Talk Talk (RIP Mark Hollis)

new song sounds like the Guess Who

The only song I ever heard by this band before tonight was, duh, "It's My Life," but I just got high and texted a friend and he said I should listen to Laughing Stock. What's interesting to me right now is that it's almost the opposite of what I thought anything else by this band would sound like - I mean, I'd been hearing it was some kind of masterpiece for a while now but I figured it would sound at least something like their one (US) hit. Also it fucking rules. And I hate the "ahead of its time" cliche, but I'm honestly shocked this record was released in 1991.

hehe, sounds like the perfect introduction to late career Talk Talk

From that Wire item:

He's previously worked under the name once before

Not true: he also used it for his work on James Yorkston's The Year of the Loeopard.

hadn't realised Rustin Man was a person or that he had a past in Talk Talk. I thought they were Beth Gibbons backing band.
Now i need to finally get that even more.

He sounds a lot like Bill Fay on this. Can't decide if I like it or not. It's very earnest.

Reading the Pitchfork review of Spirit of Eden today got me wondering: is there a decent book out there on Talk Talk?

(Spirit of Talk Talk comes up on Google although it seems none of the band were involved with it)

Phil Brown’s book is perhaps the best you’ll get other than Spirit of Talk Talk. Surely a good contender for a 33 1/3 series.

I've only discovered the glory that is Spirit of Eden in the last year. It's frustratingly impossible to find a place to legally download or stream Laughing Stock in Australia right now though.

An absolutely tragic day.

Mark Hollis has passed.

Very sorry to hear the news that #MarkHollis of #TalkTalk has died. He was behind some of the finest albums of the 1980s / early 1990s. R.I.P. pic.twitter.com/IoTuAkGCUf

— THE THE (@thethe) February 25, 2019

There was a rumor or two yesterday but nothing concrete so I held off. But if Matt Johnson's saying it...

oh shit :-(

dammit

:(

shit, RIP

Literally just listened to his solo album for the first time in years last night 😢

fuuuuuuck

No, why? He was still so young. I was always hoping that they reunite one day and make another "Spirit of Eden".

anyone else confirming this yet?

My understanding from a tweet yesterday was cancer, but nothing more specific than that.

Graham Sutton is saying it now as well.

I have just heard the heartbreaking news that #MarkHollis has died. Mark's music has meant everything to me over my lifetime. RIP.

— Graham • Sutton (@GPSutton) February 25, 2019

Agreed on the reunion hopes. Very sad news.

what the fuck, oh no

Fuck, this is horrible.

hope his last 20 years were peaceful tbh

Well this is a horrible shock, Spirit Of Eden was a gateway record for me into jazz, ambient and more (not that it was anything other than sui generis really). RIP to one of the innovators.

Holy shit.

:-(

I'm so sad.

i have never wept for the death of someone i did not know personally. but when i just put on the solo album and listened to the following lines of the first song:

"I've lived a life
For wealth to bring
And yet I'll gaze
At the colour of spring
Immerse in that one moment
Left in love with everything"

there was no way to stop the tears. this is so unbelievably sad. what a loss.

i definitely have not listened enough to that album. i always found it too depressive, too uninviting. but it is absolutely breathtaking, of course.

ugh this sucks, rip

So sad to hear this, RIP

Celebrity death notices tend to leave me cold, no matter how much I appreciate the singer/musician in question, but this time I just can't shrug it off. He made some of the most meaningful and moving music I will ever hear in my life. RIP.

Tim Pope also saying it now. He'd know.

Goodbye to Mark Hollis of Talk Talk. Condolences to his lovely family. We had many, many laughs together. This is us being the nightmare interview from hell https://t.co/xzqfQnN4P6

— Tim Pope🎥 (@timpopedirector) February 25, 2019

Heaven bless you in your calm,
My gentle friend.

wtf? How?

Thanks for some fucking incredible records Mark, I hope you enjoyed a good life on your own terms.

in actual tears here. rest well my friend

Fucking fuck

RIP

westward bound

:(

I had been listening to his music more these past few months than ever before. Something finally clicked and it made much more sense than it did before. Even before, it was obvious that his music had a lot of depth and would endure.

RIP Mark Hollis.

fuckkk

v sad news, laughing stock is one of the best albums ever made

Versed in Christ should strength desert me.

One of my all-time favourite voices, and what a songwriting legacy.

RIP

so few ppl in music are truly sui generis but he was, when i first got the cd reissue of spirit of eden it was all i wanted to listen for a while...really nothing like it

Ah shit. It's easy to fall into an ecstatic register when writing and thinking about music, but it's the right tone for the later Talk Talk and Hollis in particular. For the first time in ages, I find myself softly wishing for an afterlife, in the hope that he might write back and tell us it's not so bad after all.

NOOOOOOO

a guy who truly united almost all (indie) music fans, I think. RIP.

oof