SPIRIT OF EDEN

Spirit Of Eden was Talk Talk's most ambitious album. A collection of timeless music made all the more memorable by Mark Hollis' frail and delicate musings on life, love and the heartbreak of heroin. The six tracks on the album are all gorgeous freeform songs with passionately played harmonica and carefully orchestrated horns and strings. This is very mellow, slow and atmospheric, full of love and passion held together by the thrill of hearing a band performing at its creative peak.

This is an essential album, the first of its kind, marking the beginning of the post-rock genre. Many listeners find its ambience perfect for relaxation. Headphones, lights out - the story begins. It can mean different things to different people, so discovering it for oneself is the real gift of Spirit Of Eden.

It's interesting how after the band's previous success, EMI shelled up big bucks for this, the follow-up. Little did the executives know, the boys wouldn't produce even one radio friendly single and it became impossible to market to a mass audience. It apparently took 14 months to make at great expense and upon release sunk like a stone in the charts. EMI would later sue the band.

Rumour has it that Hollis and Friese-Greene brought in a full symphony orchestra for a couple of weeks of sessions and then decided to use only a couple of notes from a tuba or something like that in each song. As I said, this was an absolutely breathtaking feat of creativity for the band. Very influential indeed. 5 solid stars.