I fully expected to be floored … by Talking Heads' first album ["Talking Heads: 77"]…. Unfortunately, I haven't been. Trouble is, I don't know quite what the album does do for me.

Maybe I shouldn't have expected so much. For instance, "Psycho Killer, qu'est-ce que c'est" always seemed a fascinating David Byrne 1953?– Lynn Goldsmith/LGI © 1980song-title—I imagined some eerie midnight lurking classic—but, while this is okay, it does no justice to the potential of the idea, even incorporating the inevitably self-conscious use of French….

There's so much to praise, not least the quality of some of the songs. The single, "Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town," for example, is beautifully eccentric, simultaneously challenging and appealing…. On the other hand a couple of the pieces—"Who Is It?" and "Carefree" are dispensable, and the quirky stop-go style which pervades the album tends to push me away….

My uncertain reaction to...