Whatcha Doing In My House? A Look Back At Talking Heads' "Little Creatures"

The Album Cover for Talking Heads' Little Creatures (1985)

Long-time readers of this blog know that my favorite album (or compact disc) is The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Yet depending on my mood, my second favorite will vary. Thirty years ago this month Talking Heads Little Creatures was released, and it was surprising fun to revisit one of my second favorite albums.

Consisting of the funkiest white man at the time (lead singer/frontman David Byrne), a protopunk performer (guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison), a navy brat (bassist Tina Weymouth) and one of rock’s great drummers (Chris Frantz), Talking Heads came from the New York punk scene in the mid-1970s to become one of rock’s esteemed bands in the 1980s.

Fueled by one of rock’s great progressions between 1977-1983, Talking Heads somehow managed to bridge the gap between conceptual art and rock music with 1984’s Stop Making Sense. With a sense of not being able to top themselves, the band had a change of direction with Little Creatures the following year. Moving away from an enlarged world groove to a stripped down sound gave the band a chance to rediscover Middle American music.

Just because Talking Heads learned to how play “normal” songs did not mean that they had to water down their artistic vision as well. The song that opens Little Creatures, “And She Was”, provides a cinematic view of a girl who could (in her mind at least) fly. This quirkiness permeates throughout the album, straight through the closing number, “Road To Nowhere,” a song that could have been depressingly morbid yet is joyously fun, reminding us that it’s the journey (not the destination) that makes life worth living!

Somehow this album divides fans of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. For fans of the progressive style, it can be a disappointment. But challenging art can be sometimes cold. What separates Little Creatures from the rest of Talking Heads’ oeuvre is a sense of fun that embraces everyone, not just an elite few. This sense of inclusion made Little Creatures the band’s best-selling album, influencing diverse rock personalities/bands like Madonna, Radiohead and Vampire Weekend!

The one thing that I truly enjoy about Little Creatures is how Talking Heads employed the word “hey”. It was used as a call-and-response in “And She Was”, sung as a melodic catchphrase in “Perfect World” and pops up unexpectedly in “Road To Nowhere.” The use of "hey" is simple yet quirky fun, which is also the best way to describe this album!

A Beautiful Thing: A/B Testing

I paid for a page of artwork I may not use. However, that is not to say that the extra effort was wasted. I gained additional insight from it.

I originally wanted last page of Pretty Vacant: London Calling to dovetail into the opening splash page for the sequel, but Daniel wanted to draw the Page 2 differently. His second effort was good, but it didn’t change my mind about going with the first image. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go with my subjective eye candy test. In true analytical fashion I subjected the two drawings of the same page to A/B testing.

The two choices for Pretty Vacant: London Calling 2 Page 2

A/B testing is a simple way to test changes to your new design against the current page to determine which one produced the best result. I showed both versions of Page 2 to my Kickstarter backers and my Facebook friends to let them decide the victor.

The results validated my first impression. Image A won on Kickstarter 4-3, and on Facebook 2-1. Not only were there votes, there were reasons behind their votes! Those who chose A liked Gigi’s face, the visuals and the image’s impact while those who sided with B liked the antagonist’s reactions and the image’s spacing. And then there’s my friend Rachel, who always chooses B in these tests!

The majority feels the way I do about the images: B is good, but not good enough to supplant A. Great opening splash pages bring the reader right into the action, providing the title and creative information in the process. Image A does that for Page 2 of Pretty Vacant: London Calling 2.

Which is the beauty of A/B testing: it provides the numbers behind the feeling!