release date: Jul. 1982
format: vinyl / cassette / vinyl (reissue) / cd (1997 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,67]
producer: Colin Thurston
label: EMI Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Talk Talk" (3,5 / 5) - 2. "It's So Serious" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "Today" (4 / 5) - 4. "The Party's Over" (4 / 5) - 5. "Hate" (3,5 / 5) - 6. "Have You Heard the News?" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "Mirror Man" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "Another Word" (4 / 5) - 9. "Candy" (3,5 / 5)
Studio debut album by London-based Talk Talk consisting of vocalist, as well as primary lyricist and musical composer, Mark Hollis, Simon Brenner on keyboards, Paul Webb on bass and with Lee Harris on drums. The music is synthpop, new wave, new romantic, and what I believe is art pop.
Talk Talk is one of a long list of new romantic bands of the early 1980s, but as many others, they are quite unique and highly original in style. I find that they have parts of Japan, parts of Human League, bits of Duran Duran [whom they were then seen as mere pale imitators of], but they also carry something as 'ordinary' as a touch of classic pop / rock, and with that pointing to the 1970s and Roxy Music, and on the other hand they also bring about a more futuristic sound, which may put them aside OMD. And yes, many bands and artists of this period blended styles and inputs in an attempt to stay on the right course with equal amounts of pop and synths.
In retrospect, there's no doubt that Talk Talk was one of a few artists who literally constructed the path of music to come, a pioneering band who has influenced music like few of the aforementioned. Only Japan with its influence on new romantic and synthpop, and OMD with its original sound in between experimental and pop have had such impact on popular music on the same scale. Talk Talk didn't do it with this album alone. With this they made a strong first album, and they put their name on the list of bands to look out for.
I didn't appreciate this as much then. Actually, I didn't listen to the full album until I bought it on cassette in 1989. Although, I knew the band well from its single releases and more fully from the breakthrough album The Colour of Spring (1986), I wasn't quite ready for the synthpop without the post-punk element in the early 80s, and there really are no punk rock references here. Years later, this would apply for sophisti-pop, but that style wasn't labeled then.
Listening to this today, I find it refreshing in a way only original and timeless music survives, and knowing what they would later come up with only adds to the admiration. The album contains no weak tracks. Apart from the original vinyl, a cassette issue, and a 1987 cd-issue, I have a 1997 remastered edition of the album, but to be frank, apart from more dynamics, which in some cases sound too forced, I don't find the remaster bettering the original mastering, which still sounds just mighty fine.
The front cover is by artist James Marsh [Album Cover interview - wikipedia] who would remain the artist behind all of the band's albums and single releases throughout the entire life-span of Talk Talk.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]
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My collection of Talk Talk albums
