David Byrne expands Who Is The Sky? with four bonus tracks

David Byrne has put out a deluxe edition of Who Is The Sky?, the album he released last year through Matador. The expanded digital version tacks on four tracks to a record made with Kid Harpoon, best known for his work with Harry Styles, and featuring guest turns from Hayley Williams and St. Vincent.

One of the additions is "T Shirt," a song Byrne folded into his live set shortly after the album arrived. The deluxe also includes "My Madness" and "What And Where," both recorded during the original sessions but left off the final sequence. Rounding things out is a reworked "What Is The Reason For It?": once a duet with Hayley Williams, it now features co-writer Natalia Lafourcade alongside Mexican Institute Of Sound.

In a press statement, Byrne talked about how vinyl culture treats an album as a fixed object with a set running order, while streaming and downloads upended that idea, allowing records to grow or shrink over time. He said the two unreleased tracks were held back not for lack of quality but to keep the original album varied in grooves and subject matter. He singled out "My Madness" as a personal favorite, describing a narrator who treats their madness as a separate being and eventually reaches a truce with it.

Who Is The Sky? was Byrne's first album in seven years and his debut for Matador. Since it came out, he has stayed busy with an elaborate stage production, covered Olivia Rodrigo and written a song built entirely from Elon Musk quotes. His year-long tour has two dates left: September 17 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center and September 19 at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens.