Mutant, in partnership with Netflix, are proud to present the premiere physical media release of the soundtrack to the 2025 animated feature adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Twits - featuring original songs and Demos by David Byrne, and an original score by Oli Julian.

Featuring vocal performances by David Byrne, Hayley Williams, Natalie Portman, Margo Martindale and Euan Morton (and more) the songs of The Twits are exactly what you'd expect from the singular song-writing style of David Byrne - simultaneously unlike anything you've ever heard and yet undeniably catchy. Oli Julian's score is no slouch either - the score to The Twits is riddled with fun and bouncy melodies, with quirky instrumentation - bold, playful and vibrant and nearly impossible to categorize into a single genre.

This limited edition physical media release contains TWO exclusive demo recordings by David Byrne, not available anywhere else! With original artwork by Sonny and Biddy - self-proclaimed Twits themselves - this album is a love letter to fans of the book, the film, the music of David Byrne, or the muggle-wump in all of us. 

TRACK LISTING

1. David Byrne & Hayley Williams - Open The Door
2. Margo Martindale & Euan Morton - We’re Not Like Ev’ryone Else
3. Erika Dapkewicz - Twitlandia
4. Margo Martindale & Euan Morton - The Problem Is You /
5. Natalie Portman - Lullaby
6. Oli Julian - Trick Me (feat. Lloyd Wade)
7. Oli Julian - Fireworks (feat. Ella Taylor)
8. Oli Julian - Cook You In A Pie
9. Oli Julian - Not Normal People
10. Oli Julian - Muggle-Wumps Escape
11. Oli Julian - Sweet Toed Toad
12. Oli Julian - Florbnorbles
13. Oli Julian - Beesha Comes Back
14. Oli Julian - Muggle-Wump Party
15. Oli Julian - Back In Business
16. Oli Julian - The Twits On The Stairs
17. Oli Julian - Not On My Watch
18. Oli Julian - Stealing The Orphanage
19. Oli Julian - Making An Escape 
20. Oli Julian - Upside Down
21. Oli Julian - The Dreaded Shrinks
22. Oli Julian - Saving The Twits
23. Oli Julian - Goodbye To The Twits
24. David Byrne - If We Were Good (Demo)
25. David Byrne - We’re Not Like Ev’ryone Else (Demo)

Experience “drivers license” for the first time all over again—this time through the voice of the legendary David Byrne. Celebrating five years since Olivia’s breakout single, this limited first pressing vinyl features Byrne’s cover of “drivers license” on Side A, and Olivia and David’s live performance of “burning down the house” from Governor’s Ball on Side B. Pressed on red translucent 7-inch vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. Drivers License (David Byrne Version)
2. Burning Down The House (Live At Gov Ball)

David Byrne's 'Who Is the Sky?', is his first new album since 2018’s acclaimed and award-winning 'American Utopia'. The album was produced by the Grammy-winning Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus), while its 12 songs were arranged by the members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra.

Musical friends old and new, including St. Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner and American Utopia percussionist Mauro Refosco, also make appearances on 'Who Is the Sky?', which is led by the infectious single 'Everybody Laughs'.

“Someone I know said, ‘David, you use the word “everybody” a lot.’ I suppose I do that to give an anthropological view of life in New York as we know it,” says Byrne. “Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling. Everybody’s wearing everybody else’s shoes, which not everybody does, but I have done. I tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody, especially at the end, when St. Vincent and I are doing a lot of hollering and singing together. Music can do that – hold opposites simultaneously. I realized that when singing with Robyn earlier this year. Her songs are often sad, but the music is joyous.”

Byrne was inspired to enlist Ghost Train Orchestra for the album after hearing their 2023 tribute album to the blind New York composer and street poet Moondog, and later that year jumped on stage with the group during a Brooklyn performance. Enticed by the 15-member Ghost Train’s varied instrumental lineup – which includes drums, percussion, guitar and bass along with strings, winds and brass – he thought to himself, “what if that’s what these new songs of mine sounded like?” Byrne asked if they’d want to serve as his band for the 'Who Is The Sky?' sessions, and they quickly agreed.

“I suspected that intimate orchestral arrangements would bring out the emotion I sense is there in these songs,” says Byrne, who is planning to tour 'Who Is The Sky?' later this year. “It’s something that folks don't always hear in my work, but this time for sure I thought it was there. At the same time, I also see myself as someone who aspires to be accessible. I imagined that Kid Harpoon would help with that, as well as being a set of trusted ears, since there was a lot going on. People think of producers as people who mainly make a record sound good, and Kid Harpoon did that, but he was also aware of how important the storytelling is.”

An admitted “stickler when it comes to grooves,” Byrne welcomed late-in-the-game contributions from Skinner and Refosco, with whom he’s recorded and toured for more than 30 years. Mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent and mastered by Emily Lazar, the finished product is about both hiding and revealing, or as Byrne puts it, “a chance to be the mythical creature we all harbor inside. A chance to step into another reality. A chance to transcend and escape from the prison of our ‘selves.’” These concepts are heavily incorporated in the 'Who Is The Sky?' album package, which was designed by Shira Inbar and finds Byrne nearly obscured by radiating, colored patterns and psychedelic, spiky outfits designed by Belgian artist Tom Van Der Borght.

“At my age, at least for me, there's a ‘don't give a shit about what people think’ attitude that kicks in,” Byrne says. “I can step outside my comfort zone with the knowledge that I kind of know who I am by now and sort of know what I'm doing. That said, every new set of songs, every song even, is a new adventure. There's always a bit of, ‘how do I work this?’ I've found that not every collaboration works, but often when they do, it's because I'm able to clearly impart what it is I'm trying to do. They hopefully get that, and as a result, we're now joined together heading to the same unknown place.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One of the most legendary musicians of the past half century returns for his latest solo album, 'Who Is The Sky'. As you'd expect, there's a loose frivolity and organic shuffle to every piece here, with Byrne's incredible outlook and impeccable musicianship clearly shining. A wonderfully uplifting, impeccably conceived masterpiece.

TRACK LISTING

1. Everybody Laughs
2. When We Are Singing
3. My Apartment Is My Friend
4. A Door Called No
5. What Is The Reason For It?
6. I Met The Buddha At A Downtown Party
7. Don't Be Like That
8. The Avant Garde
9. Moisturizing Thing
10. I'm An Outsider
11. She Explains Things To Me
12. The Truth

David Byrne's Nonesuch Records debut album, Grown Backwards, first released in 2004, makes its vinyl debut almost fifteen years later. The vinyl edition comprises the original album plus six previously unreleased tracks, including a duet with Caetano Veloso on their song ‘Dreamworld’. The double LP was mastered for vinyl by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound and pressed on 140g vinyl at Record Industry in the Netherlands and comes in a metallic sleeve.

‘It fits alongside the best of his career and adds another solid release to a solo catalog which will hopefully become more cherished in time,’ said Pitchfork in its review in 2004.

‘In 20 years, as we straighten our faces with botulism, braces, and stem cells, the album will stand up’. Mojo gave Grown Backwards four stars, finding that ‘some of Byrne's most deliciously quirky lyrics ensure an event-packed listen.’ The Guardian called the album ‘one of Byrne's most rewarding experiments yet. These are wonderful exercises in songcraft.’ The Daily Telegraph said: ‘This must surely be Byrne's most satisfying album. An unexpected delight.’ Uncut named it among the Albums of the Year, and the Sunday Times declared: ‘Really rather wonderful.’

In conjunction with The Criterion Collection’s special-edition DVD and Blu-ray release of David Byrne’s 1986 film True Stories, Nonesuch and Todomundo Records release a comprehensive soundtrack, collected for the first time in one package and in film sequence: True Stories, A Film by David Byrne: The Complete Soundtrack. David Byrne was inspired by tabloid headlines to make his sole foray into feature-film directing, an ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life and a distillation of what was in his own idiosyncratic mind. Byrne plays a visitor to Virgil, Texas, who introduces us to the citizens of the town during preparations for its Celebration of Specialness. As shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman, Texas becomes a hyper-realistic late-capitalist landscape of endless vistas, shopping malls, and prefab metal buildings.

In True Stories, Byrne uses his songs to stitch together pop iconography, voodoo rituals, and a singular variety show. Byrne calls the record “an immersive audio voyage into the little town of Virgil, Texas, in the mid-eighties.” He continues, “I always imagined that the music written for True Stories should be heard as it is in the film. It makes the most sense this way. Me singing the song that was written for John Goodman’s character, Louis Fine, always felt weird to me. It was written for that character, not for me.”

American Utopia fits hand-in-hand with Byrne’s vision for his series ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful’ - an ongoing series curated by Byrne of hopeful writings, photos, music, and lectures – named for the song by the late Ian Dury. Over the last year, Byrne has been collecting stories, news, ideas, and other items that all either embody or identify examples of things that inspire optimism, such as a tech breakthrough, a musical act, a new idea in urban planning or transportation – something seen, heard, or tasted. Just as the album questions the current state of society while offering solace through song, the content of the series recognizes the darkness and complexity of today while showcasing alternatives to the despair that threatens us. 

While David Byrne has collaborated on joint releases with Eno, Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim), and most recently St. Vincent over the past decade, American Utopia is Byrne’s first solo album since, 2004’s Grown Backwards, also on Nonesuch. American Utopia morphed during the writing and recording process, beginning with longtime collaborator Eno, and eventually growing to include collaboration with producer Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, King Krule, Sampha, Savages) alongside a diverse cast of creative contributors including Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never), Jam City, Thomas Bartlett (St. Vincent producer, aka Doveman), Jack Peñate, and others. The album was recorded in New York City at David’s home studio, Reservoir Studios, Oscilloscope, XL Studios, and Crowdspacer Studio and in London at Livingston Studio 1.

Speaking about the album, Byrne said:
Is this meant ironically? Is it a joke? Do I mean this seriously? In what way? Am I referring to the past or the future? Is it personal or political?

These songs don’t describe an imaginary or possibly impossible place but rather attempt to depict the world we live in now. Many of us, I suspect, are not satisfied with that world – the world we have made for ourselves. We look around and we ask ourselves – well, does it have to be like this? Is there another way? These songs are about that looking and that asking.

This album is indirectly about those aspirational impulses. Sometimes to describe is to reveal, to see other possibilities. To ask a question is to begin the process of looking for an answer. To be descriptive is also to be prescriptive, in a way. The act of asking is a big step. The songs are sincere – the title is not ironic. The title refers not to a specific utopia, but rather to our longing, frustration, aspirations, fears, and hopes regarding what could be possible, what else is possible. The description, the discontent and the desire – I have a feeling that is what these songs touch on.

I have no prescriptions or surefire answers, but I sense that I am not the only one looking and asking, wondering and still holding onto some tiny bit of hope, unwilling to succumb entirely to despair or cynicism.

It’s not easy, but music helps. Music is a kind of model – it often tells us or points us toward how we can be.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: From what I garner from reading Byrne's comments on his newest release, he is commenting (possibly) sarcastically on the duality of American life... or possibly he wasn't. What is less ambiguous is just listening to the album, taking in the excellently written songs and the latent, wry politicism peppered throughout. It's wonderful, that's all you need to know.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Dance Like This
2. Gasoline And Dirty Sheets
3. Every Day Is A Miracle
4. Dog’s Mind
5. This Is That
6. It’s Not Dark Up Here
7. Bullet
8. Doing The Right Thing
9. Everybody’s Coming To My House
10. Here

Recorded over two years largely at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ, the album is a collaboration in the truest sense of the word, with Byrne and St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) co-writing ten of the album’s twelve tracks, and each artist penning one song individually.

The album centres around an explosive brass band and is propelled by John Congleton’s drum programming.

“There was no delineating what the roles were,” explains Clark. “It’s a collaboration I’m truly proud of.” The duo also split lyrical and vocal duties on the record which, despite eschewing a traditional guitar / bass / drums line-up in favour of idiosyncratic horn arrangements, presents itself as infectious and modern hook-laden rock.

Byrne and Clark spin their intriguingly enigmatic tales, by turns whimsical and dark, backed by a large brass band in lieu of a traditional rock lineup. There is a magical urbanity to ‘Love This Giant’: It’s as if they’re dancing in the streets, their voices soaring over the rhythms, the melodies, the barely contained cacophony of the city.

Though Byrne and Clark each have an unmistakable sound and persona that have made them such compelling performers on their own, their voices manage to blend naturally, effortlessly, here. Sometimes they trade verses, at others they sing in unison. Like friends who can finish each other’s sentences, when one takes the spotlight alone, it’s often with words that the other provided. The brass lends the songs an appealing theatrical sheen while programmed percussion provides a contemporary feel.

Byrne and Clark met in 2009 at the ‘Dark Was The Night’ benefit at Radio City Music Hall and were approached shortly after by the Housing Works Bookstore to collaborate on a night of music. They began composing remotely, trading song ideas and structures online while Clark toured and it quickly became apparent that they had more than just one night of music in them. Byrne performed with Clark at her ‘American Songbook’ show at Lincoln Center in 2010, and Clark contributed vocals to Byrne’s ‘Here Lies Love’ album, released the same year.

Originally released in 1981, this critically lauded album was the one of the first major label releases to heavily incorporate sample-heavy 'found sounds' and global beats. Lebanese mountain singers, preachers, exorcism ceremonies, Muslim chanting, Egyptian pop and radio talk shows all make an appearance, spread over hypnotic percussive rhythms and layered instrumentation.

Overseen personally by Brian Eno and David Byrne, this new version has been remastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound (Interpol / Kings Of Leon) and features seven previously unreleased bonus tracks of out-takes and ideas from the album's original sessions from 1979 and 1980. The enhanced CD also includes Bruce Conner's film to "Mea Culpa". The packaging differs from all previous Eno reissues – a jewel case within a slipcase, plus very special added extras. The slipcase and artwork have been designed by Peter Buchanan Smith, and 28 pages of sleevenotes have been provided by David Toop and David Byrne.

TRACK LISTING

America Is Waiting 3:36
Mea Culpa 3:35
Regiment 3:56
Help Me Somebody 4:18
The Jezebel Spirit 4:55
Qu'Ran 3:46
Moonlight In Glory 4:19
The Carrier 3:30
A Secret Life 2:30
Come With Us 2:38
Mountain Of Needles 2:35