Talking Heads Reunite for a Book, Not an Album: 'New Feeling' Due May 18

The four members of Talking Heads announced on Wednesday that they have collaborated on a coffee-table book, Talking Heads: New Feeling, out May 18 from Abrams Books. It is their first joint project in more than 40 years. Not an album. A book. The band seems aware of the distinction.

David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison and Chris Frantz sat in the round for a reel posted to the publisher's Instagram account, explaining the project with the studied casualness of people who haven't shared a credit in four decades.

Weymouth, the band's bassist, acknowledged the unusual nature of the reunion — four musicians coming together, in her words, "to write and curate the comprehensive coffee-table book" about the band. Frontman Byrne noted the timing: the release date coincides with the 50th anniversary of the band's 1977 debut LP, Talking Heads: 77.

What's inside the book?

Plenty of paper that hasn't seen daylight since the Carter administration.

• Original essays written by all four musicians
• Handwritten lyrics for "Psycho Killer," "Life During Wartime" and other songs
• Original album sketches
• Private photographs from the band's archive

"For this book, we pulled out handwritten lyrics, original album sketches, and private photos, some of which haven't left our archive in over 40 years," guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison said.

Drummer Chris Frantz supplied the origin story. "Our book tells the story of three art students who met at the Rhode Island School of Design and found their way to C.B.G.B., the heart of New York's punk and emerging new-wave scene in the 1970s," he said.

How does the story end?

According to the publisher's listing, the book runs the band's full history through the 2023 re-release of Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme's landmark 1984 concert film. That re-release, notably, is when the quartet began appearing together again — though pointedly not making music together — for the first time in decades.

The appearances have accumulated. The four Heads attended events around the Stop Making Sense re-release in 2023 and 2024. In September, they reunited for an interview moderated by Este Haim of Haim, launching their Sirius XM channel, Talking Heads Radio.

The catalogue has been active too. In the past year, the band released Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live, a collection of early recordings. They also plan a re-release of their 1979 album, Fear of Music.

Book now, music later?

Fans will note the pattern: reunions yes, new songs no. A 50th-anniversary book with original essays from all four members, an archive opened for the first time in 40 years, a radio channel and two reissues — it is everything a Talking Heads follower could want, except the one thing nobody is offering. Whether New Feeling remains the final word or a preface to something louder, the band, as ever, isn't saying.