Here Lies Love

iTunes Review

Here Lies Love is an unlikely concept album based on the lives of the former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her nanny Estrella Cumpas and their divergent fates. Marcos’ fascination with the clubs and discos of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s gives Byrne and collaborator Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) free rein to create their own dancefloor numbers. Together, they employ a wide range of female vocalists to tell their story and frame the sound for a fantastic discotheque. British singer Florence Welch opens things with the disco-fied title track. Tori Amos sings as Imelda’s mother Remedios on the sultry South-American blues of “You’ll Be Taken Care of.” Steve Earle breaks up the female block with “A Perfect Hand,” a track that leans into Earle’s country background with a piano that slowly transforms into a barroom tinkle. Cyndi Lauper excels on the electronically hopped up “Eleven Days” and on the funked-up finale with Tori Amos, “Why Don’t You Love Me?”  By the time Byrne makes his vocal appearance near the album’s end on the techno-laden “American Troglodyte,” it comes as a surprise. The man behind the scenes makes his presence known at long last.