Talking Heads' Fear of Music

It''s the summer of 1979. A 15-year-old boy listens to WNEW on the radio in his bedroom in Brooklyn. A monotone voice (it''s the singer''s) announces into dead air in between songs "The Talking Heads have a new album, it''s called Fear of Music" - and everything spins outward from that one moment.

Jonathan Lethem treats Fear of Music (the third album by the Talking Heads, and the first produced by...