SUCH A SHAME

I bought Talk Talk's second album It's My life (1984) at the age of sixteen -- having bought the excellent follower The Colour of Spring (1986) a few months earlier. Although I was at first disappointed at the synth-oriented, "plastic" and very poppy sound, I inevitably started to appreciate it for what it is (and compared to the debut The Party's Over, it is indeed a solid pop album).

The extremely catchy title track 'It's My Life' had appeared as a single one month before the album, and the second single 'Such a Shame' followed the album in March 1984. It reached Top 10 in several European countries. The song was inspired by Luke Rhinehart's The Dice Man (1971), one of composer Mark Hollis' favourite books. I haven't read it, it's been translated into Finnish as well. It's about a psychiatrist who makes daily decisions based on the casting of a die. By the way, wasn't the same idea brought up in Carl Barks's Donald Duck story much earlier? The song takes the best features of disco music and combines them with the sophisticated art pop scene. The soundscape has many details to enjoy, such as Paul Webb's flexible bass playing. As a side note, last summer I showed some 80's music videos to my 12-year old daughter, and she liked 'Such a Shame'. :)

Curiously, the B side song 'Again, a Game... Again' was brand new to my ears right now. Sonically it's obviously very close to the album and most of all it reminds me of 'Call in the Night Boy' which is perhaps my least fave track on It's My Life. But this one's definitely better. More depth, more nuances, and especially as a composition per se this is more interesting. Comparable to the best of ULTRAVOX.

Now, let's forget for a while that we're in a PROG site: this is a very good pop single in all its catchiness.