Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 17:12:44 GMT
TALK TALK
To most people, if they've heard of them at all, Talk Talk are often thought of as part of the New Romantic scene. I find that quite irritating as nothing could be further from the truth! True, in the early days, they apparently supported Duran Duran on a tour, but Talk Talk had a vision and an ambition that went far beyond Roland drum machines, bleached hair and eye-liner.
Talk Talk formed in 1981 and were originally a four-piece. The band consisted of Mark Hollis (vocals/writing), Paul Webb (bass), Lee Harris (drums) and Simon Brenner (keyboards). Simon Brenner left the band after their first album “The Party’s Over” and was never replaced. Tim Friese-Greene, who helped to produce their second album, pretty much became an unofficial member, playing keyboards and sharing song-writing duties with Hollis. The artist James Marsh was an early fan and created clever, beautiful, original works for all their album and single covers.
Talk Talk are one of my very favourite bands and are quite unusual in that they started out as one thing, went on a ten year musical journey, and ended up as a completely different band. Going from straight ahead pop, they finished as experimental, sonic architects. With each album, you can hear the music changing, becoming simpler, sparser, while drawing on various elements of classical, jazz, and electronic. Along the way, they made some of the best music you will ever hear.
The Party’s Over - 1982
Their first album “The Party’s Over” included the track ‘Talk Talk’ and serves as good as any other to show where they started from. Even here though, we have something just a bit more ambitious than the usual fare at the time, with gorgeous fretless bass, clever drum fills and a lovely piano solo break in the middle. This is the same year that Renee and Renato had a number one with “Save your love for Me”!
It’s My Life - 1984
The band are really working well now and Hollis’s songwriting is becoming more mature and again there are signs of a band changing. The track Renee starts slowly with just a synth drum and some keyboards, adding fretless bass and then finally vocals. The pace stays slow and measured and he’s not afraid to give the song some space with just 3 or 4 instruments playing at any one time.
The Colour of Spring - 1986
First track on the album ‘Happiness is Easy’ is a statement of intent. It opens with a simple drum rhythm, before the fretless bass comes in with a lovely run. The music is becoming much more serious and considered with lovely little touches all over. A group of children singing slightly out of key is a sweet touch and there are lovely little licks from an acoustic guitar. Hollis’s vocals are superb, Webb’s fretless is brilliant, and songwriting has gone up another notch. ‘Chameleon Day’ and ‘April 5th’ showed that the band were becoming more confident and assured of the direction they were going in. They were pointers to what the next album would sound like, especially Chameleon Day, which could pass for an out-take from Spirit of Eden.
Spirit of Eden – 1988
Simple, sparse arrangements. Only six tracks, the shortest of which is 5 minutes 24 seconds long. The album opens with ‘The Rainbow’ a nine minute masterpiece, and continues in the same vein for the next 32 minutes. It was made up from hundreds of hours of improvised studio jams and edited down and arranged into songs. Just to give you some context, this was in the same year that Kylie Minogue had the bestselling album of the year. Apparently EMI were furious that there were no singles on it and asked the band to re-write the album. They of course refused.
Laughing Stock – 1991
After the dispute with EMI, Talk Talk left and went to Verve. Unfortunately, Paul Webb, the bass player left as well. Listening to Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, I can understand why he left. The ‘songs’ have become so sparse that there is not much call for bass, fretless or otherwise. There are some bass lines but not enough to satisfy a player of Webb’s style or ability. Although I like this album, I prefer Spirit of Eden. This one is just too ethereal. Some of the melodies are barely there if you know what I mean. They are almost soundscapes with the occasional vocal added. However, in the right mood, this album is perfect.
Talk Talk broke up after the release of Laughing Stock, supposedly because Hollis was fed up with the music business and wanted to spend time with his young family. He did make a solo album in 1998 called simply Mark Hollis, but has not released anything since. The solo album simply took up where Laughing Stock left off, in fact I think it is even sparser, with more silences and pauses.
I have been listening to Talk Talk since the very beginning and love every album in varying degrees. They were a band who had true artistic credibility and refused to compromise just so the label could sell some singles. The albums have been created with care and attention to detail. Every Talk Talk album deserves your fullest attention, but the last three albums especially, are not something that you put on in the background. They are lights out, headphones on albums. Only then can you truly appreciate them. They have influenced too many artists to mention, and as far as I am concerned, every music lover should have at least one Talk Talk album in their collection.
Talk Talk made only 5 albums, three of which (The Party’s Over, It’s My Life and Laughing Stock) are merely brilliant, whereas the other two (The Colour of Spring and Spirit of Eden) are timeless classics. Not a bad record for any band.