Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
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Free Music Notes for Laughing Stock
Free Music Review: Talk is Cheap, But Talk Talk is Priceless (ok, bad pun)
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds", Bowie's "Low" and "Laughing Stock" within days of one another. This created difficulties as I had the best albums of the sixties, seventies and nineties, respectively, vying for time in my cd player. When all was said and done, this album was the one I play the most. At first I loved the music, but disliked Mark Hollis's voice. If that turns you off at first, keep listening -- soon his voice is just another instrument - it meshes so perfectly with the music that it is impossible to imagine any voice more fitting and heavenly. Being a longtime Radiohead and Sigur Ros fan, I can now see the profound influence this album has had on them. Indeed, here is the blueprints for post-rock (Tortoise, Sea and Cake, Radiohead, Sigur Ros), sadcore (Idaho, Low) and slowcore (Bedhead). Also, people should notice that it was co-released by Polydor and Verve, one of the most important jazz labels ever. The album runs effortlessly through pop, ambient music, avant-garde, jazz, blues, and classical music. My favorite tracks are "After the Flood" and "New Grass", but the whole cd is utterly mindblowing. This album is kind of unfair to the rest of the bands that followed because it is virtually impossible to match. Even Radiohead's (or any other band that followed in its wake, for that matter) best moments can't even scrape the surface of "Laughing Stock". This one of those albums that one could fall into an obsessive lifelong relationship with and die quietly while listening to. I sure hope this is what is listened to in the afterlife, along with Can's "Future Days" and "Pet Sounds". It's really a damn shame this timeless, perfect album is forgotten by most people. Honestly, it was easily the best $5.99 I've ever spent. Get it and you'll never be the same.Free Music Review: Don't walk..., run to it !
Hit: 5 Stars
I recall Wynton Marsalis' prophetic statement about jazz music,"If you go to it, you will get the benefit of IT". While I would not classify it as jazz, so is true for Talk Talk's - Laughing Stock. You must "go to it".
It is a brilliant work, full of musical textures, arrangements, and melodic complexities. You would be hard pressed to define it, or to select a category. It teeters on rock, but has the inventiveness and improvisational glue of jazz, and an etherial blend of atmospheric nuances that mix the avant-garde with a dark ambient, new-age - without the techno-sound annoyances. Hauntingly beautiful and curious, Mark Hollis' voice is infused with a controlled intensity that weaves into, and also cuts through the most complex passages. You'll find yourself going back to individual tracks again and again to pick up on sounds, lyrics, and sweet notes that weren't heard previously. These are some of the most compelling tracks I've ever heard in music.
When I first listened to Laughing Stock, I immediately acknowledged it's departure from the magnificent melodic structure that make up the tracks on, Color of Spring - also a brilliant work, and so ahead of it's time. Even more innovative than the uniquely beautiful, Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock is an experiment with lyrical sounds and structure, always keeping true to the experience Talk Talk wanted to create.
Any fan of Talk Talk who has an open-minded sensibility about music will understand the overwhelming significance of the work they produced from Colour of Spring through Laughing Stock. They're gifts, and they await those who have the capacity to challenge and really appreciate musical beauty and ingenuity.
Free Music Review: Art, defined.
Hit: 5 Stars
I threw away my first copy of Laughing Stock.
As a follow-up to The Spirit of Eden, I initially found Laughing Stock to be unworthy. Perhaps I was still high, still "suspended" from the effects of Eden, and didn't want to come down. Oh, what a terribly, terribly beautiful collection of music Eden is!
But I eventually had to return to Laughing Stock.
Yes, I had to return to this earthly world, Hollis & Co. tell me, where life can be:
MYRRHMAN - uncertain; the pipes, guitar, and organ notes are long, drawn out pieces that create a foreboding sound. Hollis approaches this setting straightforward, with soft but resolute vocals.
ASCENSION DAY - desperate; an amplified torch song, complete with crashing cymbals, thrashing guitar strings, and pounding drums, all of which come to an abrupt and sudden hush.
AFTER THE FLOOD - contradictory; a lovely and hypnotic rhythm that sways back and forth, back and forth, until it is rudely interrupted by hideous guitar feedback, making the song's ending (and beginning) all the more gorgeous.
TAPHEAD - somber
NEW GRASS - hopeful; a short and steady tapping of the crash cymbal, tropical strings, then the words, "Lifted up..." open this song resolutely optimistic.
Hollis' voice has elevated as well, pacing itself with a drums' rhythm that seems to be encouraging him (and his listeners) along.
RUNEII - resigned
By the way, I now own two copies of this cd (US, UK).
:)
Free Music Review: 4 Stars for 2 Songs; 1 Star for Just Being; Total of 5...
Hit: 5 Stars
This work by Talk Talk is worth every penny spent and every moment listened just for "Ascension Day" and "After The Flood." The other four tracks are not up to the standards of these two, but that's mostly because their melodies (or lack of the same) are not nearly as memorable. That's OK... there is something important to say and play for Hollis and his backing members... even if "New Grass" or "Runeii" will not be reverberating in your head for days to come."Myrrhman" seems more of a lead-in to the cymbal crashing intro of "Ascension Day." By the time that the build-up of the conclusion of "Ascension Day" comes to a sudden halt, one is led into the dream-like sound of the intro of "After the Flood." This first side is almost like natural opium.
"Taphead" is a noisy, convoluted mess that feels like one is being tossed about like a rag doll... then dropped into the safe sounds of "New Grass." Hollis then lets us know that all is not as safe as we thought on the lawn, as "Runeii" banters the listener again with pauses, gaps, and striking guitar chords. Actually, "Laughing Stock" is more like a jolting experience, rather than listening to a batch of songs.
A band that can jolt a listener? Heck... five stars alone for that. Not a single profane word, either. No wonder they are no longer recording in this hip-hop non-stop muttering climate.
Free Music Review: "Genius" is an overused word.......but.....
Hit: 5 Stars
There's something downright scary about how moving this album is.....of all the albums I own, only one other has gotten the kind of constant play that Laughingstock has. My Bloody Valentine's Loveless is that album.....but if I had to pick one album out of all I have ever heard that have had the most impact on me, I have to choose Laughing Stock (sorry, Mr. Shields...).Listen to "Taphead", with the speakers peaked and your mind open. There's no sound closer to the voices of sad gods than the sound displayed in the melancholy trumpet soli on that song....the first time I ever heard it, I started to cry, which was quite embarrassing since my parents were right in the next room. It was just unstoppable, kinda like that moment when you realize you've just met the person you'll spend the rest of your life with...I was in awe. It is literally transcendent, yet sparse, yet wholly aware of itself and not the least bit contrived. It's absolute magic, the kind of music that you're only supposed to be able to make when no one else is listening. Somehow, Hollis and Friese-Greene defied the odds one last time with this swan song.
This album taught me first that the hearts of musicians is what makes music grand, but it also taught me a great deal about rhythm, as I was just learning to play the drums at the time, back in 91. You'll find some crazy stuff on this record, stuff that will blow you away if you listen close enough.
Jason B.