True Stories is the seventh studio album by American rock bandTalking Heads. It was released on September 15, 1986, by Sire Records, around the same time as lead singer David Byrne's film of the same name. The album does not contain the actors' performances from the film. Instead, this is a Talking Heads studio album featuring recordings of songs from the film. While an intended original cast recording from the film was not released at the time, several of the film performances did appear on single releases of several songs from the album. Later that year, Byrne released the album Sounds from True Stories containing incidental music from the soundtrack. In 2018, a complete film soundtrack album was finally released, combining tracks from the two released albums and the cast performances heard in the film. The single "Wild Wild Life" became the big hit from the album, accompanied by its video airplay on MTV. The "Wild Wild Life" video won two MTV Video Music Awards in 1987: "Best Group Video", beating U2 and Crowded House, and "Best Video from a Film".. A video for "Love for Sale" was created for use in the film, and an extended version was later released as a video in its own right. In 2006, the album was re-released and remastered by Warner Music Group on their Warner Bros./Sire Records/Rhino Records labels in DualDisc format, with three bonus tracks on the CD side. The DVD-Audio side includes both stereo and 5.1 surround high resolution mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital version and the videos of "Wild Wild Life" and "Love for Sale". In Europe, it was released as a CD+DVDA two disc set rather than a single DualDisc. The reissue was produced by Andy Zax with Talking Heads.
Reception
From contemporary reviews, Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the album a three out of four stars rating, stating the album was "gently melodic pop, with little of the polyrhythmic aggressiveness that has characterized recent Talking Heads albums." Tucker found that "some of the songs verge on triteness or banality" but "Love for Sale" and "People Like Us" were "beautiful rock music."
Tracks 11 and 12 appear on the 2006 CD issue only. Of the 9 tracks on the original LP release, "Love for Sale", "Wild Wild Life" and "City of Dreams" are the only recordings that actually appear in the film. On screen, the other songs are performed by the film actors; two of those are included among the bonus tracks of the 2006 reissue. The performance of "Papa Legba" by Pops Staples that was included in 2006 reissue runs a full minute longer than the track included in the "complete soundtrack" version of 2018. The band Radiohead named themselves after track six, "Radio Head".
