NATURAL HISTORY: THE VERY BEST OF TALK TALK

Interesting to see that there is not a review of A Natural History as this is one one of those rare compilation albums that actually works. OK, it excludes anything off the last Laughing Stock album but in all sincerity it would have been hard to consider a selection from it anyways due to it's even more obscure and minimalist soundscapes as wonderful as they are. A Natural History shares everything most accessible from Talk Talk up to Spirit Of Eden. The best tracks would have to be the live version of ' Tomorrow's Started', ' Give It Up' and ' I Believe In You'. Overall though a very polished album which is hard to come by with compilations. Recommended for anyone wanting to get to know Talk Talk a little bit more.

As noted, "A Natural History" is an excellent compilation from Talk Talk that actually works. Considered a "synth band", Talk Talk were greater than sum of their parts. It also shows their progression from an arty New Wave band more in touch with Japan than Duran Duran to a pioneer of "Post Rock" which includes "I Believe In You" and "Desire" from the LP _Spirit Of Eden_ ...which are the highlights of that LP from 1988. For their masterpiece, prog.rockers on this site should seek out _Laughing Stock_ from 1991.

"Natural History: The Very Best Of Talk Talk" is a best-of compilation album by UK pop/rock act Talk Talk. The compilation was released through EMI in May 1990. The tracklist comprise material by Talk Talk released through EMI in the years 1982-1988. In 1990 Talk Talk had released four studio albums and they had enjoyed a lot of commercial and artistic success, which EMI felt they wanted to explore with this best-of release. The band wasn´t too happy about the decision, but EMI owned the music and released it. It became a huge commercial success and ended up selling around one million copies.

Talk Talk´s first two albums are intelligent synth pop releases, while their third album from 1986 "The Colour of Spring" started their journey into more experimental and progressive music territories. It´s a very interesting album albeit still very commercial and aimed at a mainstream audience. Talk Talk´s fourth and fifth albums are the most experimental/progressive albums from the band. Very minimalistic yet elaborate/clever arrangements, and generally very subtle almost subdued vocals from frontman and bandleader Mark Hollis are some of the ingredients which make up those two albums. As "Natural History: The Very Best Of Talk Talk" was released before the release of "Laughing Stock" (1991), there are not tracks from Talk Talk´s fifth full-length studio album on this compilation.

The early synth pop years are represented by the first six tracks on the compilation. The 1983 single track "My Foolish Friend" is the only non-album track featured on "Natural History: The Very Best Of Talk Talk". The five other early tracks are chosen wisely as they are definitely the most well known songs from the first two albums "The Party´s Over" (1982) and "It´s My Life" (1984). "The Colour of Spring" is represented here with four tracks which show how popular that album was. The two closing tracks on the compilation are from Talk Talk´s fourth album "Spirit of Eden" (1988).

So all in all I´d say that "Natural History: The Very Best Of Talk Talk" is a pretty good representation of Talk Talk´s career up til then. It´s a completely unnecessary purchase if you already own the four albums, which the tracks are predominantly culled from since you only get one non-album song, but as a best-of compilation it´s a decent quality release. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

This compilation shows chronologically the stylistic evolution of TALK TALK from the rather plastic- sounding New Wave / synth pop period to the deeply individual and introvert art rock of their last two albums, with a slight quantitative emphasis on the strong album in between, The Colour of Spring (1986), and sadly very little from the final masterpieces. It's more or less in the unimaginative "Greatest Hits" manner, ie. includes those songs that have appeared as singles and music videos. The version I had contained a bonus DVD of almost identical track list (just missing some songs of the CD). I'm not going to speculate whether this is a good compilation and how it should have been made to better please us more demanding listeners, instead I'll be the first reviewer to deal with the videos.

Two catchy synth pop songs are taken from The party's Over (1982), 'Today' and 'Talk Talk'. The latter appears twice with no major differences in the visual expression - the poorer version could simply have been left out. Quite typically to the era, the group's image featured clean white shirts, shaved cheeks and angular, semi-angstic body language especially by vocalist Mark Hollis. I must say their contemporaries such as DURAN DURAN made much better videos right from the start.

The non-album song 'My Foolish Friend' (1983) already shows some improvement in the songwriting, and the mostly outdoor video filled with working class misery stands better multiple viewings. Then we enter the finer sounds of the 2nd album It's My Life (1984). The video for 'Such a Shame' features Hollis in black and bright orange clothes, standing in the middle of the screen against minimalistic background for the most of the time, opening his big mouth very wide in playback singing and smiling almost disturbingly. This kind of video imagery was taken further in Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer'. Also 'Dum Dum Girl' has two takes, very similar to each other (now long-haired, John Lennon -looking Hollis singing to a microphone in an open sunny field). The first take is more carefree with even some improvising on the real live vocal parts, and the second one features some skillful picture editing. Funny but I actually like both of them without much questioning the need for both. 'It's My Life' is a nice video consisting mostly of wild animals and some minor graphics.

Also the nocturnal video of 'Life's What You Make It' is filled with nature; Hollis playing piano - there are lots of close-ups of keys covered with tiny mist drops or centipedes walking on them. In fact this is one of my favourite music videos from my early youth, and also 'Living in Another World' had remained quite well in my memory. The basic idea is Mark Hollis playing the grand piano and the other band members pushing themselves towards him against a strong wind, or hanging on a floating part of the instrument. The shadowy camera work is of high artistic quality.

'Give it Up' is taken from Live at Montreux 1986. Good stuff! 'I Believe in You' (from Spirit of Eden, 1988) ends the DVD mostly with multilayered images of Hollis; minimalistic but stylish.