I like SoE and LS pretty much equally, albeit for slightly different reasons. Sure there's an ILM threadcwhere I explain why.
― No, YOU'RE a disgusting savage (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 06:56 (fourteen years ago) link
Voted Laughing Stock, despite having heard Spirit of Eden first.
― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 10:10 (fourteen years ago) link
"Spirit Of Eden" is slightly more conventional, thus better. They peaked on their first two albums though.
― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 10:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Heard both of these aged like 7. SoE is one of my 5 or 6 favourite albums of all time, so that one, really. LS is not far behind; while the individual songs are astonishing, the album doesn't quite have the same wondrous momentum.
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 11:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, pretty much agree with that
― The Oort Locker (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 11:42 (fourteen years ago) link
Spirit of Eden without hesitation.
(not just for happy memories of it as a great sexing album.)
― There's Always Been A Dance Element To (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 12:09 (fourteen years ago) link
'Laughing Stock' by a baw hair for me.
I heard 'Spirit' first and while it's a bit more accessible (insofar as music its level of complexity can be considered accessible) 'Laughing Stock' is pretty much the most perfectly produced album I've heard. Structurally it’s magnificently lose and open. I’ll pretty much buy any album going if someone tells me it sounds like ‘Laughing Stock’. It’s a top ten LP for me. Easy.
― AnotherDeadHero, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 12:30 (fourteen years ago) link
insofar as music its level of complexity can be considered accessible
Huh?
― The Oort Locker (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 12:31 (fourteen years ago) link
laughing stock. one of the most beautiful albums i can think of. spirit of eden is also fantastic obviously but with that one i can mostly tell what's going on.
― sonderangerbot, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 12:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Voted for Laughing Stock.
And as it's being discussed...
I first heard Spirit of Eden when I was about 15. It blew me away, completely.
Another 15 years passed before I finally felt the need to go out and buy Laughing Stock. Still not sure exactly why but I think I somehow considered Spirit of Eden "enough", or that dissapointment with Laughing Stock was inevitable. How wrong I was. It's my favourite album ever.
― smn, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 12:51 (fourteen years ago) link
I have the Mark Hollis solo album (promo) somewhere, I remember very little about it.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 12:57 (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.
― AnotherDeadHero, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Voted Spirit of Eden. The way I see it is a kind of gradual attenuation running from SoE through LS to Hollis' solo album, a weakening of spirit in a way as he withdrew from the world (didn't he join a monastery or something after the solo album, or is that some kind of myth)? Spirit of Eden is sonically and lyrically superior.
― anagram, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:07 (fourteen years ago) link
didn't he join a monastery or something after the solo album, or is that some kind of myth
I had a discussion about this last night, and was informed it was apocryphal. I wouldn't call it withdrawing from the world, I'd call it needing to say less to say what he wanted to say.
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:09 (fourteen years ago) link
(LS is still sonically dense in places, such as Taphead, but the density is haunted, oblique and more horrified panic than thronging sonic smorgasbord; it is obviously still beautiful)
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Think that's a myth too. I'm sure I read something online a while back by someone who claimed to be a friend of his son saying that he'd pretty much just given up with music and was living the quiet life. Nothing dramatic.
― AnotherDeadHero, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:13 (fourteen years ago) link
(and the last two tracks are as peaceful and final as music can be; the last of Hollis' panic has been excised in those moments of Gerard Manley Hopkins-esque (in)stress and Talk Talk's resting state can be induced)
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Isn't one of the songs on the solo album 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 13:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Really? Then again, he could be singing anything at some points.
The solo album is fantastic. Remember the first time I listened to it. Think I had some friends around and I'd set the volume a little too low resulting in my thinking that the whole album was pretty much silence.
― AnotherDeadHero, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:20 (fourteen years ago) link
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
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
is it this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIORDxFPccQ
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 06:46 (three years ago) link
nah the band aren't in it... I meant TV show from like the 1950s
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Thursday, 5 November 2020 06:49 (three years ago) link
this one's pretty cool though!
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Thursday, 5 November 2020 06:54 (three years ago) link
god, i always thought it was
spirit...
eden...
didn't realize it was "how long"
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:04 (three years ago) link
xp f hazel actually that video i posted gets a little weird! there's RT footage in the middle!
uh...i don't know, sorry
talk talk rules
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:06 (three years ago) link
i have been a fan for a while, but things kicked up a gear a couple weeks ago
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:07 (three years ago) link
if RT is astroturfing with fan-made talk talk videos the state is getting really deep
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:12 (three years ago) link
just to go along with the thread, though, "after the flood" may be as good.
i love the drums. i have been playing drums a lot, throughout my life. talk talk drums are so fucking good
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:16 (three years ago) link
"new grass" drums especially, too, jfc. very good
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:17 (three years ago) link
and NOT in a technical sense, or an "unusual" sense (different time signatures). i mean, yes to those too, well done talk talk drummer(s?), but first and foremost i just mean their intuitive drive, the heart of it all. a very tasteful drummer, whoever it is. sorry if it's a session drummer, or a bill-berry-esque-legend. i don't really know. but they're great.
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:19 (three years ago) link
make sure you spend some time with the trinity of flawless b-sides... it's getting late in the evening, for what it's worth, and john cope
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:20 (three years ago) link
which ones do you mean?
― @oneposter(✔️) (Karl Malone), Thursday, 5 November 2020 07:22 (three years ago) link
treat me like a dope, i'm made out of soap
just paul harris hittin' things
― imago, Thursday, 5 November 2020 09:35 (three years ago) link
ffs ruined it by merging the bassist and the drummers' names, nightmare
and now a double apostrophe fail. better put some talk talk on to recover
― imago, Thursday, 5 November 2020 09:36 (three years ago) link
talk' talk'
― A Scampo Darkly (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 5 November 2020 09:46 (three years ago) link
Was listening to these just yesterday, 'For What It's Worth' in particular I really love, I think it suggests another direction they could've headed off in at that point.
― Gavin, Leeds, Thursday, 5 November 2020 10:31 (three years ago) link
Those two Colour of Spring b-sides would have been better on the album than April 5th and Chameleon Day, which are two of my least favourite songs they did. I also prefer Pictures of Bernadette to I Don't Believe in You, but that might have made the album more rock-oriented than they would have wanted.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 5 November 2020 15:38 (three 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