Spirit Of Eden [Original recording remastered, Import]

I was threatened to be pushed off a cliff, metaphorically speaking, if I didn't give Talk Talk a chance. I put in The Colour of Spring... Laughing Stock... and then the amazing Spirit of Eden. I simply drown with my headphones on listening to this album. I close my eyes and the music overtakes every other thought in mind. The talent within this band surprised me! These past three albums were albums I could appreciate. Five stars for its stimuation, creativity, and feverish chills that Mark Hollis somehow sings into your skin... a must have!

It must be admitted; I had for the longest time a rather negative view on Talk Talk. I first discovered Talk Talk via their first singles - Talk Talk and Today - that became moderate hits. Despite being decent songs, the group was an obvious Duran Duran light outfit, with Duran's same producer on the helm and the name in the same vein as Duran.

Some respect was added when It's My Life, Dum Dum Girl and Such a Shame were released. All 3 remain pop classics. I even became tempted buying their Colour of Spring album based on very favorable reviews and the hits Living in Another World and Life's What You Make It. Like so many other people, I settled for their Natural History collection which I have listened to regularly for many years.

That collection included 2 of the songs on Spirit of Eden. They did not, however, fit in any way with the rest of the collection so I most often simply stopped listening at that point. Having, however, read rave reviews about the album for many years, I became curious to hear how it actually is. Could it be that as a whole, it sounds better than the fragments I had heard on the Natural History collection? I finally gave in and bought it a couple of years ago. In most cases, such shots in the dark lead to nowhere (Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens are recent examples). This time I struck, however, gold.

This is a demanding album and really unlike almost everything else. Yet, I became instantly hooked on it. I have been constantly playing it since I bought it, always discovering new dimensions. Being such a unique album, it is difficult describing the music. The songs are long (only six of them) and in most cases relatively mellow. Comparisons that come to mind are David Sylvian, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd and Radiohead. Of course, these artists differ widely in styles but that simply underlines how difficult it is to pinpoint this album.

I have now bought Talk Talk's other great albums, The Colour of Spring and Laughing Stock. Both are fantastic in different ways. For me, though, Spirit of Eden is their best album and is part of my short desert island music list.

The soundtrack of the universal soul, the perfect blend of silence and sound, the most joyfully poignant expression of each of the most exalted human emotions. In our world, music must have form and identity, and musical expression is learned from what has come before. Spirit of Eden exists in a timeless place outside that world. To say that this music has taken me to heights, depths, and breadths previously unexplored cannot express how much it has meant to me as much as the telling of a simple story, one of many anecdotes, the likes of which will be recognized, chuckled over, and cherished by anyone who has truly experienced this music.

I was visiting a friend, and fellow devotee of this record, in a beautiful little spot in Taiwan (I seldom got together with a good friend I hadn't seen in a while without Spirit of Eden somehow present). After catching up over a bottle of Tequila, he informed me that he had taken secret video of a bunch of everyday people in everyday places going about their lives. I suggested we watch it, on mute, with Spirit of Eden coursing through his excellent sound system. What followed I can only identify as mystical. The music was such a perfect match to this completely random string of events, it was as if it had been written specifically for the piece, synchronizing perfectly with the pinnacles, pitfalls, seriousness and absurdity of this slice of life.

Not surprising then that now, I dare not play it for anything less than a monumental occasion.