Rank Talk Talk’s albums

I gave IML a spin in the evening. The wine may have helped but I thought it was lovely! And a little world all of its own--nothing like its predecessor or its successor.

 

Great news! I really dig that album

 

FYI, the track 'Eden' on Apple Music is incorrect length. The correct length is 7:41 while Apple Music has a truncated 6:34. The 7:41 has a quiet intro before the guitars for the first 1:10, confirmed on CD & Vinyl. Google Play Music & Spotify have the correct track. Too bad there is no way to get Apple to correct this.

 

Good to know! Thanks

 

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

Basically reverse chrono order.

 

The CD has been pressed a number of times and some versions have that shorter track. One of my copies does. I may have to dig out my other copy to see if it has the longer or shorter track.

 

Really? I can't believe Mark Hollis would have allowed that.

 

Yes, I believe it is the later pressings that have the problem. I had misplaced my original copy and bought a second one a few years ago and that is the one I have ripped on my backup drive. I checked the track time just now when I saw your post. I'll have to look for my first copy or buy an old copy now.

 

Interesting. The original presses have the shorter track, while the 1997 remaster has the longer one. I guess artistically it works either way.

 

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

There’s not much separating the first three and Its My Life is a strong 4.

I have only streamed part of The Party’s Over a few months ago so I can’t rank that.

 

My 2012 European CD pressing has the correct length

 

What is 'correct'? Maybe in 1988 Mark thought 'Eden' should begin with the guitars immediately and in 1997 liked having the intro. Remember the way he recorded the album was in bits & pieces so essentially you could construct Spirit of Eden in a 1000 ways and they could all be valid. Essentially he took Brian Wilson's 'modular method' from the middle 1960s to the extreme but had the benefit of digital technology to help him assemble a final product.

 

Ok, it has the longer length track then.

 

great minds think alike.

later
-1

 

ok, here are the totals for the rankings of the albums:
-----------------
i took all the votes placed by people (skipping mark hollis, and other albums not mentioned).
if it was a tie, i recorded it as such.

only 2 people voted for the partys over at 1
only 2 people voted for its my life as 1 (i was one of them)
nobody voted for colour of spring as 5

Code:

                1 2 3 4 5
The Partys over 2 2 2 4 14
Its my life   2 5 8 11 2
colour of spring 10 9 8 1
spirt of eden  10 11 4 3 1
laughing stock    9 6 6 5 5

Then i calculated the weighted averages as to what ranking the albums would place:


So in this case the albums would be ranked:
---------------------------------------------------
colour of spring - 2
spirit of eden - 2.1
laughing stock - 2.71
its my life - 3.22
the partys over - 4.09
==============================

i weighted the placements, divided by the total number of votes X placement,
and converted that to a ranking.

i don't know how accurate you think they are, but they are a pretty good representation
of what the average person ranked them as.

obviously more lower rankings, brought the average down, as seen in 'the partys over' still being last.

despite some lower rankings, colour of spring came out on top, as having the most even and highest
rankings from everyone.

spirit of eden and laughing stock still ranked high, but had more lower rankings, which brought
their average ones down.

==================================

later
-1

 

Great work! Thanks man.

 

Thanks for that! Makes sense -- The Colour of Spring is the closest thing to a consensus album, since it appeals to both the synth-pop and the post-rock fan bases of Talk Talk (if you want to call the last two albums "post-rock", which I don't especially).

 

I agree, it’s a nice middle ground.

 

Only the lowest rank is easy:

1. Spirit Of Eden
2. The Colour Of Spring
3. The Laughing Stock
4. It's My Life
5. The Party Is Over

 

I get the feeling that a lot of Talk Talk fans enjoy The Party’s Over, but when stacked with 4 other amazing albums, it just unfortunately falls to the bottom a lot of the time

 

I did give TPO a listen this weekend. Having only played it one time, I do not want to make a definitive conclusion certainly, but my initial impression that it sounded similar to other Synth Music that I assume was 'of its time'. It was not bad, but 'The Colour of Spring' is such a Great Album before moving into Post-Rock Style of Music, that TPO just seems average at Best. I will give it more listens though in the next few weeks.

 

The Party's Over to Laughing Stock is the greatest, most incredible artistic leap of any band I know. It just blows my mind that it's the same band. Not that I think TPO is bad - but I think it's very, very ordinary.

 

1. Spirit Of Eden
2. Laughing Stock

The rest are way behind...

 

I can't post a ranking because of this!

 

I’m fine with giving all of them a 10/10 and calling it a day!