A May-December one-off by David Byrne and Annie "St. Vincent" Clark, this LP is like a special-mention science-fair project: two brainy kids speaking in tongues that are fascinating even when they're hard to follow. Working with a brass band and tandem guitars, the duo trade vocals, delivering hiccuping phoneme and wry kickers over shifty programmed beats. Yet for all the convention-dodging, the most satisfying bits – Byrne's show-tune-y "I Am an Ape" and Clark's New York City mash-note ballad, "Optimist" – are the most straightforward. Go figure.
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