It was nice to see that mystery solved earlier in the thread! I always wondered about the reported differences. For those who missed it, the UK CD has tracks 3 and 4 (sides 1 and 2) segued together while the US CD keeps them separate like the vinyl release.
I’m a big fan of Talk Talk and bought the Mark Hollis CD around Christmas time last year but never played it and have been waiting for the right time (i.e. late evening - it’s now midnight - when the wife, child & dog are all in bed and I’m awake enough to enjoy it!). Finally, I’m playing it now, on track 2 and it sounds amazing. Why did it take me so long to play this?!
Some cool press around the 30th anniversary of Spirit of Eden Music From Beyond: Talk Talk's 'Spirit Of Eden' At 30 Guy Garvey did a special show on 6Music too this weekend BBC Radio 6 Music - Guy Garvey's Finest Hour, Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden is 30 years old
@Porkpie, Thanks for the links. Now you made me want to do a Talk Talk marathon today starting with Spirit of Eden. Talk Talk reminds me of The Smiths having a short but exceptional life.
Heard bits of the Guy Garvey show while I was out and about in the car on Sunday...found the car pointing towards a local record shop that I knew had the 2016 EU vinyl of 'Laughing Stock' in stock. A beautiful album. (Happy with the pressing, a few pops and clicks aside even after a clean).
Favourite band of 20th C... A tie between Television and Ratt... As for Talk Talk... every time I come back to them I start by watching the It's A Shame video which is a wonderful thing. Then the Montreaux live performance of It's My Life... The band are on fire while Hollis seems genuinely pained, skinny and fragile as he sings... Always moves me. More so than Spirit of Eden, which is obviously a bit special, but a different beast entirely...
I'm not a massive fan of Pitchfork but they do have an article about 'Spirit of Eden'. It is worth a read though. Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden Album Review | Pitchfork I like the nugget where '...Hollis and Friese-Greene were convinced Spirit of Eden was going to sell four million copies.' I wonder if it has sold that figure since. And this one we probably all half know from Mark Hollis... “I like sound. And I also like silence. And, in some ways, I like silence more than I like sound.”
I'm assuming 90% of anyone who's listened to that record in full probably did in the past two decades, and in the past decade streamed/downloaded the album - Talk Talk feels like the type of group who when you get into from the Internet, the copies you buy are probably used copies. I think a complete reissue of the entire catalog would be huge though, even a The Colour of Spring/Spirit of Eden/Laughing Stock trilogy box.
That would be great, but Laughing Stock was released by a different label so I can't imagine it happening. That's why it wasn't remastered and reissued with the rest of the catalog a while back.
the only way that can ever happen is if they get hold of the original master tapes not the CD mastering like ba ba ding did @facepalm, but apparently Mark Hollis has refused both the Solo album and Laughing stock to be reissued in this way...... I sourced the original pressing a few months and managed to get a really good copy which wasn't cheap, but it sounds sublime in every way and of course it was mastered off the original tapes and sounds like it has NO compression or EQ, unlike the CD.
Like I said in my above post, for some reason Mark Hollis will not allow laughing stock and his solo album to be remastered, I take it that he has full control over those 2 records
You could pretty much buy Spirit of Eden on CD in any HMV or Fopp. Laughing Stock was harder to find in the UK. On the other hand, the Laughing Stock CD was easy to find on CD in the US, but not Spirit of Eden. Neither sold big, probably just enough to keep them in print over the years. If it wasn't for the internet, they would be forgotten by most music fans and probably a record store employee secret.
Forgot that it wasn't EMI Even with all the tension Asides Besides was still fantastic whether or not Hollis wanted it out or not, really good. And I still would guess Missing Pieces is just a reaction to that compilation.
I’m not sure that is true. Spirit of Eden is always highly rated by the music magazines. Ever since I first bought it when it came out it has very regular coverage. Obviously with the internet, books or magazines there oils be no noise about it.... but that would be the same for everything. Regardless, it is a beautiful album. Laughingstock was rereleased on vinyl, a few years ago - a proper release, and that sounds great.
the spirit reissue sounds really good, But put the laughing Stock reissue up against the original pressing and yea it's not all that good, probably because they don't have access to the mastertapes and it was probably mastered for vinyl off the CD. Please note I have both the spirit and laughing stock original and reissue pressings and have A/B'd them
Looking forward to the new Paul Webb (aka: Rustin Man) album which is due in a couple of weeks. Lee Harris on drums too. rustin man
I initially mis-read it as being a similar collaboration but actually it doesn't look like it is Webb, who for the first time has written songs specifically for his own voice, turns out to be a gifted character actor, adopting various vocal roles across the songs. In ‘Vanishing Heart’, he is someone liberated from a loveless relationship: “At last I’ve found more warmth to feeling / It feels so good to be alive”.