i'm an old geezer and remember when the first talking heads album came out. there was a buzz about them for a year or so prior with lots of anticipation, and that first listen to the first album was so great. probably difficult to appreciate them years later when the quirky new wave thing had been done to death, but there simply wasn't anything that sounded remotely like them at the time, particularly since they emerged from the same cbgb punk scene opening for the ramones and that lot. art rock certainly existed before them, but they took in a fresh, weird new direction that later became very familiar, if not tiresome.
i got tired of them after awhile, like some elements of their later dance stuff but the first two albums are still wonderful little oddities.