Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - Making Sense Stop

Serious music critics could write WAY more than three paragraphs about Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul’s, “Making Sense Stop.” Perhaps they have, I dunno. I only have eighteen sentences so I should really get going. There are a lot entry points to appreciate this song — the musicality, the ideas of reinterpretation, reimagination and even re-appropriation. It’s kinda like a cracked disco ball, reflecting whatever million little pieces you want to see reflected in it. But I’m speaking in tongues.

For many, the most obvious lens through which to see this song Talking Heads. The title is “Stop Making Sense” scrambled. The music has that right angled, new wave feel of early 80s Talking Heads with the bounce of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love.” There are the gentle guitar licks a la “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).” Half the vocals are in French and often warped in a way that David Byrne would probably appreciate if not be envious of. But Adigéry and Pupul put more than their own stamp on it.

“Making Sense Stop” stands on its own as a great song to… not necessarily dance to, the song feels like it was built on stilts, the way it jumps around. But the Talking Heads famously borrowed from African and Black music and rhythms in creating some of their most memorable songs. I’m not smart enough to get too deep here, but the Belgian-Caribbean Aidgéry reclaims those origins, and runs them through her own Talking Heads filter to create “Making Sense Stop.” The result is an endlessly interesting and entertaining and good. And sometimes being a really good song is enough. Any serious music critic could tell you that.