Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings and Food definitive version (Sire Records/Rhino, 3 CDs + Blu-ray, NR, 88:31). Talking Heads’ groundbreaking second album, “More Songs About Buildings and Food,” also is released as a 4LP Super Deluxe Edition. The collection captures a pivotal moment in the band’s evolution and marks the first of three albums produced with Brian Eno.

Both the 3CD + Blu-ray edition and the 4LP Super Deluxe Edition feature the remastered album, plus 11 rarities, including four previously unreleased alternate versions of album tracks. The third disc includes a live recording of the band’s Aug. 10, 1978 show at New York City’s Entermedia Theatre. A copiously-illustrated 60-page hardcover book rounds out the package, with previously unseen photos and new liner notes with recollections from band members bassist Tina Weymouth, singer-guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and keyboardist-guitarist-backing singer Jerry Harrison. The photos, usually huge, are wonderful.

The exclusive 4LP version is only available at Rhino.com and TalkingHeadsOfficial.com and includes reissues of four international 7-inch singles: U.S., U.K. and Japanese versions of “Take Me to the River,” plus “The Good Thing” from the Netherlands.

The album was the band's first collaboration with producer Eno, who would go on to work with the group on their two follow-up albums, including the pivotal “Remain in Light.” “More Songs About Buildings and Food” was released on July 14, 1978. It peaked at No. 29 on Billboard’s Top Albums chart. The album's sole single, a cover of Al Green’s hit, “Take Me to the River,” peaked at No. 26 on the pop singles chart in 1979, pushing the album to gold record status.

The band allowed producer Eno to help shape the final product, mostly in the form of incidental sounds that expanded their sonic palette. It was an expansion of the first album, “Talking Heads: 77,” with more angst and less innocence.

The album’s opener, “Thank You for Sending Me an Angel,” captures the nervousness and awkwardness of their debut, but with an Eno glaze on top. “With Our Love” carries some of their new seriousness, although “The Good Thing” returns to the playfulness of the previous album’s “Psycho Killer” and “Don’t Worry About the Government.” “Warning Sign” is an album highlight, while the fun “The Girls Want to Be with the Girls” is about the differences in the sexes. “Found a Job” gets funked up by its end.

The second side starts with “Artists Only,” referring to the band’s roots, while “I’m Not in Love” has punk energy. The love song “Stay Hungry” follows. Then comes a slowed-down – Eno’s idea – version of Green’s “Take Me to the River” and the closing “The Big Country” overview.

Disc two contains alternate versions of 10 of the album’s songs, with “Stay Hungry” the missing one, replaced by the instrumental “Electricity.” All are worthwhile and deserve multiple hearings, with “I’m Not in Love” quite different and “Artists Only” very good.

The previously-unreleased New York's Entermedia Theatre show on disc three includes 19 songs, with 11 that I consider highlights, starting with “The Book I Read” and continuing through a stretch of “The Girls Want to Be with the Girls,” “Uh-oh, Love Comes to Town,” “With Our Love,” “Love – Building on Fire” and “Don’t Worry About the Government.” Also good are “New Feeling,” “Pulled Up,” with its good bounce and stretched vocals, “Psycho Killer” and the encore songs of “Take Me to the River” and “Found a Job.”

The Blu-ray has hi-res, surround and Atmos mixes of the album, and video footage of six songs from the New York City show, heard on disc three. In addition, there is a complete video of an 11-song, outdoors show at Sproul Plaza in Berkeley, CA, also from 1978. Combined, the two live shows include nine of the 11 album tracks, with five of the six from the NYC show being from the album. Grade: box set A+