Mark Hollis
1998 - Mark Hollis

O'Rang
1994 - Herd Of Instinct
1996 - Fields and Waves

Heligoland
2000 - Heligoland
2006 - Pitcher, Flask and Foxy Moxie

Originally Posted by OctaneHugo (Post 863994) Looked these guys up on Wikipedia OH GOD THEY LOOK SO GREAT. Not listening to any songs yet but definitely looking forward to this.

Talk Talk
The Party's Over
1982
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/t/t...artys-over.jpg
1. Talk Talk
2. It's So Serious
3. Today
4. The Party's Over
5. Hate
6. Have You Heard the News?
7. Mirror Man
8. Another World
9. Candy

So, here we have it then; the only full-length album the original Brenner-Harris-Hollis-Webb lineup of Talk Talk would release. I mentioned how in my earlier post Mark Hollis and co would start out by trying their best to get under the skin of the music industry with their earliest releases, and this is where that process began - with the making of such a blatant stab at the mainstream music-buying market. As such, using this album as a reference point to the kind of sounds Talk Talk would eventually get around to before splitting up is about as reliable some bloke's guarantee of quality on a bunch of DVDs he flogged off to for a couple of quid you on some street corner in Camden.

The album kicks off with the band's theme-song Talk Talk, which itself was actually released a little while before this album as the band chose to expand that EP's tracklisting into a full-length LP release. On a fairly hit-and-miss album, this is one of the better moments on show. Even if the synth motifs and fretless bassline date it quite a bit, you've simply gotta cast off any preconceptions you might have about the overall dodginess of 80s pop music and just enjoy a hell of a catchy tune. The following It's So Serious is another very good song like that as well, with another memorable chorus and a very pretty little synth sound to it (again, however dated it may seem).

After the fairly decent opening salvo, the album goes down a bit of a mediocre route, starting with another band-wide songwriting effort by the name of Today, which kinda steps over that very fine line there is between being a charming little slice of the old times and just being a plain uninteresting song. The longest track on the album by a bit of a stretch, the Party's Over has a fairly nice ring to its chorus, but otherwise it's more or less the same story for me. The following Hate improves things ever-so slightly with another good chorus and intriguing, tribal drumbeat underpinning the whole thing, but on the whole it's another song that just isn't that good.

Things pick up again in terms of quality as the album works itself towards its climax, beginning with the definite highlight of the entire album Have You Heard the News, boasting another pretty synth motif (which, as you may have noticed, drags this album down as much as it does it a service) and a good, pumping sort of bassline. It's all very New Order when all's said and done. The same could be said of Mirror Man, as it rolls into view on the back of some Human League-reminiscent synths and an interesting melody. Like Another World after it though, it just doesn't really come together as well as Have You Heard the News, despite not being a bad song at all. Candy puts the lid on the album and, again despite a few drawing points, doesn't really stand up very well by itself.

It's a very inconsistent album on the whole then, and hasn't dated well at all. If most of the songwriting was strong enough to work despite this glaring drawback, that wouldn't matter at all. The simple fact is that it isn't though, at least for me. Even as an 80s pop album this isn't really a very good unit of work, but having said that there are a couple of superb songs to be found here. Overall though, I'd only really recommend this for the completist. Also, as a lot of you well know, it's absolutely not indicative of what was to come from this band in future. Anyway, my 2 cents;

5/10

Originally Posted by OctaneHugo (Post 864413) A deaf man could tell these songs were from the 80's.

Originally Posted by jackhammer (Post 864463) Have You Heard The News is worth the first album alone.

Talk Talk
It's My Life
1984
http://www.soundmagazine.it/wp-conte...talk-cover.jpg
1. Dum Dum Girls
2. Such a Shame
3. Renée
4. It's My Life
5. Tomorrow Started
6. The Last Time
7. Call In the Night Boy
8. Does Caroline Know?
9. It's You

With a moderate hit in the shape of Today under their belts, Talk Talk's fairly patchy debut had got their career in the mainstream music industry well and truly on the rails. Although, given how dated the album sounds by you and me's standards, the Party's Over had been as blatant a stab a commercial audience in those days as dying your hair purple and banging on a marimba for an album's worth of songs, there was the odd hint that there was something more to this band and, by the odd hint, I do of course mean the terrific Have You Heard the News - easily one of Talk Talk's best songs and basically the highlight of the album. While It's My Life still isn't any indicator of what was to come next from Talk Talk, it does find the band maturing very nicely as a group of songwriters and is a much more worthwhile album for it.

Part of this maturity can only have had something to do with keyboardist Simon Brenner's being replaced by Tim Friese-Greene shortly after the Party's Over's release, seeing the latter form a songwriting partnership with lead singer Mark Hollis which was absolutely pivotal to Talk Talk's evolution as a band. The Hollis/Friese-Greene partnership doesn't totally dominate this album, but it is nicely represented here and does the band's sound a world of good, as the opener Dum Dum Girls testifies - starting as it does with some neat vocal harmonies and synth before finding its way round to a great little chorus. The instrumental passage in the bridge is the work of a more mature band too, and right from the off we're already given a huge improvement on a lot of the Party's Over.

What follows are two Mark Hollis compositions, starting with Such a Shame, itself the band's first truly noteworthy success on the international singles charts (and a deserved one too, given its weird knack for being both darkly brooding and pretty damn catchy at once). The second of these songs, Renée, again shows off the darker, more pensive vein of Hollis' songwriting which would dominate the band's sound in their twilight years. While the synths underpinning it do sound fairly of their time, it doesn't hinder the level of quality one little bit. Another Hollis/Friese-Greene co-write, It's My Life, is where the album truly hits the heights, boasting just about the best chorus of all time as well as a very sharp bassline to drive it along. Breaking into the top 30 of singles charts pretty much everywhere but the UK (even hitting number 1 in the US), it stands as quite possibly Talk Talk's most well-known song. And the less said about that gobshite No Doubt cover the better.

After such a great opening salvo for the album, things get onto a bit of a downward slope with Tomorrow Started - not a bad song at all, but it pales in comparison to some on this record. Same story with the Last Time really. In fact, it's probably the weakest song on the album, what with how it overuses some of those instantly recognisable 80s-isms we all love to hate. Still, not bad at all, but just not hat great either. Call In the Night Boy, the last Talk Talk song to be co-written by the now-departed Simon Brenner, hasn't dated that well either, but the songwriting is more than strong enough to stop this from hindering the overall quality. Again, very nice keyboard-work from Friese-Greene (great solo in the bridge too).

As the album rolls along to its conclusion, another Hollis/Friese-Greene co-write in the shape of Does Caroline Know comes into view. Very interesting work on the synths from the latter (which help to shape a nicely atmospheric piece), a great bassline from Paul Webb and, more importantly to this whole thing about a band maturing, another pretty cool instrumental bridge. Like It's You after it though, it's a perfectly good song but just doesn't quite touch some of the heights this album's already reached.

Such is basically what prevents me from calling this album anything truly brilliant. While there are some terrific songs on this album and not any bad ones by any stretch of the imagination, it's definitely an uneven level of quality throughout. A massive improvement on the Party's Over and home to one of the very best singles of the 80s but, frankly, it's nothing compared to what was to come next. I'd still recommend it though.

8/10

Talk Talk
The Colour Of Spring
1986
http://dougwallen.com/wp-content/upl.../talk-talk.jpg
1. Happiness Is Easy
2. I Don't Believe In You
3. Life's What You Make It
4. April 5th
5. Living In Another World
6. Give It Up
7. Chameleon Day
8. Time It's Time

Having sold singles and albums by the continent-load since first making thier way into the spotlight, it was when the prospect of a third Talk Talk album became very real indeed that things started to get a bit more serious. In new keyboardist Tim Friese-Greene, singer Mark Hollis had found a musical mind and very talented songwriter who could do his own vision of where he wanted the band to go justice, as you can probably tell by how much darker, moodier and more atmospheric the pair's co-writes on It's My Life were. Underneath the gloss of the synth-pop sound that dominated that album, there were subtle hints that Talk Talk had a very different kind of musical ammunition available to them. When it came to writing the Colour Of Spring, on paper alone you can tell that the band were seeking a new way of expressing themselves, with each of its eight songs being Hollis/Friese-Greene co-writes. When it came to recording it, Friese-Greene himself found himself in the producer's chair, conjuring a new, stripped-down sound which used more session musicians where there might once have been an excessive use of synthesizers. Together, Talk Talk pursued a very colourful sound which had a lot more in common with Scott Walker than Scritti Politti. The result is an absolutely golden album, and the first in a trio of flawless masterpieces.

Happiness Is Easy kicks the album off, and in the opening alone it's clear that we're dealing with a completely different kettle of fish - a robotic drumbeat goes off into jazzy tangents along with the odd burst of piano notes. Just as Hollis starts to sing of how 'it wrecks me how they justify their acts of war', the full scope of the song ahead of us unravels majestically, as the simplistic string arrangements and very typically-Talk Talk bassline ease into the sonic picture. Complete with a sparingly-used children's choir in the chorus and gorgeous trumpet solo in the bridge, this mid-tempo tune is just an absolutely masterful way to open this album up.

It's a song that's as ambitious as it is catchy, much like I Don't Believe In You after it or, indeed, the rest of the album after it. The general vibe of the album is a brooding, disenchanted kind of album that relies heavily on the undercurrent swathes of acoustic guitar, tight rhythms, subtle synths and a warm kinda feel to the piano, which is exactly what this song delivers. The mid-point guitar solo adds another colour to this wonderful song without being at all intrusive, and with a lyric like this...

...it's just as well really.

Life's What You Make It gets off to a hell of an opening, kinda jumping out at you with that infectious piano figure that kicks it into life. Again, it's propelled so efficiently by Hollis' beautiful singing voice, prominent and robotic kinda rhythm and the occasional blast of guitar to spice things up, all the while underpinned by some ghostly organ flourishes and strings. It's also another song that features a great, yet fittingly unintrusive solo, this one from the piano.

If it weren't for Hollis' instantly-recognisable voice, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is a totally different band from the one that recorded It's My Life and the Party's Over, and the following April 5th is no exception in that regard. Another absolutely gorgeous song, although this time much slower than most of its bedfellows, it gets by on a peculiar rhythmic vibe and strange song structure, riding on Hollis' melody and Friese-Greene's sparse contributions on the piano.

Hollis and Friese-Greene are, then, the two men who this album basically belongs to, given the huge influence they both had on which direction this album (and therefore Talk Talk themselves) finds itself going in, that being the formation of a sound which is as ambitious as it is melodic. The big single from the album, the masterful Living In Another World, is the best example of this combination being used to full effect on this album. A livelier and more guitar and synth-heavy than the songs before it, Living In Another World is the perfect melodic vehicle for Hollis' cryptic lyrics, Friese-Greene's production ideas. Plus, that harmonica kicks arse.

Give It Up, while a bit heavier on the organ and piano and postively harmonica-less, is another song in that kinda vein - one that's so melodic and memorable (Talk Talk's older knack for coming up with a great chorus is on show again here), has another great rhythm and is given so much colour by Hollis' lyric;

Again, it's a million miles away from what Talk Talk had made their name for, as is the following Chameleon Day, which itself is a bit of a stylistic standout on this album. With its very, very slow and drastically desolate vibe, what with the gentle touches on the piano and Hollis' varying-in-volume vocal performance, without giving too much away it's easily the best indicator on this album of what would come even after this.

The shortest song on the album then gives way to the longest; Time It's Time. I've probably gone on a bit too long already, so I'll just tell you to check out the video for it below, and that it's another one of Talk Talk's absolute finest.

So there we have it. One of the true classics of the 80s, or even of all time, which shows the creative vision of Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene , the seeds of which were planted on It's My Life, really blossoming and becoming something very profound and unique. Pivotally, the album spared no effort in being as ambitious and endearing as it is, but also maintained a sufficient amount of melody to make enough money to take Talk Talk on their next musical adventure - a very, very different one even to this album. As for this one, it's among my favourites of all time. As a unit, along with the two albums that'd follow it, it's one of the most seamless listening experiences I've ever had.

10/10

Originally Posted by jackhammer (Post 887653) Storming album and great review sir. Anyone who says the UK didn't make quality Pop music with passion, originality and disquieting power should listen but they won't of course!

Originally Posted by jackhammer (Post 947910) Pull your finger out Bully! Next reviews!

Originally Posted by Percy Thrillington (Post 952160) I saw a Talk Talk gig from 86 on Sky Arts 1 recently, they were touring The Colour of Spring at the time of the gig. I only knew the obvious songs by them like Talk Talk and its my life before i watched it, I didnt realize they were such a great live band and i didnt know they had so many great songs. Definately worth a watch, you know what Skys like it'll be repeated a bazillion times before the end of the month.

Originally Posted by jackhammer (Post 947910) Pull your finger out Bully! Next reviews!

Talk Talk
Spirit Of Eden
1988
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...1517352008.jpg
The Rainbow
Eden
Desire
Inheritance
I Believe In You
Wealth

I'll just begin at the beginning so to speak. In a bid to follow up the immense critical and commercial success like 1986's the Colour Of Spring, an artist can go in one of two directions. One of those is to release a treading water album, ie one that doesn't really bring anything particularly new to the party but instead serves up the old tried and trusted sound as a proven success formula. The other option is to use the backing of a record label and the loyalty of a new-found following to go in a completely new direction altogether. Even at face value, the album is worlds apart from anything Hollis, Friese-Greene and co (let alone anyone else) had ever done before, coming as this album did from a very difficult recording process. While often in total darkness, Talk Talk and an army of session musicians recorded hours of improvised material, which would then be heavily edited by Hollis and acting producer Friese-Greene before being re-arranged digitally into six instrumental tracks. To put the lid on the album, Hollis would write six sets of lyrics before overdubbing the vocal tracks. All pretty complex and drawn-out really and, I don't know about you, but I can just picture Hollis and Friese-Greene huddled over a mixing console in a dark recording studio listening to a practically endless barrage of improv and picking out all the bits that sounded like actual songs.

What this results in is a very odd-sounding, moody album and, yes, it does anticipate a lot of post-rock and, unfortunately, a lot of dull knock-offs like Godspeed You Black Emperor. It sounds at once like darkness and despair musicified (if it's not a word, it is now!) and a ray of light, if that makes much sense at all, and it all gets off to a hell of a start with the Rainbow. True, it takes a full two minutes to really get going, but there's such a rich imagery to the layers of guitar feedback, synth loops and ambient noises which really takes me away every time I hear it. Then that guitar cuts through the atmosphere like a knife, some of the most musical guitar feedback I've ever heard forms a layer on top of it and the rhythm just kind of cascades into focus. When Hollis' soothing vocal brings it all together, the package is complete. That package, my friend, is a hell of a tune :D

It's hard to believe that such a unified and layered song could come from such a disjointed birth, as the editing is absolutely seamless, as is the transition to the following Eden. In fact I think it was the Japanese version of this album (I forget exactly) which had this and the songs before and after it listed as one song, which makes a lot of sense when you listen to them in one go. Anyway, this is a similar song to the Rainbow, in that there's a picture painted for you with a nicely drawn-out opening by synth loops, ambient noises and guitar feedback for about a minute before a pulsing heartbeat of of a drum rhythm, complete with some gorgeous swathes of guitar build towards Hollis' vocal over a backing that's almost grandiose in its minimalism. Like the Rainbow before it, it really is very remarkable, slow-rolling stuff. Check out the bizarre tempo change about two and a half minutes in too.

It's kinda like you're being taken on a trip here, with the similarly pensive Desire taking you that little bit further along. We've had plenty of guitar, bass and drums up 'til now, but not so much organ or synth. I'm sure it'll please you to know that this song fixes that, as this deceptively-paced number gets by in its slower passages on the back of Friese-Greene's ghostly organ flourishes before it explodes into a heavy, jazzy freakout between the rhythm section, calms down and then gives the whole thing another go. Thirty seconds of silence brings quite an incredible first half of the album to a strange yet somehow fitting close.

The second half of the album consists of more conventionally-edited (though evidently not structured or composed) songs, starting with Inheritance. Like pretty much the rest of this album, it doesn't really have one instrument that leads the music, not even Hollis' voice. It's the result of a mixture of each instrumental element kinda going off on a path of its own and the sound that the combination provides, this one more of a jazzy number, what with that stuttering groove there is to the bass.

Next up is the one song that the perplexed EMI deemed fit for single release, the gorgeous I Believe In You. Like rest of the album, it starts as a thin and distant selection of noises on the horizon, in this case a reined-in and steady drumbeat with some very abstract notes from the piano and guitar completing the sonic picture before Hollis again gives it all a more obvious identity of its own via his marvelous vocal talent. Without going on too long, I think this might be one of my favourite songs of all time. The only flaw I can think of for it is the fact that its working title was Snow In Berlin - I know it makes no sense next to song's concept, but it has much more of a kinda mysticism to it than I Believe In You. Maybe it's just me.

As for Wealth, it's so minimal in its delivery that it might as well not even be a song at all! Hollis' vocal just comes at you like a voice from the darkness as the gentle tones of the organ and piano, not to mention the occasional, disjointed strum of a guitar or pluck of a bass note light the whole picture up ever so slightly. The final two minutes of the album the whole thing roll right past you and out of view as the organ chimes get more and more distant.

It brings a brilliant album to a fitting close. Slow? Of course it is...mainly anyway. But people who use that as a reason to label this album as boring (don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing a finger at anybody) are simply missing the point, just as they would be by calling this album the pretentious noodlings of a band of credibility vampires. It's all down to taste, but for me the beauty of this album comes from the fact that it just sounds so bizarre and alien to more marketable kinds of music. I just love this album not only because of how image-rich it comes off as (despite being improv-centric and minimalist as it is), but also for the sheer balls Talk Talk must have had as a well-selling pop group to do something like this. The signs were there on the Colour Of Spring, and those signs are followed and explored here. From the moment I first heard the opening three minutes of the Rainbow, I knew how I'd be rating this album. Get it, listen to it, love it and pity those who don't ;)

10/10

Originally Posted by Anteater (Post 965240) You need not wonder about pretentiousness: when you are dealing with musical colossi, one should aspire high in presentation to inspire the reader to acquire said record(s). :p:

Originally Posted by Anteater (Post 965240) On a secondary note, besides Hollis's solo outing, might you consider reviewing Asides Besides as well?

Originally Posted by jackhammer (Post 965318) I am so glad there are a few Talk Talk fans on MB.

Talk Talk
Laughing Stock
1991
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Jts7L87kB_...ghingStock.jpg
1. Myrrhman
2. Ascension Day
3. After the Flood
4. Taphead
5. New Grass
6. Runeii

Picture this - you've started out as, despite a few really, really cool songs, another new wave pop group, and then you've spread your wings using pop music as a perch of sorts to take in elements of classical, jazz, chamber music and ambient music, before you then abandon that core you have in the melody-happy music of pop altogether and form an entirely new kind of musical expression with your new-found influences. Where do you go next? Well, first of all, as I'm sure anyone else would do having stumbled on the gorgeous yet unconventional imagery of an experiment like the music of post-rock, Talk Talk decided it wouldn't exaxctly be a bad idea to try and capture the magic of Spirit Of Eden again, as if to prove to themselves that this breed of post-rock was no accident. Or at least the remnants of Talk Talk did - bassist Paul Webb had ditched the group by this point (hence the lack of much audible bass you'll hear on this album). Plus, you've gotta bear in mind that since the Colour Of Spring (and especially during the recording of Spirit Of Eden), the once democratic, four-way songwriting partnership that was Talk Talk had basically become a moniker for the studio recordings of lead singer and guitarist Mark Hollis, as well as keyboardist and producer Tim Friese-Greene, each played with the assistance of drummer Neil Harris and an army of session musicians. Secondly, it was with this album that Hollis started to exercise even more control over Talk Talk, as even Friese-Greene was pushed out of the limelight here, having any real (at least in the form of a songwriting credit) on one song. The rest of Laughing Stock - initially the first of what was meant to be two new albums for Talk Talk's new label Polydor - was essentially a Mark Hollis solo album.

So, Hollis was probably getting a bit megalomaniacal (try saying that three times fast) in his old age but, having at least helped steer both of Talk Talk's last two studio projects in the majestic directions they had been, can you blame him :p:

Anyway, let's start talking about some tracks here. And, yes, unlike the opening side of Spirit Of Eden, each of these tracks on show are indeed edited as being seperate. It's an album that was cobbled together in the same way as the one that came before it (instrumental tracks cobbled together from hours of instrumental improvisation and then overdubbed with vocals), but one that still sounds that slightest bit unique from it, as the opening Myrrhman shows. At first glance, it doesn't sound an awful lot unlike anything from Spirit Of Eden - similar, slow-burning vibe, awkwardly off-kilter percussive rhythms, layers of instrumental feedback complimenting one another - but if you listen to to both albums back-to-back, it certainly does. For a start, gone are the gentle, long and picturesque intros, at least from this number, as after a few moments of fuzz, Hollis' guitar kicks things into life. As soon as the lead vocal kicks in the colour this little picture in for us, it's basically a guitar-driven number in the main, and a very good one at that.

It's the perfect mood-setter, at least in the main, as it sets up the lo-fi shape that Laughing Stock takes on, and one that's significantly more lo-fi than it's predecessor. As Ascension Day kicks in though, we're given one of the much louder passages on an otherwise pretty quiet and contemplative album, as Harris' pounding drumbeat throws a lot of light on the sonic picture, before Hollis' guitar just jumps out at you from the silence. This sets up, as I said before, a surprisingly loud and punchy moment on an album such as this, as it shows the flipside of the coin regarding this new, guitar-led approach to post-rock very clearly.

That gives way to probably the only track on this album that sounds anything even remotely like an older Talk Talk number - After the Flood. This is basically a huge throwback to not only Spirit Of Eden but elements of the Colour Of Spring too. On the one hand, Friese-Greene's organ plays a huge part in this piece as does Harris' almost metronomic and fierce drumbeat - that is to say that each core band member here gets equal billing so to speak, and that it's no longer just the Mark Hollis Show. Also, buried beneath layers of noise, feedback and dark, introspective lyrics is something that actually resembles a traditional verse-chorus song structure. Basically, I was nuts about this song way back when I first got this album, and I still am now.

Enter side two via Taphead! From the noisy, even bombastic two tracks that came before it, we're thrown right back into lo-fi, Hollis-centric territory, with a very grim number using a loose riff from Hollis as a pulse, before the vocals and organ kinda rise from the ashes of the barrage of noise that came before to give this picture a bit more colour and shape. It's a pretty scary piece of music now that I think of it, and wouldn't go at all badly over one of the nervier, mind**** moments of a horror movie or something. As such, it builds into quite a climax too before it kinda slowly fades out again.

Out of the dark void that Taphead left behind comes New Grass, which sounds a lot brighter than any of its predecessors, and at least with regards to the musical backing it certainly sounds a lot like improvisational jazz - while Harris' drumbeat doesn't actually go many places, that's the kinda vibe I get off of it, and Hollis' disjointed guitar riffs certainly help that notion along. I guess you could call it a more reined-in form of jazz then, or at least a soundalike anyway.

And then there's Runeii, which serves as another lo-fi moment relying almost entirely on the mighty Hollis vocal/guitar combo. To pretentiously resort to metaphor here, if you can picture the album behind this track as being some sort of storm, one that's been through varying levels of intensity, Runeii gives off the image of looking back at the damage under a clear sky. I don't wanna go into too much detail, as that kinda takes the fun out of things. Just listen to it yourself I guess.

So, how about this album as a complete unit then? There really isn't a lot, if anything wrong with it. As a listening experience, it's pretty much seamlessly awesome. Even if a lot of post-rock bores the tits off you like it does with me, this is worth a go. This album made my top 5 albums of all time when I made that thread about a year and a half ago, and I still wouldn't see it budge from there. Truth is though that any three of this, Spirit Of Eden and the Colour Of Spring could take that spot as well. True, Webb's leaving this band leaves a fairly large bass guitar-shaped hole in this album, and it's a lot more lo-fi than its predecessors, but I'd still have this album over so many others any day. The only real drawback is that it was probably too good - soon after releasing this album, Talk Talk finally called it quits, as if the task of following up not only this album but the two that came before it was just too daunting.

Whatever the case, this is the last component of possibly the finest successive trio of albums there's ever been.

10/10

Originally Posted by starrynight (Post 1016285) Colour of Spring bores me too, but their early material could be very good. It's My Life is probably their most acclaimed song.

Originally Posted by starrynight (Post 1016676) Yet the Talk Talk version has that great voice you like. Also the No Doubt version is just another love song, the Talk Talk one as it's video shows (plus the use of animal sounds in the song) embraces environmental themes in addition.