David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s acclaimed 2010 album Here Lies Love receives its first-ever vinyl release to coincide with a new production opening on Broadway this summer. Here Lies Love is a double-disc song cycle – improbably poignant, decidedly surreal, surprisingly thought provoking – about the rise and fall of the Philippines notorious Imelda Marcos. It was conceived by David Byrne; composed by Byrne and DJ / recording artist Fatboy Slim, AKA Norman Cook; and performed by a dream cast drawn from the worlds of indie rock, alt country, R&B and pop. Byrnes taste in collaborators is as imaginative as it is impeccable, including Cyndi Lauper (who recounts, to lighthearted disco beats, Imeldas courtship with Ferdinand Marcos), Steve Earle (as the power-hungry Ferdinand), Dap-Kings vocalist Sharon Jones (recalling Imeldas introduction into New York society) and Natalie Merchant (as spurned Imelda confidante Estrella, anticipating the onset of martial law). Along with vocals turns from such stars as Tori Amos and the B-52s Kate Pierson, Byrne works with rising indie rockers St. Vincent and My Brightest Diamond; New York chanteuses Nellie McKay and Martha Wainwright; and dance-music divas Róisín Murphy and Santigold. Byrne himself appears as the voice of imperialistic America on ‘American Troglodyte’, a send-up that wouldnt have seemed out of places in Talking Heads True Stories. Here Lies Love has an effervescent disco feel, redolent of Fatboy Slims own dance-floor anthems, with warm undercurrents of the Latin rhythms that have percolated through Byrnes recent solo work. The sunny arrangements act in counterpoint to the reality of the Marcos increasingly repressive regime, reflecting the imagined inner life of the glamour-obsessed Imelda. Explains Byrne, “For me, the darker side of the excesses are, for the most part, a matter of record. A lot of the audience is going to come with that knowledge already. Whats more of a challenge is to get inside the head of the person who was behind all of that, and understand what made them tick.” Byrne offers no judgment and avoids the obvious – there is no mention of Imeldas infamous shoe collection.
