Rank Talk Talk’s albums

I love Talk Talk, and I love talking about their music! One of my favorite groups ever. Mark Hollis was an incredible musical genius who is sorely missed.

I wanted to see how the SHF members ranked their studio albums FAVORITE TO LEAST FAVORITE.

My ranking would be:

The Colour Of Spring (1986)
It’s My Life (1984)
Spirit Of Eden (1988)
The Party’s Over (1982)
Laughing Stock (1991)

Now, I consider all these 5/5’s so it’s definitely not a slight against any of them, just how I personally rank and enjoy them. I would consider swapping It’s My Life and Spirit Of Eden maybe, but I like this ranking. What about you?

 

Love the thread idea. My list:

The Colour of Spring (my introduction to the band)
Spirit of Eden
(Mark Hollis 1998 would slot here)
Laughing Stock
It's My Life
The Party's Over

I would rate the first four as 5/5, the It's My Life as 3.5/5 and The Party's Over as 2.5/5. The only one I don't listen to start-to-finish anymore is The Party's Over.

 

My ranking is:

1) The Colour Of Spring (1986)
2) Spirit Of Eden (1988)
3) It’s My Life (1984)
4) Laughing Stock (1991)
5) The Party’s Over (1982)

 

Spirit
Spring
Life
Stock

I don’t have The Party’s Over yet, so don’t know where it would fit. Laughing Stock is probably as good a piece of work as Spirit Of Eden but I don’t find myself reaching for it anywhere near as often.

 

I agree, I still find it incredible despite that.

 

This is really difficult - on one hand I think Spirit and Laughing Stock are complete masterpieces, but the amount of times I've heard The Party's Over and It's My Life and enjoying them so much... dammit. The Colour of Spring is a bit tough too.

Laughing Stock
The Party's Over
It's My Life
The Colour of Spring
Spirit of Eden

Asides Besides has enough songs to be it's own unique album, and it's mostly good too. I could swap these records around on any given day, maybe Laughing Stock getting reserved as number one for how significant I think it is and how After The Flood is probably their best song.

 

After The Flood is incredible, definitely the centerpiece of LS.

Also, kudos to you for putting TPO at number two, I really love the album too but they can’t all have the second spot! I wish, urgh. Most people will probably have that in last place unfortunately. I could see swapping TPO and SOE on my list too.

 

I haven't really thought about ranking them, but I always think that my favourite is the one I am playing at the time. I have them mostly on LP so I have no record of how many times the I have played each of them which would be a guide I guess.

 

Spirit Of Eden
Laughing Stock
The Colour of Spring
It’s My Life
The Party’s Over

Spirit Of Eden is, in my opinion, the greatest album ever recorded.

 

Reverse chronological order for me. Laughing Stock is my favourite album of all time, but Spirit of Eden is also a masterpiece.

 

01 Laughing stock and the colour of spring
02 spirit of eden
03 It's My life
04 Mark Hollis
05 The Party's Over

 

Spirit Of Eden
Laughing Stock


The Colour Of Spring



It's My Life

















The Party's Over

 

"Mark Hollis" would probably come in between SoE and LS but ultimately, all three of those albums are truly magnificent. RIP Mark, may your work be imperishable.

 

Spirit Of Eden (1988)
Laughing Stock (1991)

 

Oh, this is tough...Talk Talk (and Mark solo) never made a less-than-superb album!

Based on how I felt about them the last time I played their catalogue (after Mark's passing in February):

1. Spirit Of Eden
2. Colour Of Spring (my 1st Talk Talk purchase in '86)
3. It's My Life
4. Laughing Stock
5. The Party's Over (by default, since it's up against 4 of the finest albums ever made).

Mark's solo album would be inbetween 3rd and 4th.

EG.

 

I agree with your list

I do play Talk Talk and It's so Serious from The Party's Over quite regularly when I have had a few drinks or want to be cheered up.

 

The Colour Of Spring
Spirit Of Eden
It’s My Life
Besides
Laughing Stock
The Party’s Over
Mark Hollis
History Revisited
Missing Pieces

 

Can't improve on that order of list...

 

Hard to argue with that opinion!

 

Where would you put "London 1986"?

 

Eek! This isn't easy...

The Colour of Spring
Spirit Of Eden
Laughing Stock
The Party's Over
It's My Life

Essentially, the first three are all first and the last two come second.

 

Mark Hollis

Laughing Stock

Spirit of eden/color of spring (tie)

it's my life

 

I haven’t listened to that one much, so couldn’t place it

 

Rate your Music website rankings (also Mark Hollis solo album gets a 3.82 rating fwiw):

 

The Colour of Spring
Spirit of Eden
Laughing Stock
(these are all brilliant, and then there's a huge gap down to




The Party's Over
It's My Life

Good to see some love for The Colour of Spring - it's brilliant in its own right, as well as being a bridge between the early synth-pop and the later post-rock.