Description
Label Review.
1998 album. Only solo record from Talk Talk singer/songwriter. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
Originally marketed as a synth pop boy band by their label EMI when they released their first album ‘The Party’s Over’ in 1982, today Talk Talk are best known for their progression from this debut offering to virtually inventing the genre ‘Post-rock’ with their fourth record ‘Spirit Of Eden’ (1988). The group was down to a trio by this point and only had one album left in them (‘Laughing Stock’ 1991) which saw them lose another member and move further into sonic abstraction.
Talk Talk effectively finished after this and the bands chief architect, Mark Hollis, fell silent, with fans wondering what he’d do next. That question was answered in early 1998 when his debut album, simply called ‘Mark Hollis’ was released. The album used space and silence to great effect with the first gently stroked piano chord on the opening track “The Colour of Spring” (named after Talk Talk’s third album) only coming in after about 15 seconds of room ambience. The whole album was recorded using acoustic instruments which was a first for Hollis. All eight tracks exuded a calm, restful quality and in the words of Phill Brown who engineered the album: “fantastically beautiful”.