Talk Talk were a British
New Wave band in
The Eighties known for one of the standout examples of
Growing the Beard and successful
New Sound Albums in
Alternative Rock. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
Their members were as follows:
- Mark Hollis - vocals, guitar, piano, organ; the chief songwriter and idea guy
- Paul Webb - bass, left in 1988 after The Spirit of Eden
- Lee Harris - drums
- Tim Friese-Greene - "unofficial" member in the sense that he didn't play live or appear in photos, but a key player in the band's transformation; co-wrote songs with Hollis, played keyboards and, most significantly, served as Record Producer
- Simon Brenner - keyboards, left in 1983 and became The Pete Best.
While Hollis from the start cited jazz musicians like
Miles Davis,
John Coltrane and classical artists like Bartók and Debussy and influences, the band's financial situation in their early years forced them to rely on synths and brought about predictable comparisons to
New Wave artists like
Duran Duran. Snapped up by EMI, the lads released their first album in 1982,
The Party's Over. Produced by former
David Bowie and
Duran Duran engineer Colin Thurston, the album showcased the
Synth Pop/
New Wave sound that attracted accusations of
derivativeness but scraped the UK Top 40 with "Talk Talk" and "Today". In the ensuing tour, the band opened for
Genesis at a concert, forcing Hollis to spend most of the set avoiding whatever fans threw on stage.
Brenner left in 1983, and his replacement with Tim Friese-Greene proved to be probably the most important development in Talk Talk's career considering the key role he played later on. The band then lurched back into the studio and came out in 1984 with the less synthesizer-heavy
It's My Life, which managed to spawn the titular hit single and climbed up charts...
everywhere except the UK. The next album,
Colour of Spring, followed two years later and showed the band completely abandoning
New Wave, while still remaining accessibly "pop". It became their best-selling album.
Buoyed by the success, EMI granted Talk Talk a large budget and no schedule for recording the next album. The band proceeded to lock themselves in Wessex Sound Studios (a former church hall converted into a recording studio) for about a year, refusing to allow execs or their manager to visit, and recorded hours upon hours of improvised material with 12 additional musicians and the Chelmsford Cathedral choir, using incense, candles and occasionally complete darkness to "get in the mood", which Hollis and Friese-Greene would then painstakingly edit together. The result:
Spirit of Eden, whose 6
pretty long tracks showed the band moving into experimental, jazz- and ambient-influenced territory that helped, if not
create, at least
codify Post-Rock.
Critical acclaim greeted the record while sales predictably decreased a bit, and some attempted
Executive Meddling from EMI making them release "I Believe in You" as a single led to a lawsuit that the band eventually won and had their contract dissolved. Webb left in the meantime, and the now-reduced-to-a-trio Talk Talk moved to Polydor Records. Their last album,
Laughing Stock, came out in 1991 on Polydor's famed jazz label, Verve. The recording sessions were even more demanding, the list of guest musicians was longer, the track lengths increased as well, the music moved in an even more minimalist, ambient-oriented direction, the influence on
Post-Rock was larger and the critical acclaim even larger. In short,
Laughing Stock was
Spirit of Eden turned
Up to Eleven.
Small wonder that the band couldn't follow up on it: they disbanded a year later. Hollis released a solo album in 1998 and then disappeared from music completely, Webb and Harris started a new band, and Friese-Greene returned to a solo career while moonlighting as an occasional producer (such as on
Lush's
Sweetness and Light EP).
Discography:
- The Party's Over (1982)
- It's My Life (1984)
- The Colour of Spring (1986)
- Spirit of Eden (1988)
- Laughing Stock (1991)
Tropes that apply to Talk Talk include:
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