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After a career built with synthesizers, marked by pop singles meant to be shouted in discos, reverberated drums, and millions of copies sold, Hollis and his companions decided to abandon that sound and venture into more magical, exotic, and intimate places. They did this by releasing two albums that were almost snubbed at the time and divided critics and the public, also putting a strain on the relationship between the band and their record label.
I'm talking about "Spirit of Eden" and "Laughing Stock"... Now, these two albums represent a duo destined to remain in the history of contemporary music, two timeless masterpieces.
With "Spirit of Eden", Talk Talk ventured into unexplored lands, producing avant-garde tracks that spanned from rock to jazz and chamber melodies: the music became more minimal and intimate, nothing to do with the sharp sound waves of their early hits; but if with this album the band had discovered a new way of making music, with "Laughing Stock" Hollis and company took a further evolution: the complete deconstruction of the tracks, which lose the traditional song form and consist of a weave of melodies as unpredictable as they are wonderfully enchanting, chasing each other through the piece as if to hypnotize the fascinated listener who is dragged by the notes to the most hidden places of their subconscious.
It is impossible to describe in words the listening experience obtained by placing such an album in the player: the emotions that overwhelm you are so many and varied, ranging from the apparent calm of the lull after the storm ("Ascension Day"/"After the Flood"), to the restless melancholic and lulling relaxation ("Taphead"), to the point of gliding carried by the wind ("New Grass"). The album is therefore constantly pervaded by a kind of mysterious aura that seems to make it come from another dimension, as if someone we cannot see wants us to feel their sensations on our skin, forcing us to orient and lose ourselves in the landscapes painted by the music.
The thing that surprises me the most about this album is the spirituality of the music that envelops you, managing to evoke images of a living nature that surrounds and hosts you... It's as if, after staying in Eden and admiring the wonders of the world, they began to ascend to the sky, describing what they see and feel in a more ethereal, dreamy, and also more hallucinatory form...
With this album, Talk Talk tells us what music is and what it feels like to listen to it.
"Laughing Stock", along with its companion "Spirit of Eden", will become a milestone that will inspire a multitude of subsequent artists; dedicating a listen to it is obligatory for a true music lover.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Myrrhman (05:32)
Place my chair
at the backroom door
Help me up
I can't wait anymore
Blessed love
The love I've seen
Stair by idle stair
Faith one path
and the second in fear
A half wit am I read
(Instrumental)
And tread dependence
beneath my feet
Step right up
something's happening here
02 Ascension Day (05:59)
Bet I'll be damned
Built the debt
I turned 2's up today
Bet I'll be damned
Gets harder
to sense to sail
Farewell Fare well
Mother numb to & devout to
Reckon luck sees us the same
Weighted my hand
Kill the bet
I'll burn on judgement day
Weighted my hand
Get hard hit to sin to sail
Farewell fare well
Mother numb to & devout to
Double deal
A season wrapt
Too lax to lapse so soon
Reckon luck sees us the same
Bed on my back
Dealt my hell
I've dealt my months of May
Bed on my back
Get parted ascension day
Farewell fare well
Mother numb to & devout to Reckon luck sees us the same
Reckon love deals us the same
03 After the Flood (09:38)
Sang soulless loud
Herding step on flesh
And nothing else
To well
To drown & drown
Sleight of reason
How they come
Cain in number
Alone
The crowd
Spurning step by state
Blame something else
Thirsting
Within without
Sighted
Weeded
How they run
Slain in number
Shake my head
Turn my face to the floor
Dead to respect
To respect to be born
Lest we forget who lay
04 Taphead (07:39)
(Mark Hollis E Hollis)
Hey hey hey
What did I tell you before when I was up
Anxiety was bringing me down
I'm tired of listening to you talking in rhymes
Twisting round to make me think you're straight down the line
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk
talk talk talk
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk talk talk talk
All you do to me is talk talk
If every sign that I see is complete
Then I'm a fool in your game
And all you want to do is tell me your lies
Won't show the other side you're just wasting my time
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk talk talk talk
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk talk talk talk
All you do to me is talk talk
When every choice that I make is yours
Keep telling me what's right and what's wrong
Don't you ever stop to think about me
I'm not that blind to see that you've been cheating on me
And here you laugh at me when I'm up
I see you when you're crying for me when I'm down
I see you when you're laughing at me when I'm up
I see you when you're crying for me
All you do
to me is talk talk
Talk talk talk talk
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk talk talk talk
All you do to me is talk talk
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Other reviews
By Jam
Our Talk Talk feel the end of their atonement near, and the album is there to show us that glimpse of paradise that they must have begun to glimpse.
Don’t make the same mistake as the musical community in that 1991, and give the redeemed Talk Talk a chance to show you what music is heard up there, where mass pop music is just a distant memory...
