Best Record Ever ... Spirit of Eden

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Davey, Apr 23, 2011.

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  1. dartira

    dartira rise and shine like a far out superstar

    :agree: Really a continuation of the tone set with Spirit and Laughing Stock.
     
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  2. DJ Phoenix

    DJ Phoenix New Member

    Not even close, but it's nice to dream.
     
  3. tinymontgomery

    tinymontgomery Forum Resident

    Not the best record ever for me, but definitely in my top 10.

    Having grown up with the vinyl version I was at least mildly surprised to see that the CD indexes the first three songs (all of side one) as a single track.
     
  4. proedros

    proedros Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens , Greece
    spirit of eden is a terrific album - but Laughing stock is mark's masterpiece

    sublime music.
     
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  5. JannL

    JannL Forum Resident

    Colour of Spring is amazing.
     
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  6. richard a

    richard a Forum Resident

    Location:
    borley, essex, uk
    I have to agree with the OP - for me Spirit Of Eden is the greatest album ever made. I can't imagine how many times I must have played this album. It thrills me, it makes me cry, it soothes my soul, it excites my heart. It's amazing.

    A few years ago I wrote an unpublished assessment of Spirit Of Eden. Here's a small excerpt -



    Upon its release Spirit Of Eden was greeted with surprise, shock, dismay (mainly from EMI), astonishment, and amazement due almost entirely to the fact that it was perceived to be so different, not only from every other ostensibly ‘rock’ album of that year, but also from anything Talk Talk had created before. It was so gloriously out of step with anything fashionable, there were no current musical trends to be found within a mile of Spirit Of Eden. It was rooted almost totally in its own twilight world, where musical boundaries no longer existed, creating a new music comprising elements of freeform jazz, cathedral choirs, old fashioned Hammond organs, spiritual lyrics, occasionally thrashing guitars, and tremulous, fragile, whispered-spoken words. Even seasoned Talk Talk watchers were surprised by the new direction, despite the pointers on The Colour Of Spring - “April 5th” and “Chameleon Day”. For although Colour contained those sparse, delicate pieces they were surrounded by the more robust grooves of “Living In Another World”, or the pounding piano on “Life’s What You Make It”.
    Spirit of Eden on the other hand was all fragility, as if one gust of wind would demolish the whole intricate structure; a series of interlocking musical webs, with strands woven through each other, each seemingly growing and dying away before our ears. The only time the music rises above this precarious state of fragility is at the conclusion of “Desire”, where the fierce guitars and crashing percussion battle each other for a couple of minutes. On the CD this thrashing contest is followed by nearly a minute of absolute silence before “Inheritance” hesitantly flickers into existence. It is as if the sheer effort of the previous track has entirely exhausted everyone.

    One of the most intriguing aspects of Spirit Of Eden is that although all the music sounds so free, as if jammed right there and then, this is not at all the case. Every track went through hundreds of revisions, overdubs, edits, before Mark Hollis and co-producer Tim Friese-Greene were happy. That it sounds so loose and sparse, yet natural and ‘organic’ (Hollis’s favourite description of the album) is possibly the album’s greatest achievement.

    For Hollis Spirit Of Eden did not represent anything especially radical. Speaking to Best magazine in 1991 he reflected, ‘Talk Talk could have done this kind of thing from the beginning if we’d had the time and financial means to do it. It just happens that until Spirit Of Eden we’d always worked with a deadline. This means that the first three albums only contain an outline. And of course only gave a very restricted image of the band. Since Spirit we have been able to start working without limits or constraints. All those ideas, which had remained unexploited until then, have been able to come to life. As we were more interested in those ideas than all the rest, they were the only things left. You could say Talk Talk have only been themselves since Spirit Of Eden.



    Such a shame, therefore, that Talk Talk could only manage one more album after this.
     
  7. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997) Thread Starter

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Thanks for those words, very well expressed, sorry I missed them the first time around, but listening today again for the who knows how many times, this time the original EMI Parlophone CD with four tracks, and so thought I'd do a search, and even though my thread title was intended to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, I can't really deny that it is one of my favorite records ever, just love it in total, which does make it one of the best ever in my world.
     
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  8. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    Spirit of Eden had found it's way to my listening sessions at least as many times as my other greatest favourite: Abbey Road.
    It's an invitation to listen closely, pay attention to the sounds and the 'construction' of the songs and the 'suite' on the A-side of the LP.
    It's in my top five anyway, with Mark Hollis's solo album, Colour of Spring and Laughing Stock in my top twenty.... The conclusion may well be that Talk Talk/Mark Hollis are my second favourite artists, just behind that Liverpool Foursome depicted in my avatar....
     
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  9. Bob J

    Bob J Forum Resident

    As much as I love "Laughing Stock", I've never been fully able to get with the program on
    "Spirit of Eden". It's not that I dislike it. It just doesn't register like "Laughing Stock" for me.
    Mark Hollis's solo album is quite nice as well. I also really like the "London 1986" CD. What
    a fine snapshot of the band at that time. The track listing reads like a "best of" and the
    performances are spot on.
    I was lucky enough to pick up a double LP set of "Laughing Stock" that has some of the
    tracks from "Missing Pieces" included. Plus, one disc is solid white vinyl and the other is clear red.
    All in all, a great package.
     
  10. th0m

    th0m Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Can't stand The Colour of Spring for some reason. Just sounds so dated in comparison to the two that followed. The "trilogy" that is Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock and Mark Hollis are among my favorite albums though. Sublime stuff. If I had to choose a favorite among them, it would probably be Laughing Stock.
     
  11. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    Interesting view....for me it's sort of the other way around. The sound on 'Spirit' is somewhat smoother, on Laughing stock it seems darker, less 'produced'. There are a few great higlights too, like the strange dissonant 'solo' om Before The Flood And the atmosphere and rythm of New Grass.
     
  12. Aghast of Ithaca

    Aghast of Ithaca Forum Resident

    Location:
    Angleterre
    Listening to some 1990s Steve Winwood stuff the other day, the influence of Spirit Of Eden was really noticeable - atmospheres, vocal style, etc. I don't know if he's ever confirmed it, but he played on Colour Of Spring didn't he?
     
  13. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    Well, he's on the album credits for playing the Hammond B3 on some tracks....
     
  14. richard a

    richard a Forum Resident

    Location:
    borley, essex, uk
    Yup, Steve Winwood is credited on The Colour Of Spring, and Mark Hollis was determined to get him to contribute, as he was a big Traffic / Winwood fan.
    Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene recorded Winwood's parts at his home. They were blown away by Steve's Hammond playing and when Steve left the room they sneaked a look at the Hammond to see how it was set up to achieve that classic Winwood sound. They were slightly surprised to discover that there was no secret setting, and that basically everything was whacked up to the max.
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2015
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  15. Phil Tate

    Phil Tate Miss you Indy x

    Location:
    South Shields
    An utterly wonderful band, I cannot get enough Talk Talk (as you can see from my "Laughing Stock extra bit" thread). For me Spirit of Eden is the best album of the 80s and Laughing Stock the best album of the 90s.

    I also just got the Asides Besides compilation - the first disc of extended remixes hasn't aged well, but the second disc is an absolute treasure trove. Hearing three tracks from 1986 that I'd never heard before is like Christmas has come early!
     
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  16. It's Felix

    It's Felix It's not really me

    How did I miss this thread? I too believe it is the best Album ever recorded.
     
  17. skyjelly

    skyjelly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lisbon, Maine
    Don't know if it's the best album ever recorded, but over the years it has gone way up in my estimation. After "Colour Of Spring" I was initially pretty baffled and disappointed with "Spirit Of Eden". It's definitely an album outside of it's time, but it's influence has caused time to catch up to it. It doesn't sound nearly as foreign or obtuse now as it did 30 years ago, and I only seriously rediscovered it 5 years ago after it sat on my shelf collecting dust. Certainly a mood album, but if I'm in the mood there is very little else quite like it. The same can be said of "Laughing Stock".
    Talk Talk's growth, IMO, rivals the Beatles from '63-67 as far as where they started and where they ended up. It's pretty amazing.
     
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  18. It's Felix

    It's Felix It's not really me

    I've been listening to it for 30 years and never got bored once. glad you rediscovered it.

    Interestingly I have only met one person who also likes this album in the flesh.
     
  19. It's Felix

    It's Felix It's not really me

    Of course, but not on vinyl :(
     
  20. CupOfDreams

    CupOfDreams Forum Resident

    I agree. The progression was really impressive. They had some really nice pop songs early on but at the time you could not have predicted where they would end up.
     
  21. Rufus rag

    Rufus rag Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    The Colours of Spring is their masterpiece. Sorry but everything that followed are just 'plodders' and send you to sleep!

    IMO of course
     
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  22. brimuchmuze

    brimuchmuze Forum Resident

    The Asides/Besides collection is very nice to hear the evolution of the band, especially Besides. Lots of interesting stuff.
     
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  23. brimuchmuze

    brimuchmuze Forum Resident

    I don't think vinyl can do justice to the first 18 seconds of the album.
     
  24. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    I need to pick up the Talk Talk discography quickly and cheaply. Are original UK CDs good?
     
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  25. It's Felix

    It's Felix It's not really me

    Oh I don't know, sounds amazing on my LP12
     
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