Mark Hollis/Talk Talk

Andrew

Member
a very speculative post but has anybody heard anything about Mark Hollis releasing anything new? Was listening to Laughing Stock the other day and had forgotten just how great it is. I had a tape with Laughing Stock on one side and the first Mercury Rev album on the other and listened to nothing else at all for about a month. Then lovesless came out and then listen to that all the time as well (what a happy go luck 19 year old I was!)
 

robin

Well-known member
i only heard laughing stock for the first time about a year ago,its such an incredible album
what else should i get?
 

worrior

Well-known member
robin said:
i only heard laughing stock for the first time about a year ago,its such an incredible album
what else should i get?

A friend of mine suggests Laughing Stock is the Pet Sounds of our time but I reckon Spirit of Eden is even better...
 

soundslike1981

Well-known member
'Spirit of Eden' easily tops 'Laughing Stock' for me.

Mark Hollis' self-titled took a while to hit me, but I think I've listened to it more than Talk Talk over the last few years. It moves even farther from definability--avant-garde acoustic jazz singer-songwriter ambient pop? It's great, whatever it is, and despite the fact that I'm not sure I've ever understood five words contiguously on it.


It's been about seven years now, which was the amount of time that lapsed between 'Laughing Stock' and 'Mark Hollis,' so maybe we're due?
 

jed_

Well-known member
Mark Hollis has retired from music and apparently won't be releasing any more music.

:(
 

soundslike1981

Well-known member
francesco said:
No way!!!


Yes, indeed. In fact, every time I listen to 'Laughing Stock' I try to figure out why it seems to be the recieved superior record---and I remain at a loss. Maybe I'm a sucker for the one-two-three punch flow of the first side of 'Spirit of Eden,' but ultimately I just find the songs more breathtaking/memorable. I even heard 'Laughing Stock' first, so I don't think there's that sort of bias in my perception.
 

tryptych

waiting for a time
Well, I think it might be you Andrew, that turned me on to Talk Talk in the first place. Have to say I think "Spirit of Eden" is better than "Laughing Stock" too, but that maybe because I got hold of a tape copy of "Spirit", and listened to it on rotation for about a month. This was last year tho, not when I was 19.

I think that the Rustin' Man album that Paul Webb (who's on Spirit but not Laughing stock) did with Beth Gibbons is pretty fucking ace.
 

jwd

Well-known member
soundslike1981 said:
Not that I disbelieve, but what's the source of this sad news?

Yeah I wondered about where this information came from exactly, but it is apparently true. Hollis turned up a year or two ago to accept some award for sales from No Doubt's cover of "It's My Life", there's a photo somewhere on the web of him looking quite uncomfortable in a record company office...

Sad that he's not making any more music, but he did give us some incredible moments. I'll put my hand up for "Laughing Stock" as the best, but everything from "Colour of Spring" inclusive onward is incredible.
 

Buick6

too punk to drunk
'Spirit of Eden' Is the post-Rock post-90s Pet Sounds (maybe even the DSOM too!), up there with 'Loveless' and one of the maybe 4 UK records of the last 20 years that really MEAN IT.

I still need to buy an SACD player to play my SACD of it in sensurround(next to my SACD of 'Dark side of the Moon'...!
 

jed_

Well-known member
"Spirit of Eden" "Laughing stock" "Mark Hollis" - my favourite of these is... whatever i'm playiing at the time. seriously. i put on LS and i think its the best record of all time then i put of SoE and i change my mind.
 

francesco

Minerva Estassi
I wonder if one of the reason to quit music is tha SoE and LS sold almost zero copies when originally the records came out. I remember a couple of month after buying LS the month it was released (1992?) it went cut price. Also they were like in a limbo, my friends shocked that i had bought a cd by the same group of It's My Life (which anyway is a fine '80 pop song) and me trying to explain "noo, they had gone very psychadelic, really...".

Then 10 years after everyone discover SoE and LS are some of the best records ever: probably frustating for the musicians, don't?

Scott Walker career was destroyed by Scott 4, now everyone say to him is his best record.
 
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jed_

Well-known member
scott has released 2 albums better than Scott4 since then imo but the analogy is still a good one. from perfect pop to stuff that's mapping out completely uncharted territory. the only time i put on a record other than those 2 talk talk abums and think "THIS is the best record ever made" is when i put on <i>Tilt</i>
 
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