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| org. vinyl cover |
release date: Nov. 19, 1991
format: vinyl (847 717-1) / cd (1999 remaster)
[album rate: 5 / 5] [4,86]
producer: Tim Friese-Greene
label: Verve / Polydor - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Myrrhman" (5 / 5) - 2. "Ascension Day" (5 / 5) - 3. "After the Flood" (4,5 / 5) - 4. "Taphead" (4 / 5) - 5. "New Grass" (5 / 5) - 6. "Runeii" (5 / 5)
5th and final studio album by Talk Talk originally released on the Polydor sub-label Verve Records. After the band's controversy with former label EMI, bassist Paul Webb left the band, officially reducing Talk Talk to a duo of Mark Hollis and drummer Lee Harris, but practically, Harris had left Talk Talk before recording the album. The band had become a one-man project, but Harris is still credited as band member because he was hired as session musician, and the 'real' duo of Talk Talk was rather one consisting of Hollis and producer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist Tim Friese-Greene, although he never was an official member of Talk Talk.
The music on Laughing Stock is the extended journey to what was initiated on The Colour of Spring (1986) and much bolder heard on Spirit of Eden (1988). It's like one long coherent composition, although, there are 6 tracks on the album. The music is inter-woven jazz rock, art rock, and / or experimental but ultimately post-rock compositions with thematic ideas as foundation to improvisations.
Of all the great Talk Talk albums, I have always loved this album the most. Alas, the vinyl pressing of the release is not impressively manufactured. The sound is too low and the quality of the record is poor. This is the sort of album you just need to own on optical disc because of the minimal and spatial sound. Hollis was never the arch typical star of the music industry - he always distanced himself from the media circus, be it TV, reporters and-the-like, and he only reluctantly agreed to make music videos to some of the band's singles - as he didn't believe in the whole idea of promoting music.
Laughing Stock was met by positive reviews but Hollis had no intentions of touring to promote the album, very much like it had been the issue with the previous album(s). By 1992 Hollis dissolved the band and withdrew from music to concentrate on his family. However, he would go on to release one critically acclaimed solo album, the eponymous Mark Hollis in 1998 - produced, only to fulfil the contractual obligations of the two albums record deal with Polydor. Unfortunately, he hasn't released music since. He was embraced as a gifted singer and songwriter, and although, he could have continued as a famous solo artist, producer and/or songwriter, Hollis just wanted no part of the business. Paul Webb and Lee Harris went on to launch their duo project .O.rang and Tim Friese-Greene initiated his solo project Heligoland.
Sigur Rós has played Talk Talk compositions when playing live, and alongside many bands of the mid- and late 90s (Mogwai, Recoil, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Radiohead, Portishead - yes, the list goes on) they have found much of their inspiration in Talk Talk and especially the band's last two albums that have come to stand like cornerstones of the modern music era.
To me, Laughing Stock is an album that I have always listened to - never a year without it - and I find it a modern masterpiece.
[ allmusic.com, Sputnikmusic 5 / 5, Q Magazine, Select 4 / 5 stars ]
1991 Favourite releases: 1. Talk Talk Laughing Stock - 2. Van Morrison Hymns to the Silence - 3. Kitchens of Distinction Strange Free World
[ collectors' item - from ~ €85,- ]
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| 1999 cd remaster |
