TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : COMPACT DISCS

“Talking Heads: 77.” Talking Heads. Sire (AAD). Most recording debuts only hint at a band’s eventual artistic vision, but Talking Heads arrived in 1977 with its vision almost totally intact: the crisp if idiosyncratic rhythms that accented marvelously the tensions in leader David Byrne’s cool, detached way of expressing heightened emotions. The band did make a dramatic expansion in 1980 by employing some heady funk-based percussion touches, but these lyrics from “77” continue to define the Heads’ thematic leanings: “I can’t seem to face up to the facts / I’m tense and nervous and I can’t relax.” Sound quality: good. 1/2