Mark Hollis

Hollis was the front man of Talk Talk for ten years. The first time I came across the band, they were about to release their eponymous single and were playing in support of ‘Planet Earth’ era Duran Duran. It wad hard to see where a bunch of blokes who looked like Split Enz fitted into Duranworld. But as other great singles like ‘Life’s What You Make It’ discreetly slipped out over the following years (despite that support slot, their label seemed quick to realise that tasteful restraint better suited Hollis’s songs), perhaps what they did have in common with those Brummie Brummels was an ability to make lovely pop music that often got misunderstood. Admittedly, Duran quite never made anything as consistently inspired, daring and lovely as 1988’s Talk Talk album Spirit of Eden, but increasingly late-80s interest in matters acidic left both behind.

Ten years on, and Hollis’s first solo album strips his undoubted songwriting talent right down in the bared acoustic fragility of ‘Inside Looking Out’ and in the windwood and piano weave of the eight-minutes plus ‘A Life (1895-1915), both far more new classical than new romantic. And while Hollis has made the most of this opportunity to explore his deep love for arrangement and tone, his lyrics, whether you take them on first listen or look deeper, still seem to burn with emotion as he allows his voice to crack with the words. Lovely, grown-up stuff.

Review by Laura Lee-Davies