Talk Talk (RIP Mark Hollis)

Who said anything about getting the best out of it? Obviously to get the "best" out of it you have to listen to it, you just basically said "why bother putting it on as background, might as well listen to something else." To which I say, well, that holds true for any piece of music. I have yet to hear more or less anything that doesn't benefit from a close, careful listen. That doesn't mean you can't listen to it without donning headphones and surgical gloves.

I actually think "The Colour of Spring" works least as background, since it's the most conventionally song-based/sounding/recorded. But yeah, I do agree it is also hurt least by being background.

(Tbf, whenever I've listened to something like, say, "Laughing Stock" in the background, I usually forget it's on, and then when I notice I missed the whole thing I go back and start the album over again.)

I associate late period Talk Talk with my older brother, and specifically Not Getting It. I first heard Spirit of Eden one evening at his house in Chester, when he was out, played quietly on vinyl - something like Dec 1988. Even in that year of discovering things like Sylvian solo, Daydream Nation, AR Kane, Miss America, Cocteaus... it made no sense to me. Seemed formless and awkward. Fast forward 2.5 years and my brother is driving me and all my stuff back to Merseyside at the end of my (semi-disastrous) postgrad year in the East Midlands. By now I love Spirit. A college friend has taped a CD of Laughing Stock for me (I think Yrself Is Steam was on the other side). We listen to it in the car. Over the roar of A-road tarmac, it's barely audible and, again, seems to have nothing to hold on to. I can recall After The Flood's feedback solo fizzing through somewhere near Uttoxeter. Uncomfortable fidgeting in the driver's seat. I think Runeii is some kind of pinnacle of something. Or maybe it's the only example of that something.

great post, Michael. for someone not getting it, you remember quite a lot of detail of listening to "laughing stock" in the car. i think listening to late talk talk in the car is like mutilating a mona lisa or something.

I should say that I *now* think that about Runeii... I'm sure it barely made an impression as we merged onto the M6 that Monday morning in Oct '91 ;)

Who said anything about getting the best out of it? Obviously to get the "best" out of it you have to listen to it, you just basically said "why bother putting it on as background, might as well listen to something else." To which I say, well, that holds true for any piece of music.

Mmhm...

Tbf, whenever I've listened to something like, say, "Laughing Stock" in the background, I usually forget it's on.

Well, yeah.

The Colour of Spring works best as a "background" album precisely because of it's more conventional nature. It's an easy album to latch onto without having to pay as much attention to it.

Like hotel California

banger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noy2vThCkOI

uh oh there's a talk talk tribute act on the loose:

https://www.komedia.co.uk/brighton/music/talk-talk-tribute-laughing-stock/

Just had the 'big three' on one after the other. Loud. Perfect music for the big thaw. Solo album next.

I can't decide if Hollis' silence is an absence or a gift: he'd clearly accessed some interior/anterior sacred space (I don't know if I even mean sacred- the word is terrifying and way too loaded. Maybe I mean numinous.) and it's not knowing whether to interpret the silence as positive or negative. Or at all.

spirit of eden a gray day driving to work made me cry today

good crosspost for unexpected emotion thread I guess

I think the chance of laughing stock making me cry must be a million times higher. Spirit of eden is more universal and less emotional in comparison, i find.

i don't listen to these records enough, every time i do i am floored tbh

You are right. You shouldn't. Do not kill them by over-exposure!

Where the fuck is Mark Hollis. Did he write music used in a commercial or something? Is he living off royalties on these Talk Talk albums? I want him back. I want his solo LP properly reissued. Satisfy my personal needs, Mark. Please.

colour of spring is the likeliest to make me cry, SoE and LS put me into a state of terrible epiphany where chills are more likely than tears

mark is done, i trust he is happy

Where the fuck is Mark Hollis. Did he write music used in a commercial or something? Is he living off royalties on these Talk Talk albums? I want him back. I want his solo LP properly reissued. Satisfy my personal needs, Mark. Please.

Article from a couple of months ago but not much (if any) new information:

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/j5be53/mark-hollis-talk-talk-retire-disappear-reunions

I want the reunion tour, the LP in order, the t-shirt & slipmat.

I'm sure he makes ok money from royalties, that No Doubt cover of Its My Life is on the radio every five minutes still (or was the last time I listened to 'modern rock radio') and he doesn't strike me as someone who needs to live in luxury.

That noisey article led me to discover that Hollis played piano on UNKLE’s “Chaos”, which is a song I love and a pretty good, characteristic way to go out (if indeed that proves to be one of his final credits).

Was playing Laughing Stock the other morning when my wife's visiting 70 year old stepdad came down for coffee. He poured himself a cup, sat down, perked his weak ears, tilted his head and said, boy, this sure is pretty.

:)

ears clearly are not that weak

Love that

nice

It sure is

Paul Webb album out next year on Domino!

https://www.thewire.co.uk/news/53053/rustin-man-debuts-on-domino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyrGv1d8gFk

sounds pretty good to me, his vocals are somewhere between hollis and wyatt

Sweet.

We're delighted to announce a new album from Rustin Man, aka Paul Webb, formerly of Talk Talk. Drift Code will be released 1st Feb 2019 & follows his superb first release Out Of Season; the collaborative album with Beth Gibbons.
Pre-order Drift Code here https://t.co/EEeQvyKt73 pic.twitter.com/Qiwo2uUIx0

— Domino Recording Co (@Dominorecordco) November 15, 2018

hoping for some juicy hollis updates when he does the promo interviews for this

"Nope, still chilling and being a mystic."

he's been decreasing the number of colors in his life and is now down to two

Is it Webb who sings on some of the orang tracks? Nice voice. Psyched for this!

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