This is what I love too. Itās like their music descended perfectly into silence.
Thatās an easy 5 isnāt it.
This is the big one for me. Not really sure how to express what their music means to me, but here we go. Probably a massive rambling load of overly-earnest nonsense incomingā¦
I remember seeing Lifeās What You Make It on regular rotation on MTV2 as a teenager. This slightly strange video of a bunch of guys in a strangely lit forest surrounded by insects and the occasional fox sniffing around. The song rooted in this cycling piano riff. I couldnāt really work out whether it was a recent thing or old. Even then it seemed weirdly out of time and out of step with most of what was played on the channel. I downloaded that track and it became a staple of mixtapes for several years, but for some reason I now canāt explain I never explored much further.
Then a number of years back I started reading about how theyād had this really strange career arc. From new romantic pop into almost jazz-like abstraction, and how they were considered the progenitors of post-rock. I wasnāt really buying it, but I figured Iād give it a go. I downloaded both Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock to my mp3 player and went out for a walk in Burgess Park and itās not overselling it to say my understanding of and taste in music changed.
There was something in the way that those two albums used silence and space that I hadnāt really heard or considered before. Itās as much of a part of the music and the composition as any of the other instruments and is used so effectively and powerfully that it has an almost physical presence. The song structures also completely follow their own internal logic. For the most part itās not about verses and choruses any longer, but instead an elemental flow that runs its own course like a river carving its way through stone.
And then there was Mark Hollisā voice. Half the time I could barely understand the words he was singing because the strange inflections, and the way it would leap between practically mumbling down into his chest to belting it out full force at the top of his lungs without any sense of what a singer āshouldā do. But thereās something in it. A vulnerable, wounded tone that just broke me open, and still does.
I went back through the other albums after that, and was delighted to find that The Colour of Spring was just as fantastic as Lifeās What You Make It had implied. A strange mix of new romantic pop and the more esoteric approach theyād take later. The first two albums are lesser than their later stuff IMO, but still contain some belters (Itās My Life being the obvious choice).
Mark Hollisā self-titled solo record is incredible as well, and makes it four 10/10 records in a row for me. I believe it was intended to be another Talk Talk record, but the circumstances around it changed and led it to being a āsoloā effort (quotation marks there because thereās still about 18 musicians on it!). Itās such an intimate record that you feel like youāre in the room with them. Creaking chairs, quiet shuffling. More of that physical silence, and Hollisā unique voice and approach to songwriting. More jazz/neo-classical than anything remotely approaching the pop he started with.
Then, finally, after all that he just quietly retires/disappears from music. Itās like his/their music gently melted away into nothing like snow in the early spring sun, which feels just perfect.
Years later and nothing Iāve ever heard has displaced those records as my favourite albums. Theyāre now intertwined with the changing of the seasons, with my feet brushing through stacks of autumn leaves, with nursing a whisky and listening after everyone else has gone to bed and the house is still, and now with the birth of my son last year.
So yeah, for me, 5/5 and greatest band of all time.
Suspect they will do well. More laterā¦
Going to need to give them a listen today as I only know the two āLifeā singles which are good.
I am surprised how little Iāve heard about them given how revered they seem to be - donāt think Iāve ever heard anyone talk about them in real life but those two songs are radio staples. Were they big?
Having only heard Itās My Life and Lifeās What You Make It, I had no idea they were so revered. Had them down as ABC/Spandau Ballet type . Any song recommendations?
If youāve genuinely only heard Itās My Life please, please, please listen to Laughing Stock. Itās as much influenced by Miles Davis as anything else.
Do it for me Kallgeese - McGarnagle.
Canāt crack a ballad like Celine/5
Great but have slightly cooled on them over the years. Think id be most likely to whack on the colour of spring nowadays. 4/5
I believe in you, April 5th, Laughing Stock
Have given them a few listens over the years but it has never clicked. Abstain though as I canāt recall what they even sound like and I do still want to give them another proper listen.
Gave the first two a listenā¦ Not for me Iām afraid
Five.
Big, big five, just a wholly wonderful world they created. I actually donāt listen to them that much, but itās because I sort of save it up for when I really want to (and when I can handle it, the last three records are all so intense for me that I have to be in the right frame of mind). If I was stuck on a desert island and I could only have one record I would be quite content with any of Colour of Spring, Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock as my soundtrack forever.
definitely a 5. i think Laughing Stock could be called one of my favourite post rock, ambient or even jazz albums. so so good
The fiviest five that ever fived.
Iāve given them a go a few times over the past year or two. Keep thinking iām missing something, but nothing really holds my attention. The early poppier single donāt do much for me either, the kind of eighties pop that annoys more than intrigues.
5/5
The first couple of albums are their weakest but there are moments of greatness in them. But after that they produced some of the greatest music of the past 35 years.