At 72, David Byrne has nothing left to prove and that’s exactly what makes his new album Who Is the Sky? so refreshing. “At my age…there’s a ‘don’t give a shit about what people think’ attitude that kicks in,” Byrne recently remarked. That ethos runs like a current through the record, which pairs the restless imagination of the former Talking Heads frontman with the chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra to conjure a globe-trotting baroque-pop opera.
Byrne’s 2018 American Utopia was celebratory and expansive, a project that ended up on Broadway and NPR playlists alike. Who Is the Sky? feels more eccentric and intimate, less a manifesto than a series of puzzles. Ghost Train Orchestra’s arrangements stretch from woozy brass and theatrical strings to playful woodwinds, giving the record the texture of some eccentric street parade drifting between continents.
The guest list reinforces Byrne’s taste for unpredictability. Hayley Williams lends soaring vocal power to one of the album’s most emotional peaks, St. Vincent delivers sly counterpoint on a sardonic ballad, and Tom Skinner of The Smile supplies rhythmic elasticity that keeps everything from feeling too neatly pinned down.
Lyrically, Byrne is still Byrne: equal parts sage and jester. Songs meditate on love, connection, mortality, and the odd ways people try to bridge the distance between themselves and others. Sometimes the lines land with heartbreaking directness; other times, they’re tossed off like riddles or jokes that only make sense later.
Who Is the Sky? is unlikely to win over those who find Byrne’s quirks exhausting, but for listeners who delight in his blend of curiosity, humor, and emotional openness, it’s a rewarding late-career entry. The album proves that experimentation doesn’t need to mellow with age; if anything, Byrne’s creative compass has grown freer, stranger, and more adventurous.
Verdict: An idiosyncratic, richly arranged collection that reaffirms David Byrne as one of pop’s great explorers even when he pretends not to care where he’s headed.
