They are indeed a great band, although I only realised the sheer magnitude of their greatness recently. For years I had them down as just another 80's band with a couple of hits and not much else. Hearing It's My Life constantly on the radio back in the day must have subconsciously coloured my opinion of them. Then I listened to Spirit Of Eden one night on the headphones, and it completely blew me away. What an incredible and original album. It still sounds so fresh, and hasn't dated one bit. Respect to the genius of Mark Hollis.
nice. Is that a 12" bottom right? what are b sides? Did you know the artist for eden etc. sells the artwork, without the band name etc.
Yeah, the "I Believe In You" on the bottom right is a 12". The b-sides are "John Cope", and a edit of "Eden". Yep, James Marsh sells nice prints of his work. I've been eyeing those for years, but haven't yet bought any.
I think Spirit of Eden was the pinnacle of art. Laughingstock went too far toward self-indultent artsy-fartsy
I don't enjoy it as much, but I wouldn't call it artsy, it is like a mash up of Jazz, hardcore thrash and ambient drone. Brilliant.
I lucked into both original cd's. Eden I found in a Dutch thrift store in a pile of waterdamaged cd's. €1,-!!! I also got originals of Tears For Fears' The Hurting and Joe Jackson's Body And Soul from that pile. Laughing Stock I think I got cheaply from either Ebay or Amazon, the original Verve cd, no less!!! Besides those I found both original cd's of The Colour Of Spring and Natural History on a Dutch market in a bargain bin, 50 eurocents each. Yard sales and thrifth stores are your friends!
Thanks for this. I assumed that they were DVD-A, and so never played them (don't have a compatible player). Just played TCoS now to confirm, and you're right on the money (though I prefer the vinyl better on my system).
He seems to have chosen for a reclusive lifestyle. Bless him if it gives him peace. I'm sure No Doubt's cover of It's My Life must've assured a healthy income. You've got to admire a band with an impeccable artistic integrity that probably quit at the exact right time, but I wish there was more in the can.
You can get the LP/DVD of Spirit of Eden for £18.99 from Amazon UK. The Colour of Spring set is only £12.99
I wish they had done the others when they reissued these two in 2012, but this was it right? Do we know why they only did these two?
Probably because they already had hi-res transfers prepared for these two albums and the first two weren't "critically acclaimed". I think most of the Talk Talk gushing by music critics is revisionist history. Perhaps if they had said some nice things at the time Colour of Spring - Laughing Stock were released, we would have more Talk Talk albums to talk about.
This is my experience exactly. Even though I knew the name Talk Talk, I just discovered Spirit Of Eden last week and I was blown away. Now I'm actively looking for original CDs of Spirit Of Eden, Laughing Stock, and the Mark Hollis solo album.
This is a bit unfair, isn't it? From my perspective, the people discovering Talk Talk in recent years were in elementary school when Laughing Stock was released. Surely Pitchfork's writers were.
I was complaining more about the lack of coverage at the time the albums were released but you make a good point that the critics doing the gushing today probably weren't doing the critiquing in 1991.
It was the Beatles! How did you know????? Zeppelin was my 2nd Fav, followed closely by Scorpions. Followed by Floyd, Stones, Purple, Sabbath, Dio, Ozzy, Priest, Maiden, early Styx (not the Mr. Roboto s***), Badfinger, Motorhead, Saxon, Thin Lizzy, Van Halen.... I'm all over the place!!!!!!