Brian Eno and David Byrne put the empty American dialogue to music

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing. This week, in honor of Independence Day in the United States, our favorite songs with the word “America” in their titles or lyrics.
David Byrne and Brian Eno did not invent sampling with 1981’s My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, but—appropriately for a discussion of America—they approached it like pioneers anyway, with the album becoming sort of the Christopher Columbus of electronic music in terms of legacy and how hotly its importance has been debated. To Byrne and Eno’s credit, unlike Columbus, they didn’t murder anyone in taking sampling for themselves. Furthermore, their collaboration embodies another classically American motto: If they didn’t do it first, then at least they did it best.