By Jacqueline Hlavenka

Call it part post-Bush Era malaise, part unbridled optimism; David Byrne and Brian Eno’s “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” unfolds as the loveliest paradox in recent rock history.

Following the success of the 2006 re-mastering of 1981’s”My Life in the Bush of Ghosts,” ex-Talking Heads frontman Byrne and producer Eno proved art-punk is just as relevant today as it was in the late 1970s.

During what began as a dinner conversation, Eno mentioned to Byrne he was accumulating a lot of music over the years, none of which had been formed into song. Both decided to re-unite and experiment with new sounds. If the sessions turned out to be a success, they would release a new album; if not, the pair would chalk up their losses and ca ll it a day.

With Eno working the instrumentals and Byrne writing the lyrics and vocals, the pair quickly returned to making the type of rich, electronic arrangements that made the Talking Heads so distinct.

“There’s nothing to hide when the world was just beginning,” Byrne declares on “Home,” expressing a lost identity and a desire for a place to belong. They dance with the hope of new possibilities on the breezy, dream-like “The Big Nurse.”

The heavy bass and drums on “I Feel My Stuff” could be something straight off the Talking Heads’ 1977s “More Songs About Buildings and Food.” That same menacing restless spirit can be found on “The River,” where floodwaters wash away the broken landscape and leave nothing behind except the singer’s desire for re-birth, re-building and change.

The most stunning moment of the album lies within its title track, “Everything That Happens,” mixing electronica and gospel all in one. When Byrne gently croons, “I saw my neighbor’s car explode/just up ahead/against the sky”; the listener can visualize how fast, fleeting and delicate life can be.

“Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” is more than a record; it is hope amid chaos; comfort within disaster. “She welcomes you with dark embrace,” Byrne says, as we trudge forward into a cryptic but beautiful future.