Colour Of Spring is the classy album where Mark Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene started to dominate the band idea-wise, while a cast of session musicians and original band members (Paul Webb and Lee Harris) provide considerable musical support. As such, the band (who also didn’t tour during this time) conjures memories of Steely Dan, though their lushly beautiful but adventurous layering of sounds also shares much in common with The Blue Nile.
“Happiness Is Easy” tastefully starts the album with an elegant pop song that’s highlighted by a children’s choir that actually works. “I Don’t Believe In You” continues with an intense condemnation that features atmospheric keyboards from Steve Winwood, while “Life’s What You Make It” was the obvious choice as the album’s single. It’s a catchy song that delivers words to live by and is musically anchored by its Can (circa Tago Mago) inspired riffs.
“April 5th” is my favorite song here, as it’s a gorgeous track whose church-like organ gives it a spiritual presence. This song’s mellow tone contrasts with the groove-based “Living In Another World,” the album’s most rocking song, while “Give It Up” is another catchy mid-tempo, keyboard-led song that would also seem to have had considerable (unrealized) commercial potential. Then again, Hollis’ quivery but often beautiful voice is an acquired taste to some, and most of these songs are much longer than what comfortably fits on radio formats.
The album’s shortest song is “Chameleon Day,” an almost a cappella oddity which sprinkles just enough instrumentation (piano, variophon) and seemingly ill fitting shifts in volume to provide fodder for the pretentious police (“pretentious” being a frequent criticism of the band). In truth, the track is the albums least enjoyable, but it does demonstrate how determined the band was to push the boundaries of the pop format. This format is stretched to almost 8-minutes on the mostly excellent “Time It’s Time,” which provides an epic coda to the album and the relationship chronicled within.
Of course, Colour Of Spring was fairly straightforward compared to Spirit Of Eden, by which time Talk Talk resisted comparisons with anyone else by almost completely abandoning conventional song structures. Containing six long songs that seamlessly flow into each other, Spirit Of Eden is much less accessible than Colour Of Spring, but it ultimately provides even greater rewards for the patient listener. In fact, though the album predictably sold poorly and almost completely lost the band’s initial fan base, Spirit Of Eden has become something of a critic’s classic over time, especially in the U.K., where it has appeared on several “best albums of all-time” polls.
Granted, I was disappointed in the album at first, finding it a little too slow going for my liking. Yet to listen to the album once (or even five or six times) and dismiss it as boring background music would be a mistake. For this isn’t background music at all, but is merely music that demands concentrated, uninterrupted listening. Under such circumstances, even the lengthy periods of silence make sense over time, and the album coheres together as a truly creative and beautifully constructed overall ensemble.
One look at all the odd instruments used provides proof as to Hollis and Friese-Greene’s vision to try to create something totally original and new here. As such, it’s easy for me to overlook what may still be a little too much down time. For when the church-like organ (still the album’s primary instrument) works with Hollis’ restrained voice the end result is often a truly transcendent beauty that’s aided by the album’s cavernous production sound.
If pressed, I would label this indescribable music as ambient art rock and pick “The Rainbow” and “I Believe In You” as my favorite songs. However, since Spirit Of Eden is more about sounds than songs, and as it’s an album that works best as an organic whole, I won’t bother with breaking down individual songs. Actually, without a moments pause between them, “The Rainbow,” “Eden,” and “Desire” can be seen as one long 23 minute song, anyway.
In retrospect, the influence of this album can be seen in many of today’s alternative bands, in particular the “post rock” contingent of bands led by Tortoise and album’s such as Radiohead’s Kid A. In fact, this album’s defiantly uncommercial experimentation and creative mingling of barely audible sounds with surprisingly atonal interjections sounds as fresh and innovative today as it did thirteen years ago. Fittingly, Spirit Of Eden ends with almost 30 seconds of silence, but by then this highly spiritual album (which at times seems akin to a religious experience) has made its mark, and nothing else needs to be said.
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