For the most part, Frantz delivers just the right amount of information about rehearsing, writing songs, recording, touring and managing interpersonal relationships within the band and its management team. Musicians will enjoy hearing about the group’s myriad musical and production collaborations and often unusual writing and recording processes, but Frantz explains things clearly and succinctly enough to keep anyone engaged in his tales. He also namechecks an incredible array of people who come into his orbit ... Beneath the surface of all the great gigs and unlikely encounters, however, Frantz does have an ax to grind ... While Frantz’s memoir is generally well-paced, two exceptions make for distractions. When recounting the Talking Heads’ first tour of Europe as a support act for the Ramones, Frantz suddenly shares far too much detail about every city visited and every show played ... These chapters could have been edited down to the exceptional details also shared in them. Conversely, near book’s end....Frantz casually mentions his outpatient treatment for cocaine and alcohol bingeing ... This merits a single paragraph and is left unexplored elsewhere. Thankfully, Frantz shares plenty of other stories more deftly
Frantz tells the story of the early days of the New York scene with admirable recall, evoking a cultural moment when anything could happen, and often did ... Unlike so many rock-star memoirs, Remain in Love...doesn’t recount a fall into the horrors of addiction and subsequent recovery, or rail against the vampires in the record business. Presumably, neither is part of the story, which is refreshing. Frantz is not a polished writer, but that’s forgivable in the rush of enthusiasm he has for the story. Also refreshing is the lack of a neat ending ... a worthy addition to any shelf of rock memoirs.
Frantz...doesn't pull any punches, but he also makes clear that there aren't really any bridges left to Byrne. ... The setup might lead you to expect a real dishy read, but the reality is that Talking Heads were never Mötley Cruë ... Remain In Love should help buttress the conviction that Talking Heads were a truly collaborative unit ... Remain In Love is a memory-dump memoir, but there are plenty of music fans who will be more than happy to download these memories. Frantz makes a point of describing just how down-and-out the Bowry was; Remain In Love is an apt companion piece to Debbie Harry's recent memoir[.]
... easy-going prose ... He seems to record a 'dream come true' about every 10th page, but I prefer his minor key. The mysterious Mr Byrne always brings this out, and it’s strongly present in Frantz’s account of the early days ... There are many exquisite character portraits ... That Frantz remained star-struck is one of his many winning qualities, and I commend Remain in Love to discerning rock fans everywhere.
Uxoriousness is rarely considered a cardinal rock’n’roll virtue, yet, creditably, Frantz uses Remain in Love to highlight Weymouth’s importance to Talking Heads ... There is a righteous rebalancing to Remain in Love, then, yet tangled up with this love story is one that looks a lot more like hate ... Frantz is explicit he has axes to grind ... Frantz is too well brought up to turn his book into an openly vengeful bloodbath, but even so he isn’t afraid to slide a blade between Byrne’s ribs, not always as subtly as he thinks ... It’s often unintentionally funny, though ... Frantz writes in thumping four-to-the-floor prose that often reads like an annotated tour diary: a visit to Stonehenge with the Ramones here, excitable Italian fans there ... However, Frantz’s inner-circle, right-time-right-place status lends him a stash of great anecdotes, suggestive of the era’s downtown crosscurrents ... Yet...Remain in Love leaves a bitter aftertaste. The band politics are, despite the cheery gloss, poisonous ... reading Remain in Love often feels like looking at a photo album in which someone has cut all the heads off an estranged lover, a vacancy that draws the eye. Frantz has done an effective job of rebalancing the Talking Heads story, offering an angle on the band that fans will relish, but, oddly for a drummer, he’s sacrificed something of the heartbeat.
In an electrifying scene, Mr. Frantz describes how his future lead singer read his first verse—'I can’t seem to face up to the facts'—and remarked that he wanted the bridge in another language to emphasize the psychotic mindset. Ms. Weymouth, a francophone, gets on that, as Mr. Frantz writes the other verses: boom! 'Psycho Killer' First go! The reader settles back for more descriptions of such alchemy, but the book will not deliver ... In Remain in Love, Mr. Frantz’s tone is resolutely unpoetic, but an editor has let him down ... Remain in Love is possibly the most uxorious rock ’n’ roll memoir ever written ... I look forward to Ms. Weymouth’s book ... That’s the book we might want to read in 2020.
With an eye for detail, Frantz presents sharply drawn pictures of the nascent punk and postpunk world of New York City, life on the road, and, later, the work he and Weymouth did in their group Tom Tom Club. He blends thumbnail portraits of notables he met with tidbits about daily life that charmingly meander from food to travel ... Frantz's absorbing, vivid book will reward Talking Heads fans and those interested in the postpunk and 1980s music scene.
... as much about love as music ... highly detailed ... Throughout, the author offers a devastating portrait of Byrne ... Though not the most elegant stylist, the author offers entertaining stories ... Although written in mostly colorless prose, this is a gold mine for fans of the 1970s and ’80s music scene.
... a bright memoir that reads more of an entertaining greatest-hits compilation than complete life chronicle ... replete with fun cameos (the Clash, Robert Palmer, Grace Jones). Fun, cheerful, and eventful, this memoir has just the right amount edge.
