“I’ll have you know, I’m wearing trousers,” my teenage idol says, laughing through the laptop screen. It is a familiar joke in the Zoom era, when we are often stuck interacting from the chest up. But it is unexpected coming from David Byrne.
Across more than four decades of unclassifiable music, videos and books, Byrne’s work has retained a detached intelligence. While the music may thump, Byrne’s tenor voice turns operatic and the songs wrestle with destiny, the cool streak remains, in the ironic lyrics, stylised dancing, buttoned-up look and blank facial expressions.
