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Rating: The Talk Talk are one of the mysteries of the 80s.
A story of a band that, starting from the hell of early 80s pop music, managed, by sacrificing fame and glory, to follow the path of success, but in reverse. From a band of "good" popularity to a seminal group for an entire generation of musicians and a reference point for the ambient/post rock/slo-core scene.
Born in the wake of the synth-based pop wave of the early 80s (Duran Duran and Depeche Mode among the masters), riding the new wave sounds of the period, after some terribly commercial albums (The party is over from '82 and It's my life from '84) and a couple of famous chart hits ("Such a shame" and "It's my life" above all), our five heroes (Hollis, Harris, Feltham, Ditchman, and Greene) decide to embark on a path of purification that will lead them to record two incredible albums (Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock) and, having completed their atonement, disappear into nothingness. (it didn't quite go this way, but saying it like this makes more of an impact!)
Let's go step by step. 1988, Talk Talk releases Spirit of Eden. The work proves to be not only light years away from the easy synth-pop of previous work, but its atmospheres, extended with a jazz aftertaste, seem out of place even for that period, the late 80s.
But it is not this album that I want to talk about.
1991, Laughing Stock. This album moves from where the previous one ended, 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. Despite the clear ties to the previous work, they manage not to repeat themselves, pushing even further in their personal battle against the song form. In fact, everything but songs can be defined for the six tracks that make up this work. From the initial Myrrhman, with Hollis's voice (splendid to me) dragging, trailing over stretched guitar chords, almost a chant extending to infinity, to the more lively Ascension day, with the rhythm section marking a vivaciously melancholic jazz tempo (pardon the oxymoron) as in New Grass.
The whole album is a continuous alternation of melancholic chants, blues ballads, and free-jazz sounds which is impossible not to be fascinated by, or at least it should have been. But, it seems, at that time the media's eyes were probably focused on searching for new pop icons rather than a band capable of anticipating "slo-core" music.
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...
Tracklist Lyrics 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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