion, A24’s compilation will stand as a beacon of creative diversity, demonstrating the wonders that emerge from collaboration and musical connection. At a time when technology feels like a heavy raincloud over the future of art, the fresh perspectives of Stop Making Sense are exactly what we need.
