* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** ''Spirit of Eden'' and ''Laughing Stock'' (and, in some cases, ''The Colour of Spring'') are still hailed as influential masterpieces to this day.
** Say what you will about early Talk Talk, but you simply can't deny how truly awesome "It's My Life" is, even as just a fun little 80's tune. Other early singles such as "Today", "Talk Talk" and especially "Such a Shame" are also worth revisiting.
* CoveredUp: Some listeners might be surprised to find out that "It's My Life" isn't a Music/NoDoubt song, more so the original song was done by a ''man''.
* FanonDiscontinuity:
** Lots of people prefer to ignore the stuff made before ''The Colour of Spring''.
** It's even more noticeable those who think that their debut album shouldn't even be mentioned.
* GrowingTheBeard: Their albums are generally acknowledged to have gotten better as their songwriting and choice of instrumentation matured. In particular, ''The Colour of Spring'' is considered the point where the band truly came into their own, shifting to a more complex and organic sound following a pair of Music/DuranDuran-influenced SynthPop albums that were made solely out of necessity.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: "April 5th" was titled after Mark's wife's birthday.
* NightmareFuel:
** The last minute and a half of "Eden" is pretty disorienting; it's pretty much just Mark aggressively ripping at his guitar almost out of tune with distortion turned up, while Lee bangs on a ride cymbal. It almost gives off the feeling of someone screaming at you.
** "After the Flood". Good lord.
** The music video for "I Believe in You" just has Mark staring into nothingness while barely even playing the guitar part and singing.
** "Taphead" is also fairly frightening, especially with the ScareChord that suddenly appears halfway through the song.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Talk Talk's early output is by no means bad, in fact it's pretty great 80s SynthPop and NewWaveMusic, it's just been overshadowed by how groundbreaking and influential their later albums are.
* SignatureSong: While the band's last two albums are considered their most iconic, "It's My Life" (from the earlier SynthPop duology) remains the band's best-known individual song, being their sole hit in the United States and receiving a popular CoverVersion by Music/NoDoubt.
* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: ''The Colour of Spring'' was considered a major step up from the band's middlingly-received first two albums, moving away from their early Music/DuranDuran-influenced SynthPop sound in favor of densely-layered art pop influenced by ''fin de siècle''-era ClassicalMusic.
* TearJerker:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdf--O5WWrU "The Colour of Spring"]]. Despite being a Mark Hollis solo song (the opening track off his sole, self-titled album from 1998), it's still probably the most beautiful piece of music he's ever written. It's just him singing quietly, almost inaudibly, against a piano, and the chord progression for the first half of the song is well worth the tears.
** There's also the BSide [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCB38-ZSIQY "It's Getting Late in the Evening"]], surprisingly one of their most popular songs. The way Hollis sings "everybody's laughing" is sure to give any listener a hell of a nostalgia trip. Then, when the chord progression starts to change, followed by the beautiful synth strings, it slowly becomes SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic. [[BittersweetEnding Then it just ends]].
** You've also got [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EBTk5brQVY "I Believe in You"]]. The way Mark sings about watching someone slowly wither away from a heroin addiction is heartbreaking to listen to. Then you've got that gospel choir as the song slowly dies out at the end... almost like an actual heroin addict. Jesus. The RealitySubtext on the song being inspired by the tragic death of Hollis's brother from a heroin overdose makes it sadder, with Hollis's own death in 2019 only amplifying the sentiment.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLvHW27dwWU "New Grass"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-UKgrd2E6Y "Wealth"]] are stunningly beautiful.
* ToughActToFollow: Subverted in the sense that Hollis stopped making music and broke up with Talk Talk because he felt that he'd already achieved the sound he ultimately wanted with ''Spirit of Eden'' and ''Laughing Stock''. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MnpgEAG3bM this interview from 1998]], he suggests that ''Laughing Stock'' possibly would have never even existed since he already accomplished his musical goals with ''Spirit of Eden'' alone.
* VindicatedByHistory: While still not as praised as the last three albums they made, fans and critics these days are a lot more nicer to ''The Party's Over'' and ''It's My Life'', due to their fun and energetic approach simply being [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadowed by the band's acclaimed works]]. It helps that the songs on the two albums are decent enough SynthPop in their own right.
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