Tuesday, June 7, 2011


Talk Talk Series, #10: Talk Talk- Spirit of Eden (1988) MP3 & FLAC


"Tell me how I fear it, I buy prejudice for my health. Is it worth so much when you taste it?"

The Colour of Spring  and it's resulting world tour provided Talk Talk with their first significant taste of international success, and as a result, EMI, assuming the band was poised for an even more lucrative step into the mainstream, awarded them with an enormous budget and a generous deadline for the recording of their next album, Spirit of Eden. However, there were indications early on that Talk Talk were chasing a vastly different muse. During The Colour of Spring tour, Mark Hollis had become increasingly disillusioned and withdrawn (partly due to heroin addiction); then, following the tour, he moved to rural Suffolk, taking up a hermetic lifestyle that was to greatly influence the direction the band would take on their final two albums. For the recording of Spirit of Eden, the band reportedly occupied a former Church for eleven months, thus avoiding all contact with outsiders, a practice which included Hollis' refusal to provide any advanced tapes for their handlers at EMI. According to Producer Phil Brown, recording often took place in the dark and was comprised entirely of improvised overdubs (there were no band takes recorded). Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene then meticulously edited down the massive amount of recorded material into the suite of six songs comprising the finished album. The music itself is nothing less than an incandescent mix of Jazz, Blues, Classical, Ambient, and deconstructed pop, and from the opening measures of "The Rainbow" with its Miles meets DeBussy feel, it's hard not to imagine the reaction at EMI when they finally received the advanced tape of the completed album. While the arc of Talk Talk's artistic evolution had often been quite dramatic from album to album, it is clear, as the ambient prelude of "The Rainbow" is pierced-through with bluesy guitar and an over-amped harmonica and Hollis' meditative vocals glimmer-forth, that Spirit of Eden is both unprecedented and musically important. EMI's response was predictable: the album wasn't commercial enough, so Hollis was asked to re-record and replace some material, something he steadfastly refused to do, and while he was at it, he also notified EMI that there would be no single, video or tour to promote the album. Eventually, Hollis relented on the first two, and "I Believe in You" was chosen to be edited down for release as a single complete with promotional video. The fact that this song is Hollis' paean to losing himself while in the throes of heroin addiction adds just one more ironic layer to EMI's handling of the album. The song itself is a Jazz-inflected slow burner that grows darker by the measure, and contains an absolutely gorgeous and unforgettable vocal turn by Hollis. Simply put, Spirit of Eden inhabits the same visionary, transcendent, and artistically uncompromising sphere as Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Albums like these are the rarest of gems because they are untethered from convention and expectation and unmediated by the interests of the marketplace. Hear this.

Spirit of Eden (2003 SACD Re-Issue)
1. The Rainbow  (8:02)
2. Eden  (7:40)
3. Desire  (7:17)
4. Inheritance  (5:24)
5. I Believe in You  (6:16)
6. Wealth  (6:44)


31 comments:

  1. I love this album.The last two Talk Talk album are impossible to beat.There were great tentatives (Bark Psychosis) but there is something special on those albums, something I doubt it can happen again...I remember listening to the Rainbow for the first time,in 2006... my head was spinning when it reached the heavenly chorus...listening to "I believe in you", chilling with Hollis´ voice and the choir...I could talk about it for pages and pages so I will just shut up now.

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  2. Perhaps the greatest album of the last 25 years?

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  3. Heaven bless you, Mark Hollis.

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  4. This is a must have in any music lover's library.

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  5. carlos, I agree, those Talk Talk albums are simply incomparable

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  6. Anon., you might be right; I can't think of a better one

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  7. Essential album!

    There is a significant difference in sound between the original cd-release and the remastered version. The 'original' one from 1988 on Parlophone sounds warm, slightly diffuse, but very intimate and personal.

    The remastered version from 1997 on EMI has a more detailed sound. There is a greater sense of 'space' in it, and you can listen deeper into the recording. But to achieve that, some intimacy and warmth are sacrificed. Personally, I prefer the original version, but listening to the remaster revealed a lot of little details that I can hear in the original version now too...

    This SACD remaster absolutely is the best of both worlds, and therefor it is the ultimate version. It's almost as good as the vinyl release ;-)

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  8. Anon., great comment! Thank you for the comparison of the different versions. I've never heard the original release, but, like you, I prefer the SACD version to the '97 remaster.

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  9. Hi, first of all thank you for your great job. I have a problem with the flac dl : "The file you are trying to access is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later". Anyone else?

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  10. Interesting to hear some of the details behind the recording of this masterpiece. From where did you get your info?

    I'd love to be able to read more about Talk Talk circa 'The Colour of Spring' to 'Laughing Stock'.

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  11. Anon. Megaupload does this sometimes. Just try back in a few hours later or the next day. I'll check it again tomorrow

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  12. Anon., I posted "Colour of Spring" with a lengthy review earlier and "Laughing Stock" will be series post #12

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  13. I'm having the same problem as Anon with MU giving the (...temporarily unavailable) message. I use JDownloader and the file will start to d/l then stop and JD will give a "lost connection" message, then start again later. Last night, it was up to 67 MB of 202MB. This morning it's at 75 MB. I started a MU d/l of a file 375 MB in size 10 days ago (not a file from here) and it finally finished 7 days later. Sometimes I call Megaupload "MegaOVERload". I'm sure this is one of those "phases" MU is going through. Of course some MU files will finish with no stop/starts - probably an issue with a certain server the file is on.

    Anyway, I look forward to hearing this because up to now, all I've known of this band is their "Talk Talk" song I heard so many times on the radio.

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  14. This is Rob Dickinson's (of Catherine Wheel) favourite album, and he has made a few songs with CW that are clear stylistic homages to it, most notably Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck (which also has a beautiful video).

    I'm not sure I like it quite as much as he does, but it's a great album, and I really love Desire.

    I'd say this album greatly influenced slowcore, too.

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  15. summer freeze, great comment, thanks. I think I'll search out that video, sounds interesting.

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  16. cudawaver, I re-upped the folder and posted a new link. Hopefully this helps :)

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  17. Amazing! I like this album very much. A nice blog for who just love music, its one of my passion and thank you for posting about so many things and loved all the posts.
    noleggio audio

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  18. noleggio audio, thank you for the comment! I'm glad you found the blog and that you like the music. It is my passion too :)

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  19. Hollis has denied having ever been addicted to heroin.

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  20. Anon., he really doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would readily admit to such a thing. It's fairly common knowledge, but if he wants me to retract my claim, he can contact me ;)

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  21. André Luiz, yes, this album is one of my absolute favorites

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  22. There was a terrific article about them in Mojo (I think) about 3-5 years ago. They talked about the band's disintegration and how toward the end Hollis wasn't working on "songs" or chords anymore but would just sit in a dark studio obsessing over single notes. Two things that stuck out from the article were that: 1) Paul Webb spent 6 months in serious therapy at the end of this album and spent a majority of his time in a hyperbaric chamber. And 2) when they would bring in the extra musicians like Steve Winwood on Colour, they gave zero direction and didn't speak to them. Made them play what the guest choose and then decided later if it was good or not. If I can find the article again, I'll try to scan it and send.

    Love, love, love your taste as I am a Talk Talk and Echo fiend.

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  23. marshall, wow, that sounds like a great article. I would have loved to have had that for the series. Anyway, if you do happen to find it, I'd love and very much appreciate a scan. My email is:

    killingmoonmusic@gmail.com

    Thanks for the fantastic comment!

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  24. I found it. March 2006 MOJO. I will try to get it scanned but you will get it faster buying it on the internet. And I recommend getting it because I've already been wrong. It was "Lee and I (Paul Brown) had a year of therapy and did a lot of flotation tanks, a lot of rebuilding, Lee just hid away for a while"

    It's a 7-page article with one full-page image of Mark Hollis.

    I could provide 40 additional quotes but you would do it better once you have the article.

    I can scan it. I can also just send you the magazine but kinda want to keep it.

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  25. marshall, good to hear from you again. Don't worry about scanning it. I'll buy it. Thanks again for turning me on to this article!

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  26. Talk Talk tribute album ... In a comment on the Recoil blog Alan Wilder says: "In direct opposition to their commercial decline, my interest in the group increased as their more avant garde leanings came to the forefront. 'The Colour Of Spring' (1986) was an excellent but transitional album where one could visibly see the band mutating from well-crafted, intelligent pop into something much deeper and more thought- provoking. It reflected producer Tim Friese-Greene's more fluid and melodic keyboard arrangements with a far more expansive production. However, the revelation that followed - 'Spirit of Eden' - was still totally unexpected. This has to be one of my all-time favourite albums. Mind-blowingly brilliant in its diversity, minimalism, atmospherics, musicianship and topped off with the voice which found it's true position floating painfully over the top (in the best possible way). Whenever I'm stumped for something to listen to, I reach for this album to restore my faith in all that is good about modern music." Greetings from Japan

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