Talk Talk
Talk Talk began their career in 1981 as a synth-pop new wave band
who looked pretty and sounded slick and shuffled gawkily
around the New Romantic fringes - they were certainly dark and
synthy enough to interest the New Romantic crowd, but far too
interested in jazz to merit actual New Romantic status
- scoring hits with Talk Talk, Mirror Man
and Today, and touring with EMI stable-mates Duran
Duran.
Clapping eyes on Talk Talk in 1982 - all skinny ties and
hair-sprayed wedges - the word 'influential' would not have sprung
to mind. They were generally considered - if
considered at all - a duller Xerox of the Brummie dandies.
Mark Hollis reorganised the line-up during the recording of
their second album, 1984's It's My Life, and while it was
slightly more experimental than their previous album - a little
more like Roxy Music than Duran Duran - it still followed
traditional pop structures.
Then they appeared to wake up one day as a grown-up band, just
in time for their third album, 1986's The Colour Of Spring.
Hollis's emotionally bruised mumble implored on an album loaded
with rainy-day melancholia, including the maudlin hit Life's
What You Make It.
The follow-up, Spirit Of Eden (1988), recorded in a
disused church, reputedly reduced their A&R man to tears when
he realised how bereft of potential singles it was. With more
pregnant pauses, splashes of colour and layers of sleepy angst, it
was a beautiful-sounding record but not quite the equal of its
predecessor. It proved to be a commercial disaster and led to
EMI dropping the band.
Talk Talk sued. EMI
counter-sued, then put out a Greatest Hits and a remix atrocity, History
Revisited, that Hollis blocked in court. To then pile irony on
top of insult, Talk Talk were nominated for a Best Newcomer Brit
Award.
Talk Talk then signed with Polydor Records, releasing Laughing
Stock in 1991.
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