Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden V.S. Laughing Stock

Wow, the incredibly thrilling thing about these results is that there are 67 people on here who care about these two records!

Haha right down the goddamn middle or close enough.

Ah, I feel like my 11th hour Laughing Stock listen (and conclusion that I just prefer SoE*) paid off. Unless you wanted a draw all along.

*Heard SoE first, then the Mark Hollis and Colour of Spring, then LS.

wow, that close eh?! I totally agree with Glenn, It is nice to know that this many people are interested in these two brilliant and influential albums. These have recently really informed the music I have been making, and they are two of my al;l time favorite albums.

Ooh, glad I bothered to vote (for SoE).

I voted SoE, but that's a very fair result. I still listen to The Colour of Spring more than either of these two, am a huge fan of their earlier poppier stuff too and as ilxor says upthread, that was really the bridging point.

One of ILM's more successful polls!

Unless it happened and I missed it, it's always surprised me that nobody sampled the hell out of TCoS. So many ace drum breaks and other instrumental runs to be used.

I love the bass playing on the last three Talk Talk records (stunt Danny Thompson on "TCoS" and "SoE" or not). I fondly recall an eye opening evening the first time I turned up "New Grass" loud enough to actually notice the upright pulsing beneath the surface. Who plays bass on that track? Is it that African jazz player?

Unless it happened and I missed it, it's always surprised me that nobody sampled the hell out of TCoS. So many ace drum breaks and other instrumental runs to be used.

yeah i've thought this many times. many of the tracks would work well as a re-edit 12"

i call it a lost balearic classic upthread, cause it's true

Get the Asides Besides comp.

^^^was told this by someone IRL recently

Asides Besides is totally worth owning. Sadly on my copy one track has become scratched and it's fuckin' John Cope #*&$%@&(%^*(&)@*$^*#

Disaster! It's an amazing track. One of the most formless and floating pieces of music I've heard. Also, 'It's Getting Late in the Evening' is, for me, the exact moment, 'Chameleon Day' aside perhaps, where Talk Talk shifted from the band of 'Colour of Spring' to that which created 'Spirit of Eden'

Yeah there are about 6 or 7 tracks on the 2nd disc of Asides Besides which no Talk Talk fan can afford to be without.

am guessing 'the last 5 especially'

I've never really felt much for 'Pictures of Bernadette' to be honest. I find the hook a bit annoying to be honest.

The Bsides for It's My Life are grebt too. But yeah the Colour and Spirit ones are essential.

i forgot to vote. i would have voted for laughing stock.

but, you know, i love them both. but if i go by what i've played the most it would be laughing stock. probably played it at least 150 times. same with colour of spring. spirit of eden probably been played a hundred times.

Bernadette is awesome. Why Is It So Hard? is the secret treasure though.

can anyone say anything about the differences between the original SoE and the 1997 remaster? I see the remaster now and again for about 5 euros and keep wondering whether to get it.

and, does anyone have the Missing Pieces comp? Not essential, but one track is an interesting collage of LS material. Also contains a solo Mark Hollis piano piece.

what are the "Missing Pieces comp" and the "asides besides comp"?

Asides Besides is a 2CD compilation released in 1998ish (alongside the remastered albums) which compiles the band's b-sides and alternative versions of a-sides; i.e. 12" mixes, etc. Well worth getting.

Missing Pieces is a 1CD compilation from circa 1992 that has alternate/demo versions of some LS songs. I d/l'd it many moons ago and wasn't impressed enough to buy a physical copy.

Asides Besides has John Cope on it, though, which you NEED to hear. Also many other fine tunes.

'Missing Pieces' is worth picking up if your obsessed by 'Laughing Stock' I suppose. The outtakes are ever so slightly different from the album. 'Stump' is an interesting enough jam piece. It's probably worth it just for the extended Mark Hollis piano track at the end which is otherwise impossible to find.

I'll happily second the above posts heavy recommendation of 'Asides Bsides'. 'John Cope' is essential later Talk Talk.

Not sure about that remaster. I've never heard the original cd issue but I do have a vinyl copy but that's a different experience altogether. I'd be interested to hear further thoughts on the remaster though. Like whether it's actually as remaster or just a reissue. I did shell out a few years back on a SACD copy of 'Spirit of Eden' but I've never had the chance to hear it on a SACD player yet. One day . . .

i forgot to vote as well. in the past i used to prefer spirit of eden as it seemed to be more like free flowing chamber jazz which i like as a concept. it took me more time to love laughing stock. i think laughing stock's highs are higher (esp. new grass which probably is my favourite all-time song of anyone) whereas spirit seems to flow better. so in the end i think a real tie would have been adequate.

Get the Asides Besides comp.

Echoing this.

xpost: I'm quite sure the 1997 CD is a remaster of SoE (it is listed as such on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spirit-Eden-Remastered-Talk/dp/B000005RS5/ref=pd_bxgy_m_h__img_b)

I too have both albums on vinyl as well as CD, but my SoE vinyl is a rather crackly, beaten 2nd hand copy.

I'lll definitely be picking up Asides... after the love shown for it here.

"It's Getting Late in the Evening" is just absolutely gorgeous. That, "John Cope," and "For What It's Worth" are why you can't live without Asides Besides.

And I wish somebody would publish a giant coffee table book with all the illustrations from Talk Talk's albums and singles.

Didn't vote, either. I would probably have voted LS, but you know, it's like trying to quantify the difference between heaven and paradise, really.

Spirit of Eden Vinyl Reissue from EMI coming early April with 24bit WAV files on Bonus DVD.

Gentlemen.....stop your ebaying......

I picked up a sealed copy of that a couple months ago for dirt cheap.

I bought Spirit of Eden reissued on vinyl in December? They tacked John Cope on the end of side 2.

ooh, they're doing colour of spring, too!

John Cope is a great track but I have problems with including it on the vinyl version of SoE. Not only does it mess with the song cycle (and there's no choice to drop it with a custom playlist), but conceivably the grooves would be made tighter to accommodate the extra track.

I assume that the digital files that accompany this new version will be 24bit/96khz? Wondering how these will compare with the SACD version from 2006.

the john cope version is a BOOTLEG dawgs

The way to do it is a bonus 7" with John Cope b/w It's Getting Late In The Evening

"Spirit of Eden Vinyl Reissue from EMI coming early April with 24bit WAV files on Bonus DVD"

well fuck it might be time to stick my sacds on ebay then

I would have probably voted for 'Spirit Of Eden' in this, but for me this is definitely a bit of a tough one to call.

I was listening to these albums again for the first time in a while recently. I still rate them both about equally, but would give LS the slight edge because of "New Grass". The last ninety seconds of that song is the most profoundly moving passage of music I've ever heard, although even saying that is to banalise it, without wishing to be too lofty. :)

I may have mentioned it somewhere upthread, but I'd heard that song so many times before I ever really even noticed the bass line. It was one of the closest things I've ever had to a true musical epiphany. Now I turn it way up and get lost in the low end.

Something I wrote about that song in my blog a couple of years ago:

Talk Talk - New Grass
This is the song I'd play to someone just about to kill himself. No. Maybe that should say that's the song I would play to myself if I was about to leave this world on my own. The beauty of this song transcends the appeal death could have for someone who has lost all hope. It is the warmest, most caressing, most soothing song on Laughing Stock. It's a holy song, the lyrics use Christian terminology: sacrament, Christ, heaven, vow. Mark Hollis is English, if he had been from India he would sing about Vishnu or Krishna, the words and names don't matter. It's all about the music. What reaches our brain via the ears directly without the interference of the ratio. Call it truth, love or anything. I think I would call it trust.

both equally overrated

I first listened to Spirit of Eden at a time of crisis in my life. It was the year I graduated college and my first love/first relationship ended. I was at rock bottom. Spirit of Eden was the most deeply moving and spiritually cathartic album I had ever heard.

Around the same time, I had also listened to similar albums such as Hex (Bark Psychosis) which became one of my favorite albums and is, for me, perfect late-night listening and the quintessential winter album. At this time, I listened to Laughing Stock, as well, and, although its instrumental complexities were entrancing, it simply did not speak to my emotions the way Spirit of Eden did.

Spirit of Eden is still the album I go to when I'm at my lowest and searching for my path.

It's one of my Desert Island albums, alongside
A Storm in Heaven (The Verve)
No Other (Gene Clark)
Lazer Guided Melodies (Spiritualized)

is "I Believe in You" the greatest song of ALL TIME?

...spirit...

it is yes

confirmed, thank you

love this lip-synced nod-along

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16mDl6dlfmE