Talking Heads to Publish First Authorized Book, New Feeling

Talking Heads have spent the past three years reopening their own archive without making a note of new music. The next item in that process is New Feeling, billed as the first book about the band produced with the participation of all four members. Abrams Books will publish it on May 18th, 2027, a date chosen to meet the 50th anniversary of Talking Heads: 77.

Across 400 pages, the volume collects hundreds of photographs, handwritten lyrics, early album artwork, and original essays from David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison. Reproduced material includes lyric sheets for “Psycho Killer” and “Life During Wartime.” In the publisher’s announcement video, Harrison described the source material plainly: handwritten lyrics, original album sketches, and private photographs, some of which had not left the band’s archive in more than 40 years.

The book tracks the group from the Rhode Island School of Design to CBGB and New York’s downtown circuit, then to international success, and returns to Stop Making Sense, the 1984 concert film restored in 4K and reissued to theaters in 2023. Eric Skillman designed the book, available in a $65 hardcover, a $150 collector’s edition, and a $350 limited edition. The latter two carry a 19-piece wooden puzzle set into the box lid; the limited adds a reproduction of a Mick Rock photograph signed by all four members. Pre-orders are open.

It arrives alongside other archival projects rather than a reunion. A super deluxe edition of Fear of Music follows on November 13th with unreleased recordings and live material, and the band’s SiriusXM channel launched in October after a September conversation moderated by Este Haim. Byrne, meanwhile, published his own book, Sleeping Beauties, earlier this month.