History Music / TalkTalk

On February 25, 2019, rumors began circulating that Hollis had passed away; no exact date or cause of death has been specified. If the rumors are true, he will be dearly missed.

Small wonder that the band couldn't follow up on it: they disbanded a year later. Hollis released a self-titled solo album in 1998 and then disappeared from music completely, Webb (under the moniker Rustin Man) recorded a collaborative album with Beth Gibbons of Music/{{Portishead}} to rave reviews in 2002, and started a new band with Harris, and Friese-Greene returned to a solo career while moonlighting as an occasional producer (such as on Music/{{Lush}}'s ''Sweetness and Light'' EP).

* EpicRocking: ''Spirit of Eden'' included a side-long suite, which lasts for twenty-three minutes. Other songs on their last two albums are also generally quite long, with "After the Flood" (9:38) and "New Grass" (9:40) being particularly noteworthy. ''The Colour of Spring'' and Mark Hollis' solo album also have a few examples of this, with the longest on each release being "Time It's Time" (8:14) and "A Life (1895 - 1915)" (8:10), respectively.
* GriefSong: "I Believe in You" was written after Mark Hollis' brother died from a heroin overdose.

* InNameOnly: Inverted with Mark Hollis' solo record; it's frequently considered a Talk Talk album in all but name, and is considered to comprise a loose trilogy with the band's final two official albums.

* NewSoundAlbum: Lots of 'em, and drastically so.

* PostRock: TropeMaker on ''Spirit of Eden'' and ''Laughing Stock'', possibly alongside Music/{{Slint}}. UnbuiltTrope applies to a certain extent here.
* SiameseTwinSongs: "The Rainbow", "Eden", and "Desire".

* AwesomeArt: The surrealist album sleeves painted by James Marsh are wonderful to look at.

** One example, of a sort: ''The Colour of Spring'' gives us "I Don't Believe in You"; ''Spirit of Eden'' gives you "I Believe in You".

* EpicRocking: ''Spirit of Eden'' included a side-long suite, which lasts for twenty-three minutes. Other songs on their last two albums are also generally quite long, with "After the Flood" (9:38) and "New Grass" (9:40) being particularly noteworthy.

* KidsRock: "Happiness is Easy".

* [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]]: Their best known style.

!!Tropes that apply to Talk Talk include:

While Hollis from the start cited jazz musicians like MilesDavis, Music/JohnColtrane 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 [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] artists like DuranDuran. Snapped up by EMI, the lads released their first album in 1982, ''The Party's Over''. Produced by former DavidBowie and DuranDuran engineer Colin Thurston, the album showcased the SynthPop[=/=][[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] sound that attracted accusations of [[FollowTheLeader derivativeness]] but scraped the UK Top 40 with "Talk Talk" and "Today". In the ensuing tour, the band opened for Music/{{Genesis}} at a concert, forcing Hollis to spend most of the set avoiding whatever fans threw on stage.

While Hollis from the start cited jazz musicians like MilesDavis, JohnColtrane 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 [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] artists like DuranDuran. Snapped up by EMI, the lads released their first album in 1982, ''The Party's Over''. Produced by former DavidBowie and DuranDuran engineer Colin Thurston, the album showcased the SynthPop[=/=][[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] sound that attracted accusations of [[FollowTheLeader derivativeness]] but scraped the UK Top 40 with "Talk Talk" and "Today". In the ensuing tour, the band opened for Music/{{Genesis}} at a concert, forcing Hollis to spend most of the set avoiding whatever fans threw on stage.

Small wonder that the band couldn't follow up on it: they disbanded a year later. Hollis released a self-titled solo album in 1998 and then disappeared from music completely, Webb (under the moniker Rustin Man) recorded a collaborative album with Beth Gibbons of Music/{{Portishead}} to rave reviews in 2002, and started a new band with Harris, and Friese-Greene returned to a solo career while moonlighting as an occasional producer (such as on {{Lush}}'s ''Sweetness and Light'' EP).

Small wonder that the band couldn't follow up on it: they disbanded a year later. Hollis released a self-titled solo album in 1998 and then disappeared from music completely, Webb (under the moniker Rustin Man) recorded a collaborative album with Beth Gibbons of Music/Portishead to rave reviews, and started a new band with Harris, and Friese-Greene returned to a solo career while moonlighting as an occasional producer (such as on {{Lush}}'s ''Sweetness and Light'' EP).

Small wonder that the band couldn't follow up on it: they disbanded a year later. Hollis released a self-titled 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).

Critical acclaim greeted the record while sales predictably decreased a bit, and some attempted ExecutiveMeddling 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, improvisational direction, the influence on PostRock was larger and the critical acclaim even larger. In short, ''Laughing Stock'' was ''Spirit of Eden'' turned UpToEleven.

* ''Laughing Stock'' (1991)

Critical acclaim greeted the record while sales predictably decreased a bit, and some attempted ExecutiveMeddling 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 PostRock was larger and the critical acclaim even larger. In short, ''Laughing Stock'' was ''Spirit of Eden'' turned UpToEleven.

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).

* Simon Brenner - keyboards, left in 1983 and became ThePeteBest.

* [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]]: Their best known style, [[GrowingTheBeard unfortunately]].

* PostRock: TropeMaker on ''Spirit of Eden'' and ''Laughing Stock'', possibly alongside Music/{{Slint}}.

* EpicRocking: One of their later albums included a side-long suite.
* GriefSong: "I Believe In You" was written after Mark Hollis' brother died from a heroin overdose.

* ExecutiveMeddling: They were pressured to release a single and video for "I Believe In You". Eventually their label filed a lawsuit over their contract.

* ReclusiveArtist: The band while recording ''Spirit of Eden'' and ''Laughing Stock''.
** [[FaceOfTheBand Mark Hollis]] in particular stands out, [[http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/234221 preferring to pick up an award on the office rather than on the show]] (the photo linked - dated 2004 - was the last time we ever saw from him).
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEAxR1JlT0w He once resisted to give an interview onstage.]]

Talk Talk were a British Music/NewWave band in TheEighties known for one of the standout examples of GrowingTheBeard and successful {{New Sound Album}}s in AlternativeRock. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

While Hollis from the start cited jazz musicians like MilesDavis, JohnColtrane 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 Music/NewWave artists like DuranDuran. Snapped up by EMI, the lads released their first album in 1982, ''The Party's Over''. Produced by former DavidBowie and DuranDuran engineer Colin Thurston, the album showcased the SynthPop[=/=]Music/NewWave sound that attracted accusations of [[FollowTheLeader derivativeness]] but scraped the UK Top 40 with "Talk Talk" and "Today". In the ensuing tour, the band opened for Music/{{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... [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff everywhere except the UK]]. The next album, ''Colour of Spring'', followed two years later and showed the band completely abandoning Music/NewWave, while still remaining accessibly "pop". It became their best-selling album.

* Music/NewWave: Their best known style, [[GrowingTheBeard unfortunately]].

* TheBandMinusTheFace: After the split, the bassist and the drummer carried on making music as .O.rang for two albums, with [[VapourWare the third one still projected yet unreleased]].

Talk Talk were a British NewWave band in TheEighties known for one of the standout examples of GrowingTheBeard and successful {{New Sound Album}}s in AlternativeRock. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

While Hollis from the start cited jazz musicians like MilesDavis, JohnColtrane 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 NewWave artists like DuranDuran. Snapped up by EMI, the lads released their first album in 1982, ''The Party's Over''. Produced by former DavidBowie and DuranDuran engineer Colin Thurston, the album showcased the SynthPop[=/=]NewWave sound that attracted accusations of [[FollowTheLeader derivativeness]] but scraped the UK Top 40 with "Talk Talk" and "Today". In the ensuing tour, the band opened for Music/{{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... [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff everywhere except the UK]]. The next album, ''Colour of Spring'', followed two years later and showed the band completely abandoning NewWave, while still remaining accessibly "pop". It became their best-selling album.

* NewWave: Their best known style, [[GrowingTheBeard unfortunately]].