#markhollis — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #markhollis, aggregated by home.social.
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https://www.europesays.com/news/40897/ Mark Hollis tells AP he’s interested in Michigan State AD job after Kentucky hires J Batt #AndyBeshear #Basketball #Business #CorruptionInSports #EliCapilouto #Georgia #Headlines #Kentucky #KentuckyWildcats #KevinMGuskiewicz #KYStateWire #LarryNassar #MarkDantonio #MarkHollis #MIStateWire #Michigan #MichiganStateSpartans #MitchBarnhart #News #Scandals #sports #SportsRetirements #TomIzzo #TopStories
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iPod random shuffle hit on this yesterday. Fairly breathtaking, as I carved up a watermelon on a rainy afternoon. #MarkHollis #TalkTalk Talk Talk - Eden (1988) youtu.be/1EbnS4KqeAo?...
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Talk Talk Play “Such a Shame”
Listen to this track by ever-evolving synthpop meets art rock concern Talk Talk. It’s “Such a Shame” a single from their 1984 record It’s My Life, their second. That album put the band into the international mainstream, with this song being only slightly less high-profile than its title track. “Such a Shame” represented the band’s third number one single in the European charts and a top 20 hit in the U.S. As popular as it was, this song reveals a progression from where the band began on their first album that had found them on a decidedly more straightforward commercial pop trajectory.
A part of the shift by 1984 was a change in lineup. Talk Talk were a trio by this time, after their synth player, Simon Brenner, left the band. Their core sound is still in place by It’s My Life. Mark Hollis’ distinctive lead vocals are right up front. Paul Webb’s fretless bass is still a prominent texture as is Lee Harris’ drums. But they supplement that sound with more varied textures including piano and acoustic guitar to give the songs greater dimension and with a lusher overall effect.
This shift toward greater sonic depth is also in large part thanks to producer Tim Friese-Greene’s spacious and cinematic approach. The decision to bring in session musicians to fatten up the arrangements also made a significant impact on how the album came out. With that, creative head Hollis and producer Friese-Greene launched a new era for Talk Talk as a recording entity working within a highly disciplined and incrementally experimental creative framework. They dedicated themselves to making albums defined by fine details rather than as the products of a standard pop group set on topping the charts.
“Such a Shame” reflects some of their best results that came out of this sonic auteur methodology. Before they journeyed away from radio-friendly pop singles entirely later in the decade, this song lives in a middle ground between finely crafted art rock and accessible pop. It made the numbers as a charting single. Yet it also hinted at much deeper and darker themes that go beyond standard pop music subject matter.
This shift in approach aligns perfectly to Hollis’ impressionistic lyrics and mournful, soulful lead voice on this song. He sings an internal monologue of conflict and compulsion based on his reading of the 1971 cult novel Dice Man by George Cockcroft. The author writes under the pen name Luke Rhinehart who is also the main character.
The novel is the story of a man who hands over his life entirely to chance at the roll of the dice to determine his decisions. Initially, the gambit is a method to help get the man out of the rut of his boring and predictable life. But it takes a dark turn as the practice of rolling the dice becomes a repeating pattern of its own that demands obedience to the result, no matter how destructive it is. This helps to explain the sleeve art for the single that depicts a scorpion rearing up on a set of dice.
Talk Talk singer and creative principal Mark Hollis. image: Dr. SpaceThe themes in the novel and in the song touch on the nature of free will, morality, social obligations, and the nature of identity itself as it’s defined by the choices we make. “Such a Shame” isn’t an essay on these subjects. As with most of Hollis’ songwriting, his lyrics are sparse and deal in emotional impressions rather than in absolutes. What “Such a Shame” does do is capture a sense of detachment and resignation. But there is also a another force in this song that works against the premise of compliance with what is coldly random: doubt.
The dice decide my fate
That’s a shame
In these trembling hands, my faith
Tells me to react, I don’t care
Maybe it’s unkind that I should change
A feeling that we shareIt’s a shame …
~ “Such a Shame” by Talk Talk
This song finds the narrator questioning why they feel so compelled to give up their will to chance, or why they seek to fool themselves into thinking that this is not simply an abdication of moral responsibility. It also hints at a vital truth: not all decisions represented on the faces of a die should be considered as being of equal moral weight. Like all decisions, either immediate or predetermined, we can’t escape our own biases, our ulterior motives, or the darker sides of our natures.
In “Such a Shame”, it’s only hesitation and doubt about the narrator’s own motivations that gives them pause to be aware of this eagerness to change; rolling the dice again and possibly departing from the feeling that we share to stay connected to others. It’s the doubt that exists outside of that self-imposed and rigid system that serves as the spark of hope to counteract how destructive unexamined obedience to anything can be. It’s not a shame if it can be avoided by doing the right thing. Faith in a bad system is undone when a healthy dose of contemplation and doubt circumvents it.
Released in the significant literary year of 1984, the nature of will, obedience, authority, and moral responsibility was top of mind for many. This single from Talk Talk doesn’t serve as a primary text to unpack the ramifications of that. But on closer inspection, it hinted at conversations that individuals and societies must continue to have in our own era, ignoring them at our peril; what is our relationship to the decisions we make and those made by those in authority over us by extension? Who is responsible for the outcomes and who pays the costs incurred further down the road?
These questions remain to be all too pertinent today in an era when obedience is considered a virtue and mandatory requirement even over clear thinking and morality that stand in opposition to it. In these times, we need to doubt what the powers that be demand. As it was in 1984, we can’t trust the outcome to a passionless and resigned roll of the dice.
For more on how the It’s My Life album represented the beginnings of a stylistic shift for Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, check out this article on classicpopmag.com
For more on George Cockcroft and The Dice Man, check out Who is the Real Dice Man? from The Guardian. The piece outlines the plot of the novel and the real-world phenomenon of dice culture that it helped inspire. But it’s also an exploration by journalist Emmanuel Carrère as he visits the novel’s author to determine how close Cockcroft is to the character he created.
Enjoy!
#80sMusic #artRock #MarkHollis #progressivePop #Synthpop #TalkTalk -
Talk Talk Play “Such a Shame”
Listen to this track by ever-evolving synthpop meets art rock concern Talk Talk. It’s “Such a Shame” a single from their 1984 record It’s My Life, their second. That album put the band into the international mainstream, with this song being only slightly less high-profile than its title track. “Such a Shame” represented the band’s third number one single in the European charts and a top 20 hit in the U.S. As popular as it was, this song reveals a progression from where the band began on their first album that had found them on a decidedly more straightforward commercial pop trajectory.
A part of the shift by 1984 was a change in lineup. Talk Talk were a trio by this time, after their synth player, Simon Brenner, left the band. Their core sound is still in place by It’s My Life. Mark Hollis’ distinctive lead vocals are right up front. Paul Webb’s fretless bass is still a prominent texture as is Lee Harris’ drums. But they supplement that sound with more varied textures including piano and acoustic guitar to give the songs greater dimension and with a lusher overall effect.
This shift toward greater sonic depth is also in large part thanks to producer Tim Friese-Greene’s spacious and cinematic approach. The decision to bring in session musicians to fatten up the arrangements also made a significant impact on how the album came out. With that, creative head Hollis and producer Friese-Greene launched a new era for Talk Talk as a recording entity working within a highly disciplined and incrementally experimental creative framework. They dedicated themselves to making albums defined by fine details rather than as the products of a standard pop group set on topping the charts.
“Such a Shame” reflects some of their best results that came out of this sonic auteur methodology. Before they journeyed away from radio-friendly pop singles entirely later in the decade, this song lives in a middle ground between finely crafted art rock and accessible pop. It made the numbers as a charting single. Yet it also hinted at much deeper and darker themes that go beyond standard pop music subject matter.
This shift in approach aligns perfectly to Hollis’ impressionistic lyrics and mournful, soulful lead voice on this song. He sings an internal monologue of conflict and compulsion based on his reading of the 1971 cult novel Dice Man by George Cockcroft. The author writes under the pen name Luke Rhinehart who is also the main character.
The novel is the story of a man who hands over his life entirely to chance at the roll of the dice to determine his decisions. Initially, the gambit is a method to help get the man out of the rut of his boring and predictable life. But it takes a dark turn as the practice of rolling the dice becomes a repeating pattern of its own that demands obedience to the result, no matter how destructive it is. This helps to explain the sleeve art for the single that depicts a scorpion rearing up on a set of dice.
Talk Talk singer and creative principal Mark Hollis. image: Dr. SpaceThe themes in the novel and in the song touch on the nature of free will, morality, social obligations, and the nature of identity itself as it’s defined by the choices we make. “Such a Shame” isn’t an essay on these subjects. As with most of Hollis’ songwriting, his lyrics are sparse and deal in emotional impressions rather than in absolutes. What “Such a Shame” does do is capture a sense of detachment and resignation. But there is also a another force in this song that works against the premise of compliance with what is coldly random: doubt.
The dice decide my fate
That’s a shame
In these trembling hands, my faith
Tells me to react, I don’t care
Maybe it’s unkind that I should change
A feeling that we shareIt’s a shame …
~ “Such a Shame” by Talk Talk
This song finds the narrator questioning why they feel so compelled to give up their will to chance, or why they seek to fool themselves into thinking that this is not simply an abdication of moral responsibility. It also hints at a vital truth: not all decisions represented on the faces of a die should be considered as being of equal moral weight. Like all decisions, either immediate or predetermined, we can’t escape our own biases, our ulterior motives, or the darker sides of our natures.
In “Such a Shame”, it’s only hesitation and doubt about the narrator’s own motivations that gives them pause to be aware of this eagerness to change; rolling the dice again and possibly departing from the feeling that we share to stay connected to others. It’s the doubt that exists outside of that self-imposed and rigid system that serves as the spark of hope to counteract how destructive unexamined obedience to anything can be. It’s not a shame if it can be avoided by doing the right thing. Faith in a bad system is undone when a healthy dose of contemplation and doubt circumvents it.
Released in the significant literary year of 1984, the nature of will, obedience, authority, and moral responsibility was top of mind for many. This single from Talk Talk doesn’t serve as a primary text to unpack the ramifications of that. But on closer inspection, it hinted at conversations that individuals and societies must continue to have in our own era, ignoring them at our peril; what is our relationship to the decisions we make and those made by those in authority over us by extension? Who is responsible for the outcomes and who pays the costs incurred further down the road?
These questions remain to be all too pertinent today in an era when obedience is considered a virtue and mandatory requirement even over clear thinking and morality that stand in opposition to it. In these times, we need to doubt what the powers that be demand. As it was in 1984, we can’t trust the outcome to a passionless and resigned roll of the dice.
For more on how the It’s My Life album represented the beginnings of a stylistic shift for Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, check out this article on classicpopmag.com
For more on George Cockcroft and The Dice Man, check out Who is the Real Dice Man? from The Guardian. The piece outlines the plot of the novel and the real-world phenomenon of dice culture that it helped inspire. But it’s also an exploration by journalist Emmanuel Carrère as he visits the novel’s author to determine how close Cockcroft is to the character he created.
Enjoy!
#80sMusic #artRock #MarkHollis #progressivePop #Synthpop #TalkTalk -
"It's My Life" is a song by the English band #TalkTalk. Written by #MarkHollis and #TimFrieseGreene, it was the title track on the band's second album, #ItsMyLife (1984), and released as its first single on 3 January 1984. It became a moderate hit in many countries, reaching number 46 on the #UKSinglesChart, number 33 in #Germany, number 32 in #NewZealand, number 25 in #France, number nine in Italy, and number 30 in #Canada. In the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeH9GCtShE -
"It's My Life" is a song by the English band #TalkTalk. Written by #MarkHollis and #TimFrieseGreene, it was the title track on the band's second album, #ItsMyLife (1984), and released as its first single on 3 January 1984. It became a moderate hit in many countries, reaching number 46 on the #UKSinglesChart, number 33 in #Germany, number 32 in #NewZealand, number 25 in #France, number nine in Italy, and number 30 in #Canada. In the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeH9GCtShE -
"It's My Life" is a song by the English band #TalkTalk. Written by #MarkHollis and #TimFrieseGreene, it was the title track on the band's second album, #ItsMyLife (1984), and released as its first single on 3 January 1984. It became a moderate hit in many countries, reaching number 46 on the #UKSinglesChart, number 33 in #Germany, number 32 in #NewZealand, number 25 in #France, number nine in Italy, and number 30 in #Canada. In the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeH9GCtShE -
"It's My Life" is a song by the English band #TalkTalk. Written by #MarkHollis and #TimFrieseGreene, it was the title track on the band's second album, #ItsMyLife (1984), and released as its first single on 3 January 1984. It became a moderate hit in many countries, reaching number 46 on the #UKSinglesChart, number 33 in #Germany, number 32 in #NewZealand, number 25 in #France, number nine in Italy, and number 30 in #Canada. In the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeH9GCtShE -
"It's My Life" is a song by the English band #TalkTalk. Written by #MarkHollis and #TimFrieseGreene, it was the title track on the band's second album, #ItsMyLife (1984), and released as its first single on 3 January 1984. It became a moderate hit in many countries, reaching number 46 on the #UKSinglesChart, number 33 in #Germany, number 32 in #NewZealand, number 25 in #France, number nine in Italy, and number 30 in #Canada. In the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeH9GCtShE -
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
There's not a lot to say about this masterpiece without sounding like a douche, so instead here's an article about it by the Music Aficionado:
https://musicaficionado.blog/2018/09/13/spirit-of-eden-by-talk-talk/
New half-speed master, and good pressing. Given the dynamics involved, the pressing *matters*.
One video of an edited track, to give an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilvJkYY1G7Q
#nowplaying #vinyl #artrock #postrock #TalkTalk #MarkHollis #PaulWebb #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris
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Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
There's not a lot to say about this masterpiece without sounding like a douche, so instead here's an article about it by the Music Aficionado:
https://musicaficionado.blog/2018/09/13/spirit-of-eden-by-talk-talk/
New half-speed master, and good pressing. Given the dynamics involved, the pressing *matters*.
One video of an edited track, to give an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilvJkYY1G7Q
#nowplaying #vinyl #artrock #postrock #TalkTalk #MarkHollis #PaulWebb #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris
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Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
There's not a lot to say about this masterpiece without sounding like a douche, so instead here's an article about it by the Music Aficionado:
https://musicaficionado.blog/2018/09/13/spirit-of-eden-by-talk-talk/
New half-speed master, and good pressing. Given the dynamics involved, the pressing *matters*.
One video of an edited track, to give an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilvJkYY1G7Q
#nowplaying #vinyl #artrock #postrock #TalkTalk #MarkHollis #PaulWebb #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris
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Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
There's not a lot to say about this masterpiece without sounding like a douche, so instead here's an article about it by the Music Aficionado:
https://musicaficionado.blog/2018/09/13/spirit-of-eden-by-talk-talk/
New half-speed master, and good pressing. Given the dynamics involved, the pressing *matters*.
One video of an edited track, to give an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilvJkYY1G7Q
#nowplaying #vinyl #artrock #postrock #TalkTalk #MarkHollis #PaulWebb #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris
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Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
There's not a lot to say about this masterpiece without sounding like a douche, so instead here's an article about it by the Music Aficionado:
https://musicaficionado.blog/2018/09/13/spirit-of-eden-by-talk-talk/
New half-speed master, and good pressing. Given the dynamics involved, the pressing *matters*.
One video of an edited track, to give an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilvJkYY1G7Q
#nowplaying #vinyl #artrock #postrock #TalkTalk #MarkHollis #PaulWebb #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris
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Jsou hudebníci, kteří zůstávají přítomní i tehdy, když se odmlčeli. Dnes se vracíme k archivnímu textu o #MarkHollis – lídrovi #TalkTalk a autorovi jednoho z nejkřehčích sólových alb devadesátých let. Text o akustice, rezonanci tónu a odmítnutí rutiny. Jeho pozdní tvorba nenápadně otevřela dveře celé generaci kapel, které se nebály ubrat, ztišit a hledat význam mezi tóny.
#Music #PostRock #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2019/02/27/mark-hollis-prostor-mezi-tony/ -
Jsou hudebníci, kteří zůstávají přítomní i tehdy, když se odmlčeli. Dnes se vracíme k archivnímu textu o #MarkHollis – lídrovi #TalkTalk a autorovi jednoho z nejkřehčích sólových alb devadesátých let. Text o akustice, rezonanci tónu a odmítnutí rutiny. Jeho pozdní tvorba nenápadně otevřela dveře celé generaci kapel, které se nebály ubrat, ztišit a hledat význam mezi tóny.
#Music #PostRock #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2019/02/27/mark-hollis-prostor-mezi-tony/ -
Jsou hudebníci, kteří zůstávají přítomní i tehdy, když se odmlčeli. Dnes se vracíme k archivnímu textu o #MarkHollis – lídrovi #TalkTalk a autorovi jednoho z nejkřehčích sólových alb devadesátých let. Text o akustice, rezonanci tónu a odmítnutí rutiny. Jeho pozdní tvorba nenápadně otevřela dveře celé generaci kapel, které se nebály ubrat, ztišit a hledat význam mezi tóny.
#Music #PostRock #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2019/02/27/mark-hollis-prostor-mezi-tony/ -
Než zahrajete dvě noty, naučte se zahrát jednu — a tu nehrajte bez důvodu. Skica o kapele Talk Talk, která zvolila ústup místo expanze, ticho místo jistoty. Připomínka 35 let od rozpadu bez sentimentu: hudba jako rozhodnutí, ne povinnost.
#Music #NewWave #SynthPop #PostRock #MarkHollis #TalkTalk #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2026/02/05/talk-talk-profil/ -
Než zahrajete dvě noty, naučte se zahrát jednu — a tu nehrajte bez důvodu. Skica o kapele Talk Talk, která zvolila ústup místo expanze, ticho místo jistoty. Připomínka 35 let od rozpadu bez sentimentu: hudba jako rozhodnutí, ne povinnost.
#Music #NewWave #SynthPop #PostRock #MarkHollis #TalkTalk #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2026/02/05/talk-talk-profil/ -
Než zahrajete dvě noty, naučte se zahrát jednu — a tu nehrajte bez důvodu. Skica o kapele Talk Talk, která zvolila ústup místo expanze, ticho místo jistoty. Připomínka 35 let od rozpadu bez sentimentu: hudba jako rozhodnutí, ne povinnost.
#Music #NewWave #SynthPop #PostRock #MarkHollis #TalkTalk #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2026/02/05/talk-talk-profil/ -
Než zahrajete dvě noty, naučte se zahrát jednu — a tu nehrajte bez důvodu. Skica o kapele Talk Talk, která zvolila ústup místo expanze, ticho místo jistoty. Připomínka 35 let od rozpadu bez sentimentu: hudba jako rozhodnutí, ne povinnost.
#Music #NewWave #SynthPop #PostRock #MarkHollis #TalkTalk #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2026/02/05/talk-talk-profil/ -
Než zahrajete dvě noty, naučte se zahrát jednu — a tu nehrajte bez důvodu. Skica o kapele Talk Talk, která zvolila ústup místo expanze, ticho místo jistoty. Připomínka 35 let od rozpadu bez sentimentu: hudba jako rozhodnutí, ne povinnost.
#Music #NewWave #SynthPop #PostRock #MarkHollis #TalkTalk #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2026/02/05/talk-talk-profil/ -
>#TalkTalk - Living in Another World (Live at Montreux 1986)<
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>#TalkTalk - Living in Another World (Live at Montreux 1986)<
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>#TalkTalk - Living in Another World (Live at Montreux 1986)<
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>#TalkTalk - Living in Another World (Live at Montreux 1986)<
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>#TalkTalk - Living in Another World (Live at Montreux 1986)<
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Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991, UK)
Our next spotlight is on number 908 on The List, submitted by arratoon. This is Talk Talk's fifth and final album, their decidedly uncommercial, bare, free-form masterpiece, created out of hours upon hours of 50 musicians improvising in darkness.
Want to read more? See the full spotlight on the Fediverse at @1001otheralbums.com or on the blog: https://1001otheralbums.com/2025/05/11/talk-talk-laughing-stock-1991-uk/
Want to skip straight to the music? Here's a Songlink: https://album.link/ca/i/1444218854
Happy listening, and I'll see you all in a month.
#TalkTalk #MarkHollis #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris #PhillBrown #experimental #improvisation #ArtRock #PostRock #ambient #1990s #music #1001OtherAlbums
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Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991, UK)
Our next spotlight is on number 908 on The List, submitted by arratoon. This is Talk Talk's fifth and final album, their decidedly uncommercial, bare, free-form masterpiece, created out of hours upon hours of 50 musicians improvising in darkness.
Want to read more? See the full spotlight on the Fediverse at @1001otheralbums.com or on the blog: https://1001otheralbums.com/2025/05/11/talk-talk-laughing-stock-1991-uk/
Want to skip straight to the music? Here's a Songlink: https://album.link/ca/i/1444218854
Happy listening, and I'll see you all in a month.
#TalkTalk #MarkHollis #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris #PhillBrown #experimental #improvisation #ArtRock #PostRock #ambient #1990s #music #1001OtherAlbums
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Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991, UK)
Our next spotlight is on number 908 on The List, submitted by arratoon. This is Talk Talk's fifth and final album, their decidedly uncommercial, bare, free-form masterpiece, created out of hours upon hours of 50 musicians improvising in darkness.
Want to read more? See the full spotlight on the Fediverse at @1001otheralbums.com or on the blog: https://1001otheralbums.com/2025/05/11/talk-talk-laughing-stock-1991-uk/
Want to skip straight to the music? Here's a Songlink: https://album.link/ca/i/1444218854
Happy listening, and I'll see you all in a month.
#TalkTalk #MarkHollis #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris #PhillBrown #experimental #improvisation #ArtRock #PostRock #ambient #1990s #music #1001OtherAlbums
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Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991, UK)
Our next spotlight is on number 908 on The List, submitted by arratoon. This is Talk Talk's fifth and final album, their decidedly uncommercial, bare, free-form masterpiece, created out of hours upon hours of 50 musicians improvising in darkness.
Want to read more? See the full spotlight on the Fediverse at @1001otheralbums.com or on the blog: https://1001otheralbums.com/2025/05/11/talk-talk-laughing-stock-1991-uk/
Want to skip straight to the music? Here's a Songlink: https://album.link/ca/i/1444218854
Happy listening, and I'll see you all in a month.
#TalkTalk #MarkHollis #TimFrieseGreene #LeeHarris #PhillBrown #experimental #improvisation #ArtRock #PostRock #ambient #1990s #music #1001OtherAlbums
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Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991, UK)
Our next spotlight is on number 908 on The List, submitted by arratoon.
It’s odd when you think you know a band, think you’ve heard all the albums…and then realize that you perhaps don’t and definitely haven’t. I thought I knew Talk Talk. I’ve been listening to the brilliant The Colour of Spring (1986), their third, for something like 15 years after an older wiser friend had turned me onto them. Colour of Spring was the album I absolutely latched onto, the album I recommended when singing Talk Talk’s praises, the album I defined their sound by (well, that and the title track of the previous album, It’s My Life [1984], a cover of which is how the band first entered my consciousness).
And so, when Talk Talk came up next for a spotlight, the last before my planned month-long blog break, I was both happy and relieved – familiar ground, I could bang out a post real quick. Since it had been a while though, I decided to give the entire Talk Talk discography a quick spin first, all of five albums, maybe try and figure out why arratoon had picked Laughing Stock and not, imho, the more obvious The Colour of Spring.
Reader, I did not know Talk Talk, and had not heard all their albums. As it turns out, I: (a) had not heard their entire debut, the rather commercial synth-pop The Party’s Over (1982) that doesn’t have any of the experimental art pop/rock I was familiar with; (b) had somehow forgotten all about their fourth, the moody, jazzy, pre-post-rock The Spirit of Eden (1988), a copy of which I was surprised to find in my record collection (and which, according to Discogs, I purchased the day we learned founder, principal songwriter, and vocalist Mark Hollis had left us); and (c) had never heard any of their final, decidedly uncommercial, bare, free-form masterpiece.
And so, after finishing the full discography listen-through yesterday and being blown away by what was inexplicably my very first listen of Laughing Stock, this morning I’ve gone back to Spirit to see if we had warning of what was to come (yep, sorta), and now am relistening to Laughing and reading a whole load of articles about it.[1] The studio (Wessex Sound Studios) essentially served as a multi-month-long drop-in session for something like 50 musicians (with only 18 of them making it on the final album), each allowed to hear only a small section of a track to riff off of (never the full thing), studio windows blacked out, clocks not allowed, the space lit only by oil projectors and strobe lights (the same studio and ambience was also used for Spirit). And, though it came out of the same improvisational and deconstruction/reconstruction processes first used in Colour and then in Spirit (the final parts selected and rearranged by Hollis out of countless hours of tape), and though it’s credited alongside Spirit as also being a seminal pre-post-rock album, Laughing to my ears is really nothing like the others. For that matter, whereas before I had defined Talk Talk’s sound by Colour of Spring, I would now say that, from Colour on, none of the last three albums really sound like the others. The Talk Talk sound I thought I knew? Turns out, all I could possible mean by that is Mark Hollis’ voice – utterly unique and somehow simultaneously soothing and fragile – on top of fantastic music lovingly stitched together by a genius with an uncompromising vision.
If you think you know Talk Talk but haven’t heard Laughing Stock yet, give it a spin. Better yet, give the entire discography a spin, and in any order at that. And then we’ll all be up to speed for a later spotlight, when we’ll dive into Mark Hollis’ solo record that we also have on The List.
Happy listening, and I’ll see you all in a month.
- E.g., The Quietus piece is great: https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/talk-talk-laughing-stock/ ↩︎
#1990s #ambient #artRock #experimental #improvisation #LeeHarris #MarkHollis #PhillBrown #postrock #TalkTalk #TimFrieseGreene
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Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991, UK)
Our next spotlight is on number 908 on The List, submitted by arratoon.
It’s odd when you think you know a band, think you’ve heard all the albums…and then realize that you perhaps don’t and definitely haven’t. I thought I knew Talk Talk. I’ve been listening to the brilliant The Colour of Spring (1986), their third, for something like 15 years after an older wiser friend had turned me onto them. Colour of Spring was the album I absolutely latched onto, the album I recommended when singing Talk Talk’s praises, the album I defined their sound by (well, that and the title track of the previous album, It’s My Life [1984], a cover of which is how the band first entered my consciousness).
And so, when Talk Talk came up next for a spotlight, the last before my planned month-long blog break, I was both happy and relieved – familiar ground, I could bang out a post real quick. Since it had been a while though, I decided to give the entire Talk Talk discography a quick spin first, all of five albums, maybe try and figure out why arratoon had picked Laughing Stock and not, imho, the more obvious The Colour of Spring.
Reader, I did not know Talk Talk, and had not heard all their albums. As it turns out, I: (a) had not heard their entire debut, the rather commercial synth-pop The Party’s Over (1982) that doesn’t have any of the experimental art pop/rock I was familiar with; (b) had somehow forgotten all about their fourth, the moody, jazzy, pre-post-rock The Spirit of Eden (1988), a copy of which I was surprised to find in my record collection (and which, according to Discogs, I purchased the day we learned founder, principal songwriter, and vocalist Mark Hollis had left us); and (c) had never heard any of their final, decidedly uncommercial, bare, free-form masterpiece.
And so, after finishing the full discography listen-through yesterday and being blown away by what was inexplicably my very first listen of Laughing Stock, this morning I’ve gone back to Spirit to see if we had warning of what was to come (yep, sorta), and now am relistening to Laughing and reading a whole load of articles about it.[1] The studio (Wessex Sound Studios) essentially served as a multi-month-long drop-in session for something like 50 musicians (with only 18 of them making it on the final album), each allowed to hear only a small section of a track to riff off of (never the full thing), studio windows blacked out, clocks not allowed, the space lit only by oil projectors and strobe lights (the same studio and ambience was also used for Spirit). And, though it came out of the same improvisational and deconstruction/reconstruction processes first used in Colour and then in Spirit (the final parts selected and rearranged by Hollis out of countless hours of tape), and though it’s credited alongside Spirit as also being a seminal pre-post-rock album, Laughing to my ears is really nothing like the others. For that matter, whereas before I had defined Talk Talk’s sound by Colour of Spring, I would now say that, from Colour on, none of the last three albums really sound like the others. The Talk Talk sound I thought I knew? Turns out, all I could possible mean by that is Mark Hollis’ voice – utterly unique and somehow simultaneously soothing and fragile – on top of fantastic music lovingly stitched together by a genius with an uncompromising vision.
If you think you know Talk Talk but haven’t heard Laughing Stock yet, give it a spin. Better yet, give the entire discography a spin, and in any order at that. And then we’ll all be up to speed for a later spotlight, when we’ll dive into Mark Hollis’ solo record that we also have on The List.
Happy listening, and I’ll see you all in a month.
- E.g., The Quietus piece is great: https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/talk-talk-laughing-stock/ ↩︎
#1990s #ambient #artRock #experimental #improvisation #LeeHarris #MarkHollis #PhillBrown #postrock #TalkTalk #TimFrieseGreene
-
Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991, UK)
Our next spotlight is on number 908 on The List, submitted by arratoon.
It’s odd when you think you know a band, think you’ve heard all the albums…and then realize that you perhaps don’t and definitely haven’t. I thought I knew Talk Talk. I’ve been listening to the brilliant The Colour of Spring (1986), their third, for something like 15 years after an older wiser friend had turned me onto them. Colour of Spring was the album I absolutely latched onto, the album I recommended when singing Talk Talk’s praises, the album I defined their sound by (well, that and the title track of the previous album, It’s My Life [1984], a cover of which is how the band first entered my consciousness).
And so, when Talk Talk came up next for a spotlight, the last before my planned month-long blog break, I was both happy and relieved – familiar ground, I could bang out a post real quick. Since it had been a while though, I decided to give the entire Talk Talk discography a quick spin first, all of five albums, maybe try and figure out why arratoon had picked Laughing Stock and not, imho, the more obvious The Colour of Spring.
Reader, I did not know Talk Talk, and had not heard all their albums. As it turns out, I: (a) had not heard their entire debut, the rather commercial synth-pop The Party’s Over (1982) that doesn’t have any of the experimental art pop/rock I was familiar with; (b) had somehow forgotten all about their fourth, the moody, jazzy, pre-post-rock The Spirit of Eden (1988), a copy of which I was surprised to find in my record collection (and which, according to Discogs, I purchased the day we learned founder, principal songwriter, and vocalist Mark Hollis had left us); and (c) had never heard any of their final, decidedly uncommercial, bare, free-form masterpiece.
And so, after finishing the full discography listen-through yesterday and being blown away by what was inexplicably my very first listen of Laughing Stock, this morning I’ve gone back to Spirit to see if we had warning of what was to come (yep, sorta), and now am relistening to Laughing and reading a whole load of articles about it.[1] The studio (Wessex Sound Studios) essentially served as a multi-month-long drop-in session for something like 50 musicians (with only 18 of them making it on the final album), each allowed to hear only a small section of a track to riff off of (never the full thing), studio windows blacked out, clocks not allowed, the space lit only by oil projectors and strobe lights (the same studio and ambience was also used for Spirit). And, though it came out of the same improvisational and deconstruction/reconstruction processes first used in Colour and then in Spirit (the final parts selected and rearranged by Hollis out of countless hours of tape), and though it’s credited alongside Spirit as also being a seminal pre-post-rock album, Laughing to my ears is really nothing like the others. For that matter, whereas before I had defined Talk Talk’s sound by Colour of Spring, I would now say that, from Colour on, none of the last three albums really sound like the others. The Talk Talk sound I thought I knew? Turns out, all I could possible mean by that is Mark Hollis’ voice – utterly unique and somehow simultaneously soothing and fragile – on top of fantastic music lovingly stitched together by a genius with an uncompromising vision.
If you think you know Talk Talk but haven’t heard Laughing Stock yet, give it a spin. Better yet, give the entire discography a spin, and in any order at that. And then we’ll all be up to speed for a later spotlight, when we’ll dive into Mark Hollis’ solo record that we also have on The List.
Happy listening, and I’ll see you all in a month.
- E.g., The Quietus piece is great: https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/talk-talk-laughing-stock/ ↩︎
#1990s #ambient #artRock #experimental #improvisation #LeeHarris #MarkHollis #PhillBrown #postrock #TalkTalk #TimFrieseGreene
-
Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991, UK)
Our next spotlight is on number 908 on The List, submitted by arratoon.
It’s odd when you think you know a band, think you’ve heard all the albums…and then realize that you perhaps don’t and definitely haven’t. I thought I knew Talk Talk. I’ve been listening to the brilliant The Colour of Spring (1986), their third, for something like 15 years after an older wiser friend had turned me onto them. Colour of Spring was the album I absolutely latched onto, the album I recommended when singing Talk Talk’s praises, the album I defined their sound by (well, that and the title track of the previous album, It’s My Life [1984], a cover of which is how the band first entered my consciousness).
And so, when Talk Talk came up next for a spotlight, the last before my planned month-long blog break, I was both happy and relieved – familiar ground, I could bang out a post real quick. Since it had been a while though, I decided to give the entire Talk Talk discography a quick spin first, all of five albums, maybe try and figure out why arratoon had picked Laughing Stock and not, imho, the more obvious The Colour of Spring.
Reader, I did not know Talk Talk, and had not heard all their albums. As it turns out, I: (a) had not heard their entire debut, the rather commercial synth-pop The Party’s Over (1982) that doesn’t have any of the experimental art pop/rock I was familiar with; (b) had somehow forgotten all about their fourth, the moody, jazzy, pre-post-rock The Spirit of Eden (1988), a copy of which I was surprised to find in my record collection (and which, according to Discogs, I purchased the day we learned founder, principal songwriter, and vocalist Mark Hollis had left us); and (c) had never heard any of their final, decidedly uncommercial, bare, free-form masterpiece.
And so, after finishing the full discography listen-through yesterday and being blown away by what was inexplicably my very first listen of Laughing Stock, this morning I’ve gone back to Spirit to see if we had warning of what was to come (yep, sorta), and now am relistening to Laughing and reading a whole load of articles about it.[1] The studio (Wessex Sound Studios) essentially served as a multi-month-long drop-in session for something like 50 musicians (with only 18 of them making it on the final album), each allowed to hear only a small section of a track to riff off of (never the full thing), studio windows blacked out, clocks not allowed, the space lit only by oil projectors and strobe lights (the same studio and ambience was also used for Spirit). And, though it came out of the same improvisational and deconstruction/reconstruction processes first used in Colour and then in Spirit (the final parts selected and rearranged by Hollis out of countless hours of tape), and though it’s credited alongside Spirit as also being a seminal pre-post-rock album, Laughing to my ears is really nothing like the others. For that matter, whereas before I had defined Talk Talk’s sound by Colour of Spring, I would now say that, from Colour on, none of the last three albums really sound like the others. The Talk Talk sound I thought I knew? Turns out, all I could possible mean by that is Mark Hollis’ voice – utterly unique and somehow simultaneously soothing and fragile – on top of fantastic music lovingly stitched together by a genius with an uncompromising vision.
If you think you know Talk Talk but haven’t heard Laughing Stock yet, give it a spin. Better yet, give the entire discography a spin, and in any order at that. And then we’ll all be up to speed for a later spotlight, when we’ll dive into Mark Hollis’ solo record that we also have on The List.
Happy listening, and I’ll see you all in a month.
- E.g., The Quietus piece is great: https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/talk-talk-laughing-stock/ ↩︎
#1990s #ambient #artRock #experimental #improvisation #LeeHarris #MarkHollis #PhillBrown #postrock #TalkTalk #TimFrieseGreene
-
Remembering Mark Hollis from Talk Talk
(January 4, 1955-February 25, 2019)
-
Remembering Mark Hollis from Talk Talk
(January 4, 1955-February 25, 2019)
-
Remembering Mark Hollis from Talk Talk
(January 4, 1955-February 25, 2019)
-
Remembering Mark Hollis from Talk Talk
(January 4, 1955-February 25, 2019)
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#AlternateFridayMusic
Jan 31 2025
The prompt is ColourTalk Talk, “The Colour of Spring” 1985
Oh man - where to begin? #MarkHollis’ feathery vocals, synths and guitars sprinkled throughout, gentle melodies anchored with aching rhythms that made them stealth-catchy, slipping into the listener’s subconscious.
For years I regarded this album as one that would work for any mix of folks - a musical skeleton key. But this is not bland, least-common denominator stuff; the effect here is evoked by this music having elements of different styles but none that overwhelm the whole - rhythmic but gentle, celebratory but controlled, pretty but not saccharine, synth driven but organic - glints of shiny metallic or crystal bits against a deep organic ground.
This album finds the #TalkTalk transitioning from upstart #synthpop purveyors towards something approaching symphonic. Hollis would continue down this road in subsequent efforts, towards intricate #ambient.
-
#AlternateFridayMusic
Jan 31 2025
The prompt is ColourTalk Talk, “The Colour of Spring” 1985
Oh man - where to begin? #MarkHollis’ feathery vocals, synths and guitars sprinkled throughout, gentle melodies anchored with aching rhythms that made them stealth-catchy, slipping into the listener’s subconscious.
For years I regarded this album as one that would work for any mix of folks - a musical skeleton key. But this is not bland, least-common denominator stuff; the effect here is evoked by this music having elements of different styles but none that overwhelm the whole - rhythmic but gentle, celebratory but controlled, pretty but not saccharine, synth driven but organic - glints of shiny metallic or crystal bits against a deep organic ground.
This album finds the #TalkTalk transitioning from upstart #synthpop purveyors towards something approaching symphonic. Hollis would continue down this road in subsequent efforts, towards intricate #ambient.
-
#AlternateFridayMusic
Jan 31 2025
The prompt is ColourTalk Talk, “The Colour of Spring” 1985
Oh man - where to begin? #MarkHollis’ feathery vocals, synths and guitars sprinkled throughout, gentle melodies anchored with aching rhythms that made them stealth-catchy, slipping into the listener’s subconscious.
For years I regarded this album as one that would work for any mix of folks - a musical skeleton key. But this is not bland, least-common denominator stuff; the effect here is evoked by this music having elements of different styles but none that overwhelm the whole - rhythmic but gentle, celebratory but controlled, pretty but not saccharine, synth driven but organic - glints of shiny metallic or crystal bits against a deep organic ground.
This album finds the #TalkTalk transitioning from upstart #synthpop purveyors towards something approaching symphonic. Hollis would continue down this road in subsequent efforts, towards intricate #ambient.
-
#AlternateFridayMusic
Jan 31 2025
The prompt is ColourTalk Talk, “The Colour of Spring” 1985
Oh man - where to begin? #MarkHollis’ feathery vocals, synths and guitars sprinkled throughout, gentle melodies anchored with aching rhythms that made them stealth-catchy, slipping into the listener’s subconscious.
For years I regarded this album as one that would work for any mix of folks - a musical skeleton key. But this is not bland, least-common denominator stuff; the effect here is evoked by this music having elements of different styles but none that overwhelm the whole - rhythmic but gentle, celebratory but controlled, pretty but not saccharine, synth driven but organic - glints of shiny metallic or crystal bits against a deep organic ground.
This album finds the #TalkTalk transitioning from upstart #synthpop purveyors towards something approaching symphonic. Hollis would continue down this road in subsequent efforts, towards intricate #ambient.
-
#AlternateFridayMusic
Jan 31 2025
The prompt is ColourTalk Talk, “The Colour of Spring” 1985
Oh man - where to begin? #MarkHollis’ feathery vocals, synths and guitars sprinkled throughout, gentle melodies anchored with aching rhythms that made them stealth-catchy, slipping into the listener’s subconscious.
For years I regarded this album as one that would work for any mix of folks - a musical skeleton key. But this is not bland, least-common denominator stuff; the effect here is evoked by this music having elements of different styles but none that overwhelm the whole - rhythmic but gentle, celebratory but controlled, pretty but not saccharine, synth driven but organic - glints of shiny metallic or crystal bits against a deep organic ground.
This album finds the #TalkTalk transitioning from upstart #synthpop purveyors towards something approaching symphonic. Hollis would continue down this road in subsequent efforts, towards intricate #ambient.
