Line #33 Music/LaughingStock


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5_laughing_stock_lp.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Shake my head, turn my face to the floor..."'']]
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4	''Laughing Stock'', released in 1991 through Creator/VerveRecords in the UK and Creator/PolydorRecords in the US, is the fifth and final album by British group Music/TalkTalk, embarking on an [[NewSoundAlbum even further departure]] from their SynthPop[=/=]NewWaveMusic beginnings that began with their previous album, ''Music/SpiritOfEden'', and letting their jazz influences and experimental leanings shine through. The album is sometimes referred to as being [[IAmTheBand a Mark Hollis improvisation session]] with a bunch of guest artists: bassist Paul Webb left the band prior to recording, and Hollis hired a large ensemble for recordings (to put it into perspective, the amount of violists featured in this album is ''seven''). Like its predecessor, the album was a considerable influence on the genre of PostRock, and together with Music/{{Slint}}'s sophomore album ''Music/{{Spiderland}}'' (also from 1991) is frequently described as the outright TropeMaker.
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6	Talk Talk had already accomplished their musical goals with ''Spirit of Eden'', and had fully expected that to be their last album. However, a legal dispute with Creator/{{EMI}} regarding a last-minute contract extension resulted in the band jumping ship to Creator/PolydorRecords. Polydor, aware that the band didn't expect to be active for much longer, gave them a contract that asked for just two albums: Hollis would eventually put out the second in the form of [[Music/MarkHollisAlbum his 1998 solo album]]. In both cases, Hollis was given the same free rein as on ''Spirit of Eden'': for ''Laughing Stock'', Talk Talk repeated their prior method of improvising with session players in darkness before piecing together songs out of the results. Distribution of the album was handled between both Polydor and their jazz subsidiary Creator/VerveRecords, previously known for their handling of Music/TheVelvetUnderground and Music/FrankZappa catalogs in the 60's. Verve put out the album in the UK, while Polydor themselves distributed it in the US.
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8	''Laughing Stock'' was supported by three singles: "After the Flood (Outtake)", "New Grass", and "Ascension Day", all of which were released solely as part of an elaborate BoxedSet compiling the three together across three [=CDs=] (a 10" acetate of "After the Flood (Outtake)" and a promo 7" of "Ascension Day" ''were'' put out, but these specific releases weren't made available to the public). These singles and their associated B-sides (most of which are just other tracks from the album) were later collected alongside a solo piano instrumental by Hollis on the scarcely-distributed and now out-of-print ''Missing Pieces'' compilation in 2001, released to commemorate the album's [[MilestoneCelebration tenth anniversary]].
9	----
10	!!Tracklist:
11	# "Myrrhman" (5:33)
12	# "Ascension Day" (6:00)
13	# "After the Flood" (9:39)
14	# "Taphead" (7:39)
15	# "New Grass" (9:40)
16	# "Runeii" (4:58)
17	----
18	!!Principal members:
19	[[AC: Main band members]]
20	* Mark Hollis – vocal, guitar, piano, melodica, organ (also variophon, uncredited)
21	* Lee Harris - drums
22
23	[[AC: Additional instrumentalists]]
24	* Mark Feltham – harmonica
25	* Martin Ditcham – percussion
26	* Tim Friese-Greene – organ, piano, harmonium
27	* Levine Andrade, Stephen Tees, George Robertson, Gavyn Wright, Jack Glickman, Garfield Jackson, Wilf Gibson – viola
28	* Simon Edwards, Ernest Mothle – acoustic bass
29	* Roger Smith, Paul Kegg – cello
30	* Henry Lowther – trumpet, flugelhorn
31	* Dave White – contra bass, clarinet
32	----
33	!!Reckon tropes see us the same:
34	* AlbumClosure: The lyrics of "Runeii" are conclusive and reflective in tone, acting as a contemplation on all the musical and lyrical themes that've been explored throughout the album and acting as the closing of Talk Talk's door.
35	* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Implied to be the case with the album's narrator throughout the course of its 43-minute runtime, particularly in regards to the aptly-titled "Ascension Day" and "Runeii".
36	* BoleroEffect: "After the Flood" starts out as a quiet, minimalist jam and progressively grows louder as various instruments step into the mix. Unlike most examples, the song then does the trope in reverse, stripping itself back down to that initial quiet jam after reaching its climax.
37	* BookEnds: The album begins and ends with songs whose titles literally translate to "Laughing Stock" and are partly references to the band's earlier works. Furthermore, "Myrrhman" opens with an amplifier hiss, while "Runeii" ends with it.
38	* CallBack:
39	** The titles of the first and last songs on the album hark back to the band's first two albums. "Myrrhman" recalls "Mirror Man" off of ''The Party's Over'', which was released as the band's debut single. "Runeii" recalls the ''It's My Life'' track "Renée".
40	** The amplifier hiss that opens "Myrrhman" partly acts as a nod back to "The Rainbow", the opener to ''Spirit of Eden'', which features an extended passage of a fan-like object whirling in the wind after the intro.
41	* CerebusSyndrome: The album is far more dour in tone than ''Spirit of Eden'' while still maintaining the same jazzy, abstract musical style.
42	* ConceptAlbum: Analysts have speculated that the album, taken together, details the narrator being DrivenToSuicide, ascending to heaven, making contact with God, facing judgement, and finally being granted His final mercy.
43	* DarkerAndEdgier: The album is much heavier in mood and more fractured in comparison to Talk Talk's earlier ''Music/SpiritOfEden'', itself already an emotionally heavy and fractured album.
44	* DrivenToSuicide: The lyrics of "Myrrhman" heavily allude to the narrator hanging himself.
45	* EpicRocking: Only one song, "Runeii", is under five minutes long, and even that song's merely two seconds shy. "After the Flood" and "New Grass" in particular stand out, both being over 9 and a half minutes.
46	* FadingIntoTheNextSong:
47	** Thanks to its abrupt ending, "Ascension Day" hard-cuts into "After the Flood".
48	** "After the Flood" into "Taphead" on CD copies outside the US; American CD copies lack the crossfade effect and instead feature "After the Flood" and "Taphead" as wholly separate tracks, as on the LP release. Interestingly, the lack of a cross-fade ends up highlighting a brief four-second guitar warmup at the start of "Taphead" that the crossfade on most CD copies obscures.
49	* GrandFinale: The final album by Talk Talk, with "Runeii" in particular being conclusive in its lyricism. It almost ended up a SeriesFauxnale, with Mark Hollis initially putting together [[Music/MarkHollisAlbum his 1998 solo album]] as a one-man Talk Talk project, but his decision to make it a SelfTitledAlbum instead ensured that ''Laughing Stock'' remained the last note for the band.
50	* IAmTheBand: Despite the presence of long-time drummer Lee Harris, Mark Hollis is the dominant force on the record, being the leader of the project and having a much greater level of involvement in composing the final product.
51	* NoEnding: "Ascension Day" cuts off abruptly at the six-minute mark.
52	* PostRock: Generally considered the TropeMaker, alongside ''Music/SpiritOfEden'' and ''Music/{{Spiderland}}''.
53	* RearrangeTheSong: The single release of "After the Flood", titled "After the Flood (Outtake)", is an alternate take of the song that runs for roughly half the length of the version included on the album and consists of the vocal part overlaid atop all the instrumental tracks playing at once.
54	* ShoutOut: "Myrrhman"-- and by extension, the album-- opening with an amplifier hiss nods to the start of [[Music/KingCrimson "21st Century Schizoid Man"]], itself the opening track of ''Music/InTheCourtOfTheCrimsonKing''.
55	* SilenceIsGolden: "Myrrhman" opens with 15 seconds of nothing but amplifier hiss. Mark Hollis explained that this was a deliberate attempt at emphasizing the importance of silence above all else, intended to counteract his perception that there was an overabundance of background noise in modern life.
56	* SpiritualAntithesis: To Music/{{Slint}}'s ''Music/{{Spiderland}}'', the ''other'' TropeMaker for PostRock that came out in the same year. The two, while both considered cornerstones of the genre, are so starkly different from each other that they inadvertently illustrate just what a nebulous phrase "post-rock" actually is. ''Spiderland'' is a sparse, cold, eerie record made in a basement by a bunch of Louisville punks, which uses unusual song structures, deadpan vocals, and skeletal production to create an oppressive, macabre atmosphere. ''Laughing Stock'' meanwhile is a lush, jazzy record that uses diverse instrumentation and free flowing song structures to create a peaceful, spiritual, faintly melancholic atmosphere. It was made by a British band that already had several commercially successful NewWaveMusic albums under their belt, and featured over a dozen studio musicians playing everything from saxophone to viola. If ''Spiderland'' is an old, rusting railroad bridge standing over a swamp, then this album is a beautiful, Edenic garden.
57	* StylisticSuck: The guitar at the end of "Ascension Day" is intentionally played off-tempo and adds to the chaos of the song's closing moments.
58	* TitleTrack: Played with. While no song on the album is named "Laughing Stock" in English, both "Myrrhman" and "Runeii" literally translate to the phrase, essentially giving the album two title tracks at once.
59	* UncommonTime: "Ascension Day" is in 7/4 and "After the Flood" is at least partially in 10/4.

Context Music / LaughingStock