Talk Talk: Not Just a One-Hit Wonder

Spirit Of Eden was a product of musical improvisations, overnight jams and out-of-the-box thinking. The result, released in 1988, was a six-track album that amounted to commercial suicide. Textured orchestral drones, choral voices, Hollis’ haunting voice and his phenomenal guitar tone built this landscape of ambiance. Hollis is one of those rare artists who successfully uses silence as an instrument. To me, Spirit Of Eden sounds like a cross between Can, Miles Davis, Brian Eno and Phillip Glass. Years later, Radiohead and Sigor Ros have had much more critical and commercial success with the same sound. In fact, when the A&R person from their label EMI first heard Spirit of Eden, he allegedly cried because there was no hit. EMI responded by suing them for not sounding like, well, Talk Talk. After the inevitable termination of their contract with EMI, Talk Talk moved over to the jazz label Verve and released Laughing Stock. Laughing Stock. But soon after, and with no fanfare, they broke up. Hollis released a solo album in 1998, then retired from music. followed the path they established on Spirit Of Eden

I have read that Hollis lost his faith in the music business, and that saddens me. He truly is a pure talent and deserves consideration for one those “most important albums” lists. Twenty years later, neither album sounds dated at all; they’re still fresh and deserve to be discovered somewhere other than a used CD bin.

– Ryan Holiday