The Overload (track)
by Talking Heads
Year: 1980
From the album Remain In Light (track #8)
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The Overload appears on the following album(s) by Talking Heads:
- Remain In Light (track #8) (this album) (1980)
- Brick Box Set (track #41) (compilation) (2005)
Upcoming concerts
Listen to The Overload on YouTube
The Overload ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
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Showing latest 5 ratings for this track. | Show all 427 ratings for this track.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Track ratings | Avg. track rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 days ago | Exist-en-ciel | 80,774 | 70/100 | |
| 4 days ago | BLO | 3,194 | 86/100 | |
| 02/01/2026 15:43 | Robert_fripp | 823 | 86/100 | |
| 01/13/2026 16:18 | philschmil | 427 | 88/100 | |
| 12/07/2025 14:30 |  DommeDamian | 73,280 | 51/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some tracks can have several thousand ratings)
This track is rated in the top 5% of all tracks on BestEverAlbums.com. This track has a Bayesian average rating of 80.6/100, a mean average of 80.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.7/100. The standard deviation for this track is 13.7.
The Overload favourites
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The Overload comments
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Maybe it's no surprise that this is my favorite track of the album, considering the obvious similarities to Joy Division.
You may find yourself
Listening to Remain in Light
And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?
Brilliant. A very threatening song full of irresistible effects, musical layers and again a beautiful vocal performance by Byrne. Very special lyrics that are more poetry than conventional lyrics. The slow pace fits particularly well with the fatalism that the track expresses. The atmosphere that is created is related to Joy Division. Very nice ending of an exceptionally good album and - as appears from the comments here - a somewhat undervalued one.
lleon79 09/27/2018 03:24 | #221736
I really love this song to close the album. I think the second half of 'Remain In Light' perfectly slows down little by little until we have this gloomy song so reminiscent of Joy Division. I think it flows well with the album, but I get why it's the lowest rated track of the record. I still find it amazing musically and lyrically.
JulianR 08/31/2017 02:24 | #196980
it seems tired, especially after the super energetic first half
Grzywa 01/07/2016 20:04 | #156075
It sounds a lot like Joy Division's more gloomy stuff ("I Remember Nothing", "The Eternal"), especially Byrne's singing.
decent song, though IMO i think its a disappointing closing track for such a high-energy classic record
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