YMMV / Talk Talk

• Awesome Music:
  • Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock (and, in some cases, The Colour of Spring) are still hailed as influential masterpieces to this day.
  • Say what you will about early Talk Talk, but you simply can't deny how truly awesome "It's My Life" is, even as just a fun little 80's tune. Other early singles such as "Today", "Talk Talk" and especially "Such a Shame" are also worth revisiting.
• Covered Up: Some listeners might be surprised to find out that "It's My Life" isn't a No Doubt song, more so the original song was done by a man.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Lots of people prefer to ignore the stuff made before The Colour of Spring.
  • It's even more noticeable those who think that their debut album shouldn't even be mentioned.
• Growing the Beard: Their albums are generally acknowledged to have gotten better as their songwriting and choice of instrumentation matured. In particular, The Colour of Spring is considered the point where the band truly came into their own, shifting to a more complex and organic sound following a pair of Duran Duran-influenced Synth-Pop albums that were made solely out of necessity.
• Heartwarming Moments: "April 5th" was titled after Mark's wife's birthday.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The last minute and a half of "Eden" is pretty disorienting; it's pretty much just Mark aggressively ripping at his guitar almost out of tune with distortion turned up, while Lee bangs on a ride cymbal. It almost gives off the feeling of someone screaming at you.
  • "After the Flood". Good lord.
  • The music video for "I Believe in You" just has Mark staring into nothingness while barely even playing the guitar part and singing.
  • "Taphead" is also fairly frightening, especially with the Scare Chord that suddenly appears halfway through the song.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Talk Talk's early output is by no means bad, in fact it's pretty great 80s Synth-Pop and New Wave Music, it's just been overshadowed by how groundbreaking and influential their later albums are.
• Signature Song: While the band's last two albums are considered their most iconic, "It's My Life" (from the earlier Synth-Pop duology) remains the band's best-known individual song, being their sole hit in the United States and receiving a popular Cover Version by No Doubt.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The Colour of Spring was considered a major step up from the band's middlingly-received first two albums, moving away from their early Duran Duran-influenced Synth-Pop sound in favor of densely-layered art pop influenced by fin de siècle-era Classical Music.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "The Colour of Spring". Despite being a Mark Hollis solo song (the opening track off his sole, self-titled album from 1998), it's still probably the most beautiful piece of music he's ever written. It's just him singing quietly, almost inaudibly, against a piano, and the chord progression for the first half of the song is well worth the tears.
  • There's also the B-Side "It's Getting Late in the Evening", surprisingly one of their most popular songs. The way Hollis sings "everybody's laughing" is sure to give any listener a hell of a nostalgia trip. Then, when the chord progression starts to change, followed by the beautiful synth strings, it slowly becomes Awesome Music. Then it just ends.
  • You've also got "I Believe in You". The way Mark sings about watching someone slowly wither away from a heroin addiction is heartbreaking to listen to. Then you've got that gospel choir as the song slowly dies out at the end... almost like an actual heroin addict. Jesus. The Reality Subtext on the song being inspired by the tragic death of Hollis's brother from a heroin overdose makes it sadder, with Hollis's own death in 2019 only amplifying the sentiment.
  • "New Grass" and "Wealth" are stunningly beautiful.
• Tough Act to Follow: Subverted in the sense that Hollis stopped making music and broke up with Talk Talk because he felt that he'd already achieved the sound he ultimately wanted with Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock. In this interview from 1998, he suggests that Laughing Stock possibly would have never even existed since he already accomplished his musical goals with Spirit of Eden alone.
• Vindicated by History: While still not as praised as the last three albums they made, fans and critics these days are a lot more nicer to The Party's Over and It's My Life, due to their fun and energetic approach simply being overshadowed by the band's acclaimed works. It helps that the songs on the two albums are decent enough Synth-Pop in their own right.

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