Does Everything Reflect The Time You Spend?

I didn't need to look far for the inspiration for today's Talk Talk selection... I was wearing the T-shirt!

This ten-song compilation spans their early demos with Jimmy Miller in 1981, through to their final statement as a band, with Laughing Stock in 1991, but leans most on the 1984-1986 period and the albums It's My Life and The Colour Of Spring.

I've tried to navigate the incredible evolution of the band in just four albums without being a stickler for chronology. So the freeform jazz stylings of Ascension Day are sandwiched between the 'poppier' moments of Dum Dum Girl and ?, the B-side of Talk Talk's eponymous single.

Eden, the only song here from my favourite Talk Talk album, Spirit Of Eden, sits more comfortably between the opening and closing songs from The Colour Of Spring. The selection itself ends with one of their best known singles and one of their best B-sides.

The thing that binds them all together is the core of Mark Hollis, Paul Webb and Lee Harris. Much is written about Mark's lyrics and unique vocal performances, but it's Paul and Lee that provide the foundation, the feeling, the humanity through through their incredible musicianship. And that's not to dismiss the contributions of Simon Brenner and especially Tim Friese-Greene.

Talk Talk was an astonishing band, no matter which album or single you happen to be listening to, and one that rewards on each return visit.

1) Living In Another World (U.S. Remix By Gavin MacKillop) (1986)

2) Dum Dum Girl (Single Version By Tim Friese-Greene) (1984)

3) Ascension Day (Album Version By Tim Friese-Greene & Phill Brown) (Single Edit) (1991)

4) ? (Single Version By Colin Thurston) (1982)

5) Candy (Demo Version By Jimmy Miller) (1981)

6) Happiness Is Easy (Album Version By Tim Friese-Greene) (1986)

7) Eden (Album Version By Tim Friese-Greene) (1988)

8) Time It's Time (Album Version By Tim Friese-Greene) (1986)

9) Today (Album Version By Mike Robinson) (1982)

10) Again, A Game...Again (Single Version By Tim Friese-Greene) (1983)

1982: Talk Talk: 4

1982: The Party's Over: 9

1984: Dum Dum Girl EP: 2

1984: Such A Shame EP (limited edition 2x 7"): 5, 10

1986: Living In Another World EP: 1

1986: The Colour Of Spring: 6, 8

1988: Spirit Of Eden: 7

1991: Ascension Day EP: 3

Does Everything Reflect The Time You Spend? (56:05) (GD) (M)

Post script: 

I've reactivated links to a couple of Talk Talk selections I posted previously:

Inheritance (April 2022)

Take My Freedom When The Riot Comes (May 2023)

Staring Right Into The Light

Flying North by Thomas Dolby popped up on my playlist this week, a standout from his debut album The Golden Age Of Wireless. 

 

On the original album release in May 1982, Flying North was the opening song with a much different track listing from subsequent re-releases. The vinyl version I bought a few years later was the 1983 issue which placed She Blinded Me With Science at the start, added One Of Our Submarines to Side 2 at the expense of another song and relegated Flying North to Track 4 on Side 1.

Flying North was also released as a B-side to breakthrough single Windpower the same year, peaking at #31 in the UK in September 1982. As such, it enjoyed a 'High Altitude Extended Play' version on the 12" single and a Razormaid remix in the US.

 

It's always been one of my favourite Thomas Dolby songs, with crisp production from Thomas with Tim Friese-Greene that sounds very much of the 1980s but was also a cut above many of its contemporaries.

 

I've discovered a 2006 live performance, with studio intro to the song from Thomas, which provides a fascinating context to the lyrical origin. And the performance is great, too. It's #4 of 6-part podcast, Sole Inhabitant, and I'll go back to watch the rest this weekend.

 

Metal bird dip wing of fire

 Whose airlanes comb dark Earth

 The poles are tethers we were born in

 On the brink of a whole new deal

 On the floor of a Pan Am bar

 I'm staring right into the light

 And I'm drawn in like a moth

 And I'm flying north again

 

Here come the men in suits

 Papers waving in the runway glare

 Lincoln streaming in the chilly air of the morning

 At the end of a double day

 At the back of an airport lounge

 I'm staring down into the cold

 And I'm worn out like a cloth

 And I'm flying north again tonight

 

 Down with the landing gear

 Up goes the useless prayer

 The poles are tethers we were born in

 Now I'm back in the London night

 On a bench in a launderette

 I'm staring right into my face

 And I'm drawn out like a plot

 And I'm flying north again tonight

Inheritance

Side 1 of a mixtape compiled for my friend Stuart in 1998, featuring Talk Talk and .O.Rang.

 

I've mixed feelings about posting a Talk Talk selection; I have this, plus another C90 collating songs from 1981 to 1988, and I've never been entirely happy with either. Little wonder, given the painstaking and shattering effect recording and honing the two albums in question - 1988's Spirit Of Eden and 1991's Laughing Stock - had on the band and the musicians involved.

 

The title is a song from the Spirit Of Eden album, which didn't actually make it onto this selection's final running order. Contrary? Moi?

By necessity of space and song balance, I went for the single edits of I Believe In You and Eden and included only one older song, the incredible remix of Happiness Is Easy from 1986, as a nod to the original C90 B-side, Paul Webb and Lee Harris' subsequent .O.Rang project.

An imperfect selection, to say the least, but the songs themselves more than make up for it.

1) The Rainbow (1988)

2) Myrrhman (1991)

3) I Believe In You (Single Version By Tim Friese-Greene) (1988)

4) Ascension Day (1991)

5) Happiness Is Easy (12" Mix By Paul Webb & Lee Harris) (1986)

6) Desire (1988)

7) Eden (Edit By Tim Friese-Greene) (1988)

8) John Cope (1988)

1986: I Don't Believe In You EP: 5 

1988: I Believe In You EP: 3, 7, 8

1988: Spirit Of Eden: 1, 6

1991: Laughing Stock: 2, 4

Inheritance (46:21) (GD) (M)

All The Colours Talk To Me

I saw Lush live in concert (supported by Gallon Drunk, who I sadly don't recall at all) at the Bristol Bierkeller on 27th October 1991. I was a big fan of the first two releases by Lush, the mini-album Scar and follow up EP, Mad Love. The latter aptly titled, as I had a huge fanboy crush on Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson. I had the fold-out poster of the band's "infamous body paint photos" by Kevin Cummins in a 1990 edition of NME on my wall. I thought they were even more beautiful on stage.

Lush had a lot going for them: great songs with urgent rhythms; guitars that alternated between jangly and squalling, sometimes in the same song; harmonies that wouldn't cause The Beach Boys to lose any sleep but which worked beautifully with the melodic sounds they created. Given the heavy debt to Cocteau Twins, it was fitting that Lush were not only on the 4AD label (with the requisite gorgeous artwork) but also produced by Robin Guthrie on the Mad Love EP and debut album, Spooky.

Today's selection is taken from a mixtape, recorded 2nd July 1992. For regular readers' interest, the flipside was The Sugarcubes' mixtape, which I featured in February. At this time, it was just over eight months since the gig and about six since Spooky had been released. Yet, I still only had three Lush records: the aforementioned Scar and Mad Love, plus the For Love EP, which I'd bought with some other vinyl in the bargain bin at WH Smith with a Christmas or birthday present voucher. 

There had been another couple of singles in the meantime: 1990's Sweetness And Light, produced by Tim Friese-Greene, and the Black Spring EP, released in 1991 to promote the tour that I attended. My friend had the 12" of the former, so I was able to borrow it (along with his Sugarcubes albums) to cobble together a 45-minute compilation.

I didn't really follow Lush much after that, although I would dip into - and enjoy - what followed with the Desire Lines and Hypocrite EPs, though I was less of a fan of 500 (Shake Baby Shake) and Single Girl and their being lumped in with the Britpop bands in the mid-1990s.

The tragic death of drummer Chris Acland in 1996 brought the band to an end. They briefly reformed for live performances and the Blind Spot EP in 2016, which appears to have been the definitive final chapter for Lush. I didn't see Lush live in concert again, but here's a sparkling performance of Sweetness And Light from KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic.

1) Sweetness And Light (1990)

2) Scarlet (1989)

3) Sunbathing (1990)

4) Breeze (1990)

5) Downer (1990)

6) Baby Talk (1989)

7) Bitter (1989)

8) For Love (Album Version) (1991)

9) Etheriel (1989)

10) Second Sight (1989)

11) Leaves Me Cold (1990)

12) Astronaut (1991)

13) De-Luxe (1990)

14) Outdoor Miner (Cover of Wire) (1991)

15) Thoughtforms (Re-Recorded Version) (1990)

 

1989: Scar: 2, 6, 7, 9, 10

1990: Mad Love EP: 5, 11, 13, 15

1990: Sweetness And Light EP: 1, 3, 4

1991: For Love EP: 8, 12, 14

 

All The Colours Talk To Me (45:20) (GD) (M)

Again, A Game...Again

A very fine 'pop' period Talk Talk song, tucked away as the B-side of the Such A Shame single in 1984 (or It's My Life in the USA & Canada) and dusted off for the 1998 compilation Asides Besides.