Talk Talk

Ive had a tepid appreciation for new wave music (Pretenders, Police some Human League) and ardent love for 80s synth pop (mainly New Order as apparent from my avatar).  However,  I am familiar with Talk Talk as a 80s synth pop group who experienced moderate success in the early 80s, and appeared on Top of the Pops a few times, due to reasons unknown to me, the pursued a progressive direction in the late 80s releasing The Spirit of Eden and The Laughing Stock. 

If I were to but an album from them, it would most likely be SoE or TLS.

 

What should i expect from these albums?

 

Is this band worth exploring?

 

 

 

Thanks

Both albums are strange, and great at the same time, Laughing Stock is softer and with a different direction as It`s My Life for example, LS and SoE could be Post Rock oriented

Spirit Of Eden is possibly the best album in the Archives. It may not appeal to everyone but it's certainly worth a listen. I haven't heard Laughing Stock as much but I don't think it's quite as good. Definitely a very different band to the one I once saw supporting Duran Duran.

Psychedelia wrote: Spirit of Eden is an absolutely terrible album. It is truly awful. It is so very boring and there are massive gaps between all the tracks which ruin any coherance. Its melodies are not very good the instrumentals are tiresome. Alttogether bad. Although i don't like 80's synth pop in fact i hate it this is a lot worse than many other of there albums.

I can understand why people might not like this album or even find it boring, but are you sure you've listened to the right album? There are no gaps between the first 3 songs and I doubt whether the other gaps are any longer than normal. I imagine you're referring to the fact that some of them start off very quietly. This album really requires listening to - it's best heard in a very quiet room or on headphones.

As everyone else has already said, they're extremely unusual and far more ambitious than you might expect.  The albums are centered largely around minimalism and the use of atmospherics, yet their slow and gradual progression definitely had some influence on what would eventually become post-rock.  Spirit of Eden is my prefered of the two and a tiny bit more accessible, though both are worthy of investigation.

I have not heard "Laughing Stock" yet. But I have listened to all other of Talk Talk's albums. Have been a big fan since their first album "The Party's Over". "Spirit of Eden" is a difficult listen but it is intriguing post-rock/experimentation music. At times it is almost psychedelic and as has been mentioned the use of atmospherics and minimalism defines Talk Talk's music which was begun with their earlier album "The Colour of Spring". SOE shows a complete move away from Talk Talk's  early new-wave albums and is quite simply an outstanding legacy of 80's music, that dared to be different.