Music / Mark Hollis (Album)

"One song among us all."

"Technique has never been an important thing to me. Feeling always has been, and always will be, above technique."

—Mark Hollis, discussing the making of the album.

Mark Hollis, released in 1998, is the sole studio album by the former Talk Talk frontman of the same name. Released seven years after Talk Talk's fifth and final album, Laughing Stock, the record was put together primarily as a Contractual Obligation Project, as the band's contract with Polydor Records specified that they produce two albums for the label, and they'd only made enough usable material during the Laughing Stock sessions for one. Thus, having spent years in secluded retirement, Hollis briefly stepped back into the studio to fulfil his contract with Polydor (the influence of these circumstances was so prominent that the album was nearly released under the Talk Talk name before being rebranded as a solo album).

Despite existing primarily out of obligation, Hollis spent his time further diving into his longtime classical, jazz, and Avant-Garde Music influences on the album. Rather than repeating the style of Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, which were marked by dense arrangements and bleak lyrics, Hollis vied for a more quiet, intimate approach on his solo album, featuring much more minimal instrumentation and lyrics that reflected a sense of closure with his life and career. In a contemporary interview, Hollis stated that he used the album as a way of reaching for his goal of making music that couldn't be traced to any one period in time, to the extent where it shares little in common with even the Post-Rock artists that he had directly inspired with Talk Talk's last two albums.

Released with little promotion barring some interviews (no singles were released from the album, unlike Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock), Hollis' solo album came and went as quietly as it sounded. Having fulfilled the last of his recording contracts, he quietly slipped back into retirement rather than attempting to jump back into the music industry, opting to raise his family in the English countryside. Hollis would make his last public appearance in 2004, visiting the offices of Broadcast Music, Inc. to accept an award for Talk Talk's "It's My Life", while he would make one final contribution to the music world in 2012 by preparing the piece "ARB Section 1" for the TV show Boss. Hollis would continue his life in retirement until his death of cancer in 2019 at the age of 64.

Tracklist:

1. "The Colour of Spring" (3:52)
2. "Watershed" (5:45)
3. "Inside Looking Out" (6:21)
4. "The Gift" (4:22)
5. "A Life (1895-1915)" (8:10)
6. "Westward Bound" (4:18)
7. "The Daily Planet" (7:19)
8. "A New Jerusalem" (6:49)

Wise tropes, wild tropes, d'you see?:

• Babies Make Everything Better: "Westward Bound" opens with the narrator expressing joy over the birth of his child, with this being used as a stepping stone for the song's overarching theme of new beginnings.
• Book Ends:
  • Talk Talk's The Party's Over opens with the self-titled track "Talk Talk". Mark Hollis' 1998 solo album, generally treated as an epilogue to Laughing Stock, is a Self-Titled Album.
  • The opening track, "The Colour of Spring", starts with 18 seconds of silence. The closing track, "A New Jerusalem", ends with nearly two minutes of silence.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The formatting of the album cover recalls that of Spirit of Eden, being an image bordered in white with the artist name above the image's right-hand corner.
  • "The Colour of Spring" derives its title from Talk Talk's third album, while the 18 seconds of silence that open it recalls the fan-like whirring after the intro to "The Rainbow" and the amplifier hiss at the start of "Myrrhman".
• Deliberately Monochrome: The album cover is a black and white photograph of Easter bread made in the image of the Lamb of God, set against a white border with black text.
• Epic Rocking: "Inside Looking Out", "A Life (1895-1915)", "The Daily Planet", and "A New Jerusalem" all surpass the six-minute mark (though granted, the last two minutes of the latter consist of silence).
• Gratuitous French: "A Life (1895-1915)" features an interlude of French chanting, tying in with the funereal tone of the song.
• In Name Only: Inverted. The album was originally going to be released as a Talk Talk album called Mountains of the Moon, but was released under Hollis' own name instead. It easily fits alongside the two albums that preceded it.
• Lighter and Softer: The album is much lighter and more open than Laughing Stock, featuring a more intimate sound and lyrics that reflect a greater sense of closure, catharsis, and reverence.
• Limited Lyrics Song: Despite running for six and a half minutes, "Inside Looking Out" contains only one, seven-line stanza of lyrics.
• Mood Whiplash: Invoked in "A Life (1895-1915)", in which Roland Leighton's optimism in the first half of the song gives way to resigned anguish in the second half, representing his initial enthusiasm in fighting in World War I and the harsh reality he faced upon being killed in action.
• New Sound Album: Compared to Hollis' work with Talk Talk, the album's sound is much more minimalist and spacious than the dense and pastoral, yet tonally claustrophobic arrangements that characterized Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock.
• Non-Appearing Title: Almost every song on the album lacks its title anywhere in the lyrics, with the sole exceptions of "The Colour of Spring" and "Westward Bound".
• One-Word Title: "Watershed".
• Self-Titled Album: The album is simply titled Mark Hollis, a reflection of Hollis' intention to make it his one and only studio album.
• Title Track: "The Colour of Spring" is one to a completely different album, sharing its title with Talk Talk's third LP.
• War Is Hell: The overarching theme of "A Life (1895-1915)". The song is based on the life of poet Roland Leighton, who was killed fighting in World War I, forming the basis of fiancée Vera Brittain's 1933 memoir Testament of Youth.
  Hollis: That was someone born before the turn of the century ... and dying within one year of the First World War at a young age. It was based on Vera Brittain's boyfriend. It's the expectation that must have been in existence at the turn of the century, the patriotism that must've existed at the start of the war and the disillusionment that must've come immediately afterwards. It's the very severe mood swings that fascinated me.

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