Talk Talk

[bewareofrats]

Hey peeps.  You want to challenge your ear with some unconventional but beautiful music?  Check out some Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock by Talk Talk. 

Here's a U.K. band that went from some pretty big new wave/pop hits on a big record label to completely shedding popular and conventional song structures and pulled a 180 with their last 2 records.  These albums don't follow any specific genre and just flow naturally,  There's elements of jazz, classical, rock, pop, blues, you name it in them.

Here's a taste:

Talk Talk - ASCENSION DAY

[decapod]

Amazing thread. "Spirit of Eden" is on my desert island CD collection, and it's at number 1!

[Crazylegs]

Interesting

[Crazylegs]

How come nobody told me about this before?

[blixa]

i flip my shit everytime i talk about talk talk.

talk talk are one of the very few "80s pop acts" that managed to gain a great deal of honest to god respect from damn near every musician worth their weight in drum heads. they were signed because their demos were so fucking catchy (a song cleverly entitled 'talk talk' being among them, which ended up being their big hit) and because the record company thought it would be easy to turn them into a duran duran clone. well, this went on for 2 very good, nay, flawless pop albums ('the party's over' and 'it's my life') until the band decided to drop their synth player, ditch their (awesome) white suits and quit giving a fuck. being a bunch of little shits from the get-go, the band became even more wry and acidic toward the media, refusing to talk about anything but their music, especially singer mark hollis who usually didn't seem to talk at ALL. one can understand why the press started claiming he had picked up a smack habit (untrue), because the press is full of idiots who freak out if someone forgets to have their eyebrows waxed every day.

but fuck me, where do you hear music like this these days:
i believe in you

[There Will Be Blood]

Great song here!!!

Talk Talk - TALK TALK - 1982

[bewareofrats]

How come nobody told me about this before?

I only first heard these albums a few months ago.  My favourite musician is Matthew Good and Laughing Stock is his favourite album so that's how I found out about them.

One can understand why the press started claiming he had picked up a smack habit (untrue), because the press is full of idiots who freak out if someone forgets to have their eyebrows waxed every day.

but fuck me, where do you hear music like this these days:
i believe in you

He wasn't really addicted to heroin?  I've heard conflicting claims and that the song I Believe in You is an anti-heroin song so I don't know what to believe.  By the way,  IBIY is one of my favourites of theirs.  So powerful.

Here's some of my favourite songs from these albums:

Talk Talk - THE RAINBOW - 1988
Talk Talk - WEALTH - 1988
Talk Talk - AFTER THE FLOOD - 1991

[blixa]

He wasn't really addicted to heroin?  I've heard conflicting claims and that the song I Believe in You is an anti-heroin song so I don't know what to believe.  By the way,  IBIY is one of my favourites of theirs.  So powerful.

i don't believe he was addicted to heroin. hollis totally disappeared from the public eye after the end of the band. he's contributed some things to other artists'  work under a fake name or with no credit at all, much to my surprise, as on UNKLE's 'psyence fiction' of all things! apparently he spends all his time hanging out with his family and composing piano music. he quietly released a solo album in 1998 which picks up right where talk talk left off and continues in an even more emotionally "unlistenable" direction. his voice is so frail and buried in the mix, its like he doesn't WANT to be heard but is somehow obligated to squeak out his cryptic lyrics that...well...god only knows what they're about. there's nothing fucking happy about them though. i must admit that i feel some kind of kinship toward him due to his lyrical content, his musical approach and his personal actions. the guy is smart as fuck and understands music better than anyone could ever hope to.

one article i read, he talked about how he doesn't know how to properly play any instrument and he only learned through dicking around. that's something i've always felt strongly about because i've always believed that sometimes when you take lessons on any related subject it would only hinder your understanding. if you can get something to make sounds that please you, you're set. point being, i can hear that in his music. his bandmates are accomplished musicians so you lose track a little bit, but when you keep that in mind and remember that hollis is the one who wrote most of the songs, you start to understand why they're so interesting and fresh. one could say the same thing about danny elfman, but he always stuck quite happily to pop structure.

its been argued that without talk talk, you would have no radiohead. no catherine wheel. no whoever else and those whoever else's are legion because EVERYBODY has a boner for talk talk and mark hollis because they're fucking geniuses. i feel about talk talk the way many people feel about depeche mode. but while depeche mode brings all the cougars to the yard, talk talk clears the yard of shallow fuckers and really shows you who digs good tunes and who is a - dun dun dun - POSER.

[decapod]

He wasn't really addicted to heroin?  I've heard conflicting claims and that the song I Believe in You is an anti-heroin song so I don't know what to believe.  By the way,  IBIY is one of my favourites of theirs.  So powerful.

i don't believe he was addicted to heroin. hollis totally disappeared from the public eye after the end of the band. he's contributed some things to other artists'  work under a fake name or with no credit at all, much to my surprise, as on UNKLE's 'psyence fiction' of all things! apparently he spends all his time hanging out with his family and composing piano music. he quietly released a solo album in 1998 which picks up right where talk talk left off and continues in an even more emotionally "unlistenable" direction. his voice is so frail and buried in the mix, its like he doesn't WANT to be heard but is somehow obligated to squeak out his cryptic lyrics that...well...god only knows what they're about. there's nothing fucking happy about them though. i must admit that i feel some kind of kinship toward him due to his lyrical content, his musical approach and his personal actions. the guy is smart as fuck and understands music better than anyone could ever hope to.

one article i read, he talked about how he doesn't know how to properly play any instrument and he only learned through dicking around. that's something i've always felt strongly about because i've always believed that sometimes when you take lessons on any related subject it would only hinder your understanding. if you can get something to make sounds that please you, you're set. point being, i can hear that in his music. his bandmates are accomplished musicians so you lose track a little bit, but when you keep that in mind and remember that hollis is the one who wrote most of the songs, you start to understand why they're so interesting and fresh. one could say the same thing about danny elfman, but he always stuck quite happily to pop structure.

its been argued that without talk talk, you would have no radiohead. no catherine wheel. no whoever else and those whoever else's are legion because EVERYBODY has a boner for talk talk and mark hollis because they're fucking geniuses. i feel about talk talk the way many people feel about depeche mode. but while depeche mode brings all the cougars to the yard, talk talk clears the yard of shallow fuckers and really shows you who digs good tunes and who is a - dun dun dun - POSER.

but while depeche mode brings all the cougars to the yard, talk talk clears the yard of shallow fuckers and really shows you who digs good tunes and who is a - dun dun dun - POSER.

AWESOME.

[Jacob]

whoa. I've been talking about this band for years around here and no one cared.

[Crazylegs]

whoa. I've been talking about this band for years around here and no one cared.

Did you post youtube links, if not i understand why no one cared.

[bewareofrats]

He wasn't really addicted to heroin?  I've heard conflicting claims and that the song I Believe in You is an anti-heroin song so I don't know what to believe.  By the way,  IBIY is one of my favourites of theirs.  So powerful.

one article i read, he talked about how he doesn't know how to properly play any instrument and he only learned through dicking around. that's something i've always felt strongly about because i've always believed that sometimes when you take lessons on any related subject it would only hinder your understanding. if you can get something to make sounds that please you, you're set. point being, i can hear that in his music. his bandmates are accomplished musicians so you lose track a little bit, but when you keep that in mind and remember that hollis is the one who wrote most of the songs, you start to understand why they're so interesting and fresh. one could say the same thing about danny elfman, but he always stuck quite happily to pop structure.

I like that because I think my favourite musician Matthew Good is similar and he loves Talk Talk.  He originally had no aspirations of becoming a musician and didn't really have any training on anything.  He only first picked up a guitar and started playing when he was 20 and I think he's one of the best songwriters around today.  He had a band back in the day and he was always the primary writer.  He wrote almost all of the band's music by himself.   He's listened to all kinds of music in his life and is very knowledgeable about music, yet he doesn't have any classical training.  I think some of the greatest musicians are that way.

Mark Hollis does seem very smart and has a brilliant musical mind I think.

[bewareofrats]

whoa. I've been talking about this band for years around here and no one cared.

The world sadly doesn't care much about music that doesn't follow certain codes.  Talk Talk rebelled against popular music and did what they felt which went very much against what many people have come to expect in music.  We're rewarded with their risks with music that has more heart and soul than most popular music.  I love that Mark Hollis started leaning more and more towards biblical and spiritual themes.  Refreshing music.  I also love the many improvisations and subtle details that add so much to the music.

I really enjoy their album The Colour of Spring as well.  It's the album before Spirit of Eden but you can hear quite a bit of their later sound in this album.  It is more new wave and pop than their last 2 though.  I love the production of it, the instruments just come alive.  The acoustic sounds are so nice as is the bass. 

[blixa]

whoa. I've been talking about this band for years around here and no one cared.

yeah, you have mentioned talk talk. i don't think a lot of deftones fans are even aware of a band like talk talk.

plus i always just associate you with patton hahaha like i imagine that you just sit around listening to patton and patton only.

[theis]

i imagine that you just sit around listening to patton and patton only.

Is there something wrong with that?

[blixa]

well...no. i can listen to will oldham, and will oldham only, for the rest of my life.

[from_musings]

Here's a taste:

Talk Talk - ASCENSION DAY

sweet as cake!

[bewareofrats]

So you like it?  It's cool to see even the newcomers seem to be liking what they hear.  I imagine there's got to be tons and tons of people who would hate this or just find it boring.  I can see that, and some of it can be at times, but overall for some reason I don't find it boring.  It's just nice to me after a few listens.

[decapod]

So you like it?  It's cool to see even the newcomers seem to be liking what they hear.  I imagine there's got to be tons and tons of people who would hate this or just find it boring.  I can see that, and some of it can be at times, but overall for some reason I don't find it boring.  It's just nice to me after a few listens.

Talk Talk is one of THE most important bands... Period. I 100% think people's opinions matter in the musical landscape but I dont have to agree with them. Hollis' voice is pure magic. This thread is awesome  thanks, beware.

[bewareofrats]

My pleasure to bring attention to different but refreshing music.