{"id":622443,"date":"2026-09-12T12:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T12:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622443\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T12:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T12:52:12","slug":"why-talk-talks-genius-spirit-of-eden-was-ignored-at-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622443\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Talk Talk\u2019s genius Spirit of Eden was ignored at first"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Talk Talk delivered their third album Spirit Of Eden, it took their record label by surprise. Asked to make it more pop-friendly to match their earlier successful output, leader Mark Hollis refused. The album didn\u2019t do well on release in 1988 \u2013 but its stature has continued to grow since then, as Prog argued in 2009.<\/p>\n

The term \u2018progressive\u2019 has come to denote \u2013 at least in the minds of the unthinking mainstream critics and consumers \u2013 a genre or style, something to do with sparkly capes and impenetrable lyrics about wizards.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Actually, most bands are progressive in their way, trying to move their music forward. It\u2019s just that they don\u2019t get the label because they don\u2019t sound like King Crimson<\/a> in 1969.<\/p>\n

Talk Talk<\/a> are a prime example of a band who progressed; a band who made a great leap forward and changed everything.<\/p>\n

In interviews, frontman Mark Hollis<\/a> always spoke about Miles Davis<\/a> and Bela Bartok, though it was hard to square his professed influences with the happy-clappy synth pop that his band made.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Talk Talk – I Believe in You (Official Video) [HD Upgrade] – YouTube
\n\"Talk<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Songs like My Foolish Friend and It\u2019s My Life were beautifully crafted pop artefacts, but nobody at the time saw Talk Talk as anything other than the band you got into while Duran Duran<\/a> were on a hiatus.<\/p>\n

Talk Talk were successful Smash Hits and Top Of The Pops mainstays. Along with Culture Club, Tears For Fears<\/a> and A Flock Of Seagulls, they were part of a second British invasion of the US.<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Prog, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Their big hit, 1986\u2019s Life\u2019s What You Make It, and the album The Colour Of Spring showed a new maturity as well as sustained Top 10 status. Their parent label EMI gave them carte blanche to record the follow-up: unlimited time and money with minimal interference. The result of a year spent in the studio was Spirit Of Eden, a monumental work whose iconic status continues to grow.<\/p>\n

Constructed from hours of improvisations \u2013 sometimes they played in complete darkness to get the mood right \u2013 and edited by Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene, Spirit Of Eden bears little resemblance to the band\u2019s pop incarnation. Plaintive Miles Davis-like trumpet solos are layered on top of glacially slow ambient washes; Hollis\u2019 distinctive voice is the only thing with any seeming continuity with the band\u2019s previous sound.<\/p>\n

On hearing a cassette of the album, EMI panicked as executives saw their fat bonus cheques evaporate. They asked Hollis to replace some songs and rerecord others. He refused. The album sold poorly, partly because of the challenging nature of the material, but also because the band didn\u2019t tour in support of it. It was, Hollis, admitted, impossible to play live.<\/p>\n

The Rainbow (1997 Remaster) – YouTube
\n\"The<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

In retrospect Spirit Of Eden and its almost-as-good follow-up Laughing Stock started a sea change in music \u2013 along with US rockers Slint<\/a> \u2013 paving the way for a new post-rock<\/a> underground movement that includes the more experimental side of Radiohead<\/a> as well as Chicago-school bands like Tortoise.<\/p>\n

Hollis, after one brilliant solo album, retired from music, and lived life away from the spotlight up until his death<\/a> in 2019. But his legacy lives on through Spirit. Now regarded as a classic, it just took the rest of the world a little while to catch up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Talk Talk delivered their third album Spirit Of Eden, it took their record label by surprise. Asked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-622443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}