Spirit of Eden is flawless. Thus, it wins.
― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:34 (fourteen years ago) link
Westward Bound
Opaline through her hairBorn on an April tideGlowing in the wonder of our first childThere my promise is
A spurA rein
The world upon my backThe pressure upon this earth
Drought's heir
Sown my moneySold my shirtSown my money
MigrateJob on the threshing lineMute I walkIdle groundWestward bound
Very clearly, I think you'll agree, about moving back to London so his kids can go to the cinema more easily.
― No, YOU'RE a disgusting savage (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 14:38 (fourteen years ago) link
SoE is more... easily listened to. But LS is more harrowing. Not that SoE is an easy listen or unharrowing, but... LS feels more painfully profound.
― No, YOU'RE a disgusting savage (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 14:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Spirit of Eden
Geir otm re: early Talk Talk albums
― akon/family (Curt1s Stephens), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 14:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Huh -- turns out there's an official Facebook page for Talk Talk and Hollis:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Talk-Talk-Mark-Hollis/12307963901
And they're apparently taking questions for James Marsh, the guy who did all the album/single artwork.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 14:46 (fourteen years ago) link
I mean that while 'Spirit of Eden' is musically complex (i.e long song structures, an emphasis on sound texture and timbre etc) it's still something that I've found is quite accessible to people. I must've bought a dozen copies for friends, many of whom are mostly into easy to understand popular stuff, and everyone has enjoyed it.
A lot of popular music is complex
― The Oort Locker (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 14:50 (fourteen years ago) link
Or a lot of accessible music is complex, however you wanna phrase it
― The Oort Locker (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 14:51 (fourteen years ago) link
laughing stock because new grass is meandering perfection.
― zingzing, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 14:58 (fourteen years ago) link
I recently listened to the first 3 TT albums on repeat for an evening and it was LOVELY
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 14:59 (fourteen years ago) link
i always get these two mixed up but one of them has a song with a really prominent cowbell or something that mars it, so the other one.
― DJ Get Up Kids (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:01 (fourteen years ago) link
if you are talking about 'after the flood' then i don't even
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:02 (fourteen years ago) link
i am not talking about after the flood.
― DJ Get Up Kids (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:03 (fourteen years ago) link
because i just put that on and it's one of my favourite tracks off either album.
― DJ Get Up Kids (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:04 (fourteen years ago) link
oh it might be 'i believe in you'
yeah 'after the flood' is a tremendous achievement, and maybe even the best song called 'after the flood' (VdGG's one is fucking spectacular too)
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:06 (fourteen years ago) link
this is totally "Desire"
― akon/family (Curt1s Stephens), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:21 (fourteen years ago) link
which rules
Both of these are the best record ever made. One of them I can actually play when other people are around (and often), the other I can only hear alone and every few years, but I think about its 'forms' and 'feel' every single day.
― Chatbot LeFonque (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:26 (fourteen years ago) link
I didn't want to say "Desire" because that's possibly one of my 10 favourite songs ever written, and definitely my top TT track.
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:27 (fourteen years ago) link
I listen to these a lot less than people would probabaly imagine. And I still get accused of talking about them too much even though I don't. I listen to John Cope a LOT, though.
I think the Rainbow triptych at the start of SoE wears me out so much so that I lose attention after I Believe In You.
― No, YOU'RE a disgusting savage (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:28 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah it was desire!
sorry guys. I can't get past the cowbell.
― DJ Get Up Kids (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:28 (fourteen years ago) link
LS i think. hard decision.
― shite new answers (cutty), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:29 (fourteen years ago) link
the cowbell is awesome!
Nick, that means you lose attention for one track, and that track is BEAUTY ITSELF set to tape with the greatest fadeout in the history of fadeouts
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:32 (fourteen years ago) link
also the verse of Desire has my favourite chord-sequence
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:33 (fourteen years ago) link
My first hundred listens of Spirit were on cassette so I didn't have that fatigue problem. Basically treated it as two EPs.
― Chatbot LeFonque (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:42 (fourteen years ago) link
Likewise I'm so worn out by the start of New Grass that I float through that track (my favourite) and have pretty much no idea what happens afterwards. Luckily Runei is conducive to this.
― No, YOU'RE a disgusting savage (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Have any of you dudes heard Laughing Stock the song, by Love?
Laughing Stock the song, by Grandaddy, is good
Nick ffs Runeii is fucking astonishing and as I keep saying its air of finality is absolute - it's one of the most certain pieces of music I've heard
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:49 (fourteen years ago) link
But it's so uncertain! So hesitant, and tempting.
― No, YOU'RE a disgusting savage (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:50 (fourteen years ago) link
it repeats the very, very simple and beautiful structure it has, and redoubles the final piano motif - doesn't get more comprehensive than that - zen-like iirc
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:51 (fourteen years ago) link
there is literally nothing left to say - not many bands have even approached this point let alone reached it
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Voted Laughing Stock. It's the one I heard first.
^
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:57 (fourteen years ago) link
I’ll pretty much buy any album going if someone tells me it sounds like ‘Laughing Stock’.
― AnotherDeadHero, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 12:30 (3 hours ago) Bookmark
Can you give some examples of these?
― bham, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 16:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Spirit of Eden?
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 16:19 (fourteen years ago) link
bark psychosis amirite
also hood - rustic houses, forlorn valleys and the occasional catherine wheel song
neither are that close, though. nobody's close.
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 16:20 (fourteen years ago) link
Autistic Daughters - Jealousy and Diamond
― Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Farting in Space (NickB), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 16:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Voted for Spirit of Eden, but Runeii is one of the most perfect things ever.
― Marco Damiani, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 16:43 (fourteen years ago) link
My SoE/LS songs poll from a couple years back: The Spirit of Eden/Laughing Stock Individual Songs Poll
Also, a previous SoE vs. LS poll: Talk Talk: 'Spirit of Eden' vs. 'Laughing Stock'
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 16:52 (fourteen years ago) link
I voted for Laughing Stock but they are both in my top 30 albums of all time.
For me Talk Talk are one of the few artists I can think of that got better with each album.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 18:26 (fourteen years ago) link
not enough love for "the colour of spring"
― shite new answers (cutty), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:13 (fourteen years ago) link
i prefer Laughing Stock but just barely.
― akm, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:19 (fourteen years ago) link
This is my personal fav. Talk Talk album.
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Splits the difference between '80s new-wave/synth pop and eventually stripping the medium to its essential elements. ;-)
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:34 (fourteen years ago) link
oh, you mean post rock?
― shite new answers (cutty), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:48 (fourteen years ago) link
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(...yes?)
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 22:01 (fourteen years ago) link
you're wrong anyway. "the colour of spring" is a lost balearic classic. ;)
― shite new answers (cutty), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 22:03 (fourteen years ago) link
I got both of these at the same time & they sort of bleed into one monumental mega-album for me, so this is pretty much a coin toss.
These will always be their canonical albums, but it is worth mentioning that, as "transitional" albums go, The Colour of Spring is one of the best.
― Man or Austro-Hungarian? (Pillbox), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 22:08 (fourteen years ago) link
lol xp
listened to these back to back today and it's laughing stock by a good distance for me i'm surprised to say.
― DJ Get Up Kids (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 22:43 (fourteen years ago) link
really love the drumming on both of these records. fantastic stuff.
― shite new answers (cutty), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 22:46 (fourteen years ago) link
April 5th and Chameleon Day, which are two of my least favourite songs they did.
interestingly, these are the two songs harris doesn't play on!
i will definitely be checking out the b-sides today, but holding off until night time is the right time
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 16:18 (three years ago) link
i immediately abandoned my plan and listened via youtube. :)
they sound really great, thanks for the recommendation. i do find it hard to approach later-era talk talk songs in isolation, though. even the songs i absolutely adore from laughing stock and spirit of eden, i need to the rest of the album to lead me up to them.
ugh, the outro on "it's getting late in the evening" is excellent. i may just start integrating this into my Colour of Spring playlist
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 16:39 (three years ago) link
You know, I've never really thought about it before, because the music itself is more than enough to think about, but the title "Spirit of Eden" possesses a pretty profound double meaning. On the one hand, there's the notion of capturing the pastoral innocence of paradise/Eden. On the other is the idea that we are all ghosts, spirits, haunting what used to be Eden.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 5 November 2020 17:11 (three years ago) link
or that the idea of eden haunts us, too
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 17:21 (three years ago) link
Yeah, all that good stuff.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 5 November 2020 17:22 (three years ago) link
for me, though, it's all about the way he says "spirit..." in I Believe In You. he doesn't actually say "eden" afterward (for a long time i thought he did), but it hangs in the air along with "spirit" because of the album title. and there's something so sad in that word, sung in that way, alone. "...spirit..."
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 17:23 (three years ago) link
the idea that we are all ghosts, spirits, haunting what used to be Eden.
This has always been our interpretation of it.
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Thursday, 5 November 2020 17:42 (three years ago) link
wtf april 5th and chameleon day are both incredible
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 5 November 2020 18:06 (three years ago) link
or in the spirit of eden, where mankind fell from grace as I read it
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Thursday, 5 November 2020 18:07 (three years ago) link
April 5th and Chameleon Day sound to me like they are reaching for the Spirit of Eden sound without getting it yet. The former has an irritating programmed percussion part and the latter has a weird quasi-wind-quartet intro and outro that they would soon replace with acoustic instruments.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 5 November 2020 18:16 (three years ago) link
like they are reaching for the Spirit of Eden sound without getting it yet
this for me is 100 percent the appeal of colour of spring but one's mileage varies i guess
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 5 November 2020 18:23 (three years ago) link
no album with 'life's what you make it' on it can ever be anything less than a great album imo
― imago, Thursday, 5 November 2020 18:24 (three years ago) link
I love the transitional quality of April 5th and Chammelon Day - the band finding all that breath and space and not feeling the need to fill it.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 5 November 2020 20:41 (three years ago) link
The results of this poll will never stop amusing me. I actually voted for LS but I changed my mind last night to SoE and will change it again. I actually think MH is my not-polled answer though. Well, it was last night when I listened to all three. It changes all the time.
― Gerneten-flüken cake (jed_), Monday, 9 November 2020 01:54 (three years ago) link
Both are perfect, Laughing Stock a wee bit more so.
― pomenitul, Monday, 9 November 2020 01:56 (three years ago) link
the organ tone on laughing stock is one of music’s finest sounds
― la table sur la table (voodoo chili), Monday, 9 November 2020 02:30 (three years ago) link
I bought these two records and Mark Hollis right when they came out, and I agree that the solo album is the best of the three. Even details like the room tone at the opening and closing are perfectly timed. The album is an unexpected mixture of warmth and austerity; I credit it with helping me though the depressive year when it was issued.
When you listen to records as many times as I have heard these, you have to be honest with yourself about what you feel is not working. I've always found Taphead and Runeii on Laughing Stock a little arid. In a way, the progression didn't become clear to me until 1998.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 9 November 2020 03:02 (three years ago) link
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 5 November 2020 18:16 (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink
wtf the programmed percussion on "April 5th" is brilliant
― Tim F, Monday, 9 November 2020 04:29 (three years ago) link
about 2 minutes into "The Rainbow", at the start of "Spirt of Eden" - what is that scribbling noise? is it a pen or pencil scribbling? to me it sounds like someone just scratching over something
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 7 September 2021 01:05 (two years ago) link
Apparently it's Hugh Davies playing the "shozyg", an electronic instrument of his own making.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 7 September 2021 01:14 (two years ago) link
i see.
i also love how on this most holy albums of subtlety, the big drums on "Desire" include a big, conkin' cowbell. CONK CONK CONK CONK!
lol
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 7 September 2021 01:22 (two years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/fAuFMhp.png
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 7 September 2021 01:54 (two years ago) link
true google pros know to use only 3 sets of quotation marks
"let the " algorithm "handle the rest
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 7 September 2021 01:55 (two years ago) link