David Byrne: Grown Backwards

David Byrne has long been the eclectic's eclectic, and on his first CD for Nonesuch he ranges from Lambchop to "La Traviata" with references to everyone from Flannery O'Connor to Carrie Bradshaw. Byrne has taken a more melodic, less rhythmic bent on the new songs, which are propelled primarily by strings, even to the point of including arias from Bizet and Verdi. His intent, seemingly, isn't to garner the respect that other rock stars seek when they go to ultra-violins, but to strike a more languid and sometimes mournful pose at life's absurdities, which here include slaps at right-wing social Darwinism ("Empire") along with musings about bobo and corporate conformity ("Civilization"). The results are mixed. "Grown Backwards" begins with "Glass, Concrete & Stone," the great song of literal and metaphysical immigration from "Dirty Pretty Things," before losing steam with the Lambchop and Bizet covers (the latter featuring Rufus Wainwright). But there is some lovely work on the CD, particularly on songs such as "Pirates," where the imagination sparks everyday events into flights of creative metaphor. And for those who missed his collaboration with X-Press 2, there's a sizzling remix of "Lazy." Shape of things to come? Let's hope so. "Grown Backwards" is an often fascinating addition to the Byrne oeuvre, but it's far from his most exciting work. Byrne performs at the Berklee Performance Center on May 20.