David Byrne has spent nearly five decades turning everyday observations into strange, funny and unexpectedly profound songs, and Who Is the Sky? finds him continuing that pursuit with remarkable enthusiasm. His first solo album since 2018’s American Utopia, the 12-song collection was produced by Kid Harpoon and arranged and performed with New York’s Ghost Train Orchestra, whose expansive ensemble gives Byrne’s restless art-pop plenty of room to move. Where American Utopia grew into a sprawling multimedia statement, Who Is the Sky? is more intimate in its ambitions, built around curiosity, connection and the simple idea that there are still reasons to be joyful.
The album announces that intention immediately with “Everybody Laughs,” a delirious rush of strings, brass, percussion and Byrne’s unmistakable voice. St. Vincent adds to the communal spirit, while Byrne follows with a succession of songs that find the extraordinary in ordinary life. “My Apartment Is My Friend” turns a home into a trusted companion, “She Explains Things to Me” transforms a familiar domestic relationship into something charmingly philosophical, and “I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party” imagines enlightenment taking a break for dessert. Even “Moisturizing Thing,” with its absurd premise, fits naturally into Byrne’s long-running fascination with finding something meaningful inside the ridiculous.
Musically, the album is considerably more colorful than its straightforward optimism might suggest. Ghost Train Orchestra brings together strings, horns, woodwinds, marimba, percussion and guitars, while Byrne continues to draw on African and South American rhythms, funk, pop and the angular sensibility that has always distinguished his work. “I’m an Outsider” carries an infectious, off-kilter groove, “Don’t Be Like That” rides a rhythm with a Bo Diddley-like pulse, and “What Is the Reason For It?” becomes one of the album’s most exuberant moments when Paramore’s Hayley Williams joins Byrne for a spirited vocal exchange. The arrangements are polished and densely layered without completely sanding away the eccentricity that makes Byrne’s music recognizable.
The album’s biggest risk is also its central premise: Byrne rarely lets the darkness underneath these songs come fully into view. His optimism is so direct that some of the humor and observations can feel deliberately simple, and there are moments when the relentless cheerfulness threatens to become exhausting. But the best songs reveal that the silliness is not merely decoration. Beneath the jokes about apartments, skincare, television and avant-garde art is an older songwriter examining love, aging, connection and the absurdity of being alive. Byrne’s voice remains wonderfully expressive, and he sings with the enthusiasm of someone who still genuinely enjoys discovering what a song can do.
Who Is the Sky? ultimately feels less like Byrne trying to reinvent himself than an artist continuing to follow his curiosity wherever it leads. The album is eccentric without being self-consciously difficult, sophisticated without losing its sense of humor, and unabashedly optimistic without completely abandoning Byrne’s outsider perspective. Not every joke lands, and the insistence on looking toward the light can occasionally become a little much, but there is something admirable about an artist this far into his career still making music that sounds so alive. Byrne has always been interested in the strange ways people connect with one another; here, he makes that connection itself the celebration. – Jason Felton