Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
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Free Music Notes for Spirit of Eden
Free Music Review: UniqueMasterpiece/ListenHeadPhones
Hit: 5 Stars
It must be admitted; I had for the longest time a rather negative view on Talk Talk. I first discovered Talk Talk via their first singles - Talk Talk and Today - that became moderate hits. Despite being decent songs, the group was an obvious Duran Duran light outfit, with Duran's same producer on the helm and the name in the same vein as Duran.
Some respect was added when It's My Life, Dum Dum Girl and Such a Shame were released. All 3 remain pop classics. I even became tempted buying their Colour of Spring album based on very favorable reviews and the hits Living in Another World and Life's What You Make It. Like so many other people, I settled for their Natural History collection which I have listened to regularly for many years.
That collection included 2 of the songs on Spirit of Eden. They did not, however, fit in any way with the rest of the collection so I most often simply stopped listening at that point. Having, however, read rave reviews about the album for many years, I became curious to hear how it actually is. Could it be that as a whole, it sounds better than the fragments I had heard on the Natural History collection? I finally gave in and bought it a couple of years ago. In most cases, such shots in the dark lead to nowhere (Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens are recent examples). This time I struck, however, gold.
This is a demanding album and really unlike almost everything else. Yet, I became instantly hooked on it. I have been constantly playing it since I bought it, always discovering new dimensions. Being such a unique album, it is difficult describing the music. The songs are long (only six of them) and in most cases relatively mellow. Comparisons that come to mind are David Sylvian, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd and Radiohead. Of course, these artists differ widely in styles but that simply underlines how difficult it is to pinpoint this album.
I have now bought Talk Talk's other great albums, The Colour of Spring and Laughing Stock. Both are fantastic in different ways. For me, though, Spirit of Eden is their best album and is part of my short desert island music list.
April 24th, 2008
After listening to Spirit of Eden constantly for over a couple of years, I finally came about experiencing it via the use of headphones. Usually that is a different experience; obviously one hears subtle sounds that are not heard when listening with speakers in addition to the added depth and clearer image. This album, however, blows practically all other albums away. It is almost as if one gains an added dimension using good headphones. The sound is not crystal clear - this being an analog recording - but the care and feel of the whole set in a way embraces the listener and yet sets the sound stage wide open. I am really at a loss for words, but strongly recommend not limiting listening to Spirit of Eden through load speakers but also using headphones, most preferably better ones than the typical small sets included with iPods.
Free Music Review: Spirit of Eden
Hit: 5 Stars
The only other album that compares to this one is the follow up 1991 effort 'Laughing Stock'.1986's 'The Colour of Spring' widened Talk Talk's appeal to a larger audience with the singles 'Life's What You Make It' and 'Give It Up'. It would seem natural to capitalise on that success. Talk Talk had morphed into a very introspective group by the time 1986 rolled around. The only contemporaries I can think of around that time that Talk Talk shares affinity with are Hothouse Flowers, The Waterboys and World Party.
But they left them all behind with 1988's Spirit of Eden. This album shoved aside all previous notions of what Talk Talk were about. It made The Colour of Spring sound outright mainstream and commercial. Dissonant horns and strings, growling harmonicas, feedback guitar, spare instrumentation, church organs, and as always the beautiful vocals of Mark Hollis, became Talk Talk's sound for Eden.
To try and describe what goes on lyrically, musically and compositionally in the Spirit of Eden would ruin it for the person who has never heard this album and the 1991 Laughing Stock album, their last and best. I actually have to rewrite my review of Laughing Stock because I just didn't say what I thought I could or should've said. Both share a very common ground lyrically. Seemingly about redemption.
These are truly two beautiful albums, and they changed the way I thought about what music could or can sound like. My record collection is quite varied, different styles, different cultures, no race distinction, different decades, but I have to say that Talk Talk definitely was an inspiration to me.
DESIRE remains one of my favourite songs ever. And in reference to a Top Reviewer's comment about The Beatles. Lennon & McCartney WISHED they could have written music like this. To make that kind of comparison was a strange one, since the four writers (Lennon & McCartney and Hollis & Friese-Greene) are so far apart stylistically and in lyrical content, that its a moot point. Lennon & McCartney wrote pop music. Simple as that, no more no less. Any attempts to go deeper than escapism by either writer was never fully realised or marred by the genre in which it was always molded for. Hollis & Friese-Greene are two totally separate entities. There is something underlying in their work that is slightly disturbing, but in the end hopeful and with a promise of redemption. There are some seriously 'heavy' tones throughout 'Eden', that Lennon & McCartney would never dare approach. And musically, I've never heard anyone approach music in this way before or since 88's Eden and 91's Stock. It basically killed Talk Talk's career these two albums. They are innovative, adventurous, free of restriction to form, and the subtext will keep the listener guessing as to what is going on.
If I may quote
'' Summer bled of Eden
Easter's heir uncrowns
Another destiny lies leeched upon the ground''
You can tell me 'Obla-Di Obla-Da' is better and a greater song, but I might not believe you.
Free Music Review: Beautifully dramatic - Hollis finds his voice
Hit: 5 Stars
Talk Talk began as a band in the wrong place: a synth-rock band whose singer clearly was not designed for that - when I was a pop listener, I was well aware of how Mark Hollis' mumbling voice just did not fit the songs.
On their previous album The Colour Of Spring, Talk Talk had moved away from 1980s style synthesisers to use basically acoustic instrumentation or older synthesisers. In the process they created on songs like "Life's What You Make It", "Time It's Time" and the jazzy "April 5th" music that was seemingly dark yet actually very joyful and uplifting when listened to with an open ear. On "Spirit Of Eden", the primitive synthesisers so characteristic of "April 5th" were completely discarded, to be replaced with quasi-classical orchestration and sparse piano and drums as the dominant instruments.
Though seen as a quantum leap by many, in fact, aside from their slow pace, the opening two tracks, "The Rainbow" and "Eden", could almost have come off The Colour Of Spring: however, Hollis was clearly growing much more reflective and emotional, with the result that the joyful subject matter of the previous album completely disappeared.
It is only on "Desire" that we see genuine advances on previous Talk Talk: this plea for innocence, with its much-imitated quiet-to-loud dynamics and incomprehensible chorus, stands far apart from the restrained pop music Talk Talk began with. Yet, though they appear to overblow the chorus, "Desire", like, say, Laura Nyro's "Gibsom Street", uses this "overblowing" to achieve an emotional power that cannot be achieved any other way. It might be painful to listen to but that only emphasises its value.
The second half of the album goes still further from Talk Talk's pop roots, with the verse/chorus structure still obvious on "Eden" becoming less apparent, notably on the airy "Inheritance". These last three songs stand as altogether more subtle than the first three, and on the organ-dominated closer "Wealth" Hollis' voice achieves an aching beauty that is very difficult to comprehend, whilst the long outro to "I Believe In You" actually stands as the most memorable part of a meandering, yet always intensely emotional song whose simple melodies touch the mind of a listener like few other songs.
Whilst not quite having the startling power or rawness of Laughing Stock (perhaps the most emotional record of at least the last 25 years), "Spirit Of Eden" is where Mark Hollis found a style that suited his incomprehensible, mumbling vocals well - and gave his and Tim Friese-Greene's songs a level of power very rarely seen.
Free Music Review: The world turned upside down.
Hit: 5 Stars
The refernce to Eden in the title is very appropriate. There is something primal about the music on this Cd, a kind of stripped down beauty only hinting at the power it possesses, the power of nature itself. Talk Talk discarded almost everything that made them recognisable as a band, eschewing programmed synths and predictable song structures, in fact all the trappings of the lacklustre new romantic movement, and forged ahead into new, organic territory. The record is warm and extremely spacious, with a plethora of instruments sprinkled throughout the lengthy pieces, each player neglecting virtuoso performances and instead contributing to the overall dynamic, the massive group sound the album is geared towards. Its hardly surprising that this album took 14 months to record, that it was done in a deserted church or that, of course, the record label dropped them after being unable to find anything even approximating to a single on here. The six songs conatined here essentially defy any kind of description, as there is little ground for comparison with any music I've heard yet. They are pften long, often seem to meander into each other and rarely include the same type of instrumentation. Each piece is mellow and relaxing, with guitar used very sparingly, a strategy that is most effective on the second track, 'Eden'. Hollise's plaintive vocals retain some of the new wave incompetence and general incoherence, but he has an extremely powerful voice which fits the delicate, rambling nature of the dongs perfectly. Not that the songs are directionless though, as repeated lisrens reveal structure but very little that is predictable. The epic opener 'The Rainbow' starts out with some careful jamming and descends into a miniscule verse and a chorus that leaves one drained as it fades away. 'Desire' has a jaw dropping percusive section right in the middle, which melts back into the chorus so easily its hard to comprehend how clever what youv'e just heard really is. 'Wealth' the closer, is almst too plaintive, with Hollis baring his heart over hardly any instrumentation.This is progressive, forward thinking music in its most raw, pure form, done exactly as it should be done: without a hint of pretension, with skill used effectively, creating music that is challenging but ultimately very accessible and never boring. This Cd is utterly unique and that seems reason enough to recommend it to everyone to me. It will reward careful repeated listens by open minded people who are willing to give a chance to something new and pretty. Powerful, cathartic, raw, pure emotional, experimental, relaxing, essential. An incomparable experince, and simply one of the best albums yet recorded.
Free Music Review: It seems louder because it is surrounded by quiet.
Hit: 5 Stars
This is one of those albums that reaffirms your faith in the power of music, and in the possibility that there is something worth saving, and that there is something in the world that is not tainted. It works brilliantly on every level. It is musically compelling. It is clever. It has a fantastic sound. It is a special secret. It is timeless, dense, and deep, one of those albums that you might play once a year for the rest of your life, without growing tired of it. It works. It is the kind of record, the kind of thing, that might make a man pack up his job and travel the world.
Ever since I can remember, I have associated sounds and visual images all together. When I listen to Spirit of Eden, I visualise ice floes in the Northern Latitudes, and the sun is shining. It is a glacial record, slow and deliberate, but not cold. It's not a sad record. The sparse lyrics are delivered in a breathless, haunting voice by the lead singer, as if he was channelling a higher truth, as if he was not afraid any more. The instruments are equally breathless. They are usually played softly, a distant wash of sound. There are only a few moments that rock; "Eden" has swirling electric organ, the end of "The Rainbow" has a blistering harmonica solo, and "Desire" is punctuated with a full-on cymbal-crashing crescendo that seems louder because it is surrounded by quiet.
It seems louder because it is surrounded by quiet. A lot has been written recently about the dynamics of pop records, the way that pop records tend to be very loud all the way through from beginning to end. Spirit of Eden is not like that. It has crescendos, it has long stretches of quiet punctuated by bursts of noise. The bursts of noise seem louder because of the surrounding quiet. Talk Talk developed the idea further with their next and final record, Laughing Stock, which transformed the quiet bits into shattering crescendos, but that is another story.
Spirit of Eden is essentially one long song. There are shifts of mood, and if you listen to the record several times you can detect verses and choruses, but it is the kind of thing you have to listen to in one sitting, perhaps several times in a row. For this reason, it's not the kind of record you are likely to pop onto the turntable whilst you have a bite to eat, but you'll never be without a copy.
Look, if the doctor told me I had cancer, and the prognosis was not good, I would still listen to this record. And "Land of 1,000 Dances", and also "Rockaway Beach". And lots of other records too, but I would listen to this one particularly. If only it had been longer.