Here Lies Love, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's two-CD song cycle on the life of Imelda Marcos, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered Saturday. Here Byrne is seen signing copies of the album at the MoMA Store in New York. There's also an interview with Guernica magazine about the project. The Charleston Post and Courier says the Byrne/Slim collaboration makes for "the perfect combination."
Here Lies Love, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's two-CD song cycle on the life of Imelda Marcos, was recently released on Todomundo / Nonesuch Records. Byrne signed copies of the album at the Museum of Modern Art's Design and Book Store in New York City last week, pictured at left.
This past weekend, Here Lies Love was the subject of a feature piece on Saturday's edition of NPR's All Things Considered. NPR's Jeff Lunden spoke with Byrne the unusual choice of subject for such an undertaking, collaborating with Fatboy Slim to set such a subject to music, and working with what Lunden calls "an eclectic group of pop stars" as guest vocalists to bring that subject to life.
In addition to Byrne, the NPR piece features interviews with two of the vocalists he chose for the project, Cyndi Lauper and Natalie Merchant. Each singer's contribution on the album represents a decidedly different aspect of Marcos's life and her complicated role in Philippine history, from her impoverished upbringing to her calculated rise to power, from the glitz of the Presidential palace—manifested in what Lunden calls "a lot of glittery pop songs to reflect Marcos' glittery life,"—to the violence of martial law, as heard in the Merchant-sung track.
You can hear the entire All Things Considered piece, along with tracks from the album, online at npr.org.
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Byrne also spoke with Guernica magazine's Michael Archer for an in-depth interview about the making of Here Lies Love, and the development of a possible staged version of it, as well as some of the many other projects he is working on, from bicycle advocacy to building-playing. You'll find the interview at guernicamag.com.
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The Charleston Post and Courier says the songs on Here Lies Love "brilliantly trace the life of the wife of the late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos." Reviewer Devin Grant says that "Byrne's compositions, which include quotes from Marcos herself, coupled with Fatboy Slim's arrangements, prove to be the perfect combination." Read more at charlestonscene.com.
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Blog Critics reviewer Jesus Garay too notes "how well Byrne and Cook portrayed her story" and find that "the real power of the album lies" in "the inspired choice of guest singers throughout the album." Read the complete review at blogcritics.org.
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