Talk Talk -
Spirit of Eden
Posted: December 16th, 2008
Date: 1988
Release: EMI/Parlophone4
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album
Spirit of Eden’s potently eerie but beautiful aural textures is worlds apart from the bubbly synth-pop hits—”It’s My Life” and “Talk Talk”—that typified Talk Talk’s early-’80s new wave sound. After scoring a bestseller in 1986′s The Colour of Spring, EMI gave the band (Hollis, Friese-Greene, Webb, and Harris) a hefty recording budget for their next effort. Moving into an abandoned church, Talk Talk embarked on a lengthy 14-month recording session. When the group finally delivered Spirit of Eden, EMI execs—who had been refused advance access to the recordings—were shocked: The album’s classical and freeform jazz influences and art-rock leanings broke from traditional pop expectations, resulting in something utterly uncategorizable!
This record label nightmare elicited nary a commercial whimper, but quickly garnered huge critical accolades, nevertheless. Even more than a decade after the album’s release, the organic, often stark, arrangements decorated by singer Mark Hollis’ nasal and hauntingly plaintive vocals still command immediate attention.
Listed as individual tracks, “The Rainbow,” “Eden,” “Desire” are really three parts to a single brooding 23-minute piece reminiscent of the more melancholy sections on Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. As “The Rainbow” and “Eden” unfold as contemplative lilts with moments of soft atonality, “Desire” percolates to an aggressive and percussive climax.
Fans of late-’90s electronic music also take note: Spirit of Eden’s transcendent ambience practically paved the way for later innovators such as Massive Attack, making this a truly forward-thinking album.
Players:
- Mark Hollis – vocal, piano, organ, guitar
- Tim Friese-Greene – harmonium, piano, organ, guitar
- Paul Webb – electric bass
- Lee Harris – drums
- Martin Ditcham – percussion
- Robbie Mcintosh – dobro, 12-string guitar
- Mark Feltham – harmonica
- Simon Edwards – Mexican bass
- Danny Thompson – double bass
- Henry Lowther – trumpet
- Nigel Kennedy – violin
- Hugh Davies – shozygs
- Andrew Stowell – bassoon
- Michael Jeans – oboe
- Andrew Mariner – clarinet
- Christopher Hooker – cor anglais
- Choir of Chelmsford Cathedral
Tracks:
- The Rainbow
- Eden
- Desire
- Inheritance
- I Believe in You
- Wealth
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Mark Wilde -
When you open your heart to this album, it will make the rest of your album collection pale and seem very insignificant in comparison because no other album can move you in the deepest and most emotional ways that
December 15th, 2009 at 5:06 pmthis one can. This is the album that first anticipated the term “post-rock” but unlike the countless artists and albums that followed in its wake, none can match the grace, power, beauty, and majesty (the textures, mood, and atmosphere, the light/shade, silence/sounds, and catharsis) of this album. From the seamless three-song suite which encompasses abstract jazz (“The Rainbow”), delicate ambience (“Eden”), and earthy, visceral blues/rock (“Desire”) on the first side to the second side where quieter yet even more captivating drifting passages of complexity (“Inheritance”) share space with one of the greatest songs ever written (“I Believe in You”) and a closer with closure and redemption (“Wealth”), Spirit of Eden is, quite simply, a record that stands out because it actually speaks to and becomes part of your most interior and emotional moments–it is one of those rare albums that actually deserves to be called a “soundtrack to life”.