Meinl Blanqe
12/29/09, 07:03 PM
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Record Label: Polydor
Release Date: November 19, 1991
The issue among many teenage music listeners is that most of them prefer something so obnoxious and in-your-face that they would look down upon beautiful and magnificent musical arrangements, while the music they listen to is nothing but repetitive synth-pop that's so awful that you can't believe it. Luckily, I've been out of the norm of these teenagers and graced with the stunning and timeless tunes of Talk Talk's influential fifth and final studio album, Laughing Stock.
For those of you who don't know this particular band, let me give you a brief history: Talk Talk were once called, in a nutshell, a bandwagon band influenced by Duran Duran. Overtime, their music grew from relying on synthesizers to organic instruments, with their fourth album Spirit of Eden (which is equally as great) being what people might describe as a 180-degree turn away from their New Romantic synth-pop. Because of this, Spirit of Eden was completely unmarketable, causing Talk Talk to leave their record label EMI for Polydor, on which they release their final album.
Like Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock contains six tracks containing highly religious lyrics, all ranging from almost five minutes to almost ten minutes in length. Filled with abstract sounds from improvisation, Laughing Stock might be either a very unique collection or a pretentious piece of rubbish. In this case, Laughing Stock is more of the former.
The first track "Myrrhman" begins with seventeen seconds of silence before a guitar strum breaks into the song out of nowhere, with strange string arrangements reflecting the mood of the song in place. When Mark Hollis's unintelligle and sorrowful vocals tremble throughout the song, one might be feeling relaxation coated within the quiet beginning.
Then, "Ascension Day" happened. While you think this might be another relaxing song, about forty-five seconds in, violent guitars cry out alongside the vibrant drum beat. One might consider this the most lively track on the album, but it's certainly not the highlight of the album itself, while the song is still a stellar recommendation.
(Yeah, I know I'm being a bit brief on the reviews of the songs themselves, because I can't further describe the gems, since they "speak for themselves.")
The next track "After the Flood" is the first of two major higlights of the album. To start off, the note arrangements of the song work with the theme of the track, the lyrics are beautifully oblique, and it might have one of the greatest "guitar" (it's actually a vibraphone doing the solo, as I heard) solos ever created, albeit it's simply just one note being played repetitively and abruptly for a minute.
"Taphead", the fourth track, might be notable for the bass guitar riff playing out throughout the beginning of the song, while several horns bleed into the song with grace, and the barely understandable vocals whimper beautifully.
Considering that this is the fifth and penultimate track on Laughing Stock, "New Grass" can be considered the next highlight of the track, as being the most beautiful song on the album, with the best lyrics, the best vocals... it might be the best song on the album after "After the Flood". The lyrics spiritually express the encompassing tapestry that this song weaves in itself.
However, there has to be a weak track on every album. Unfortunately, "Runeii", the final track, is such a track. While it's still a good song, it's not as memorable as "New Grass" or "Ascension Day". I'm not saying it's monotonous, but I'm saying that it just feels unnecessary, since "New Grass" sounds like a perfect album closer.
As time goes by and more people start discovering this wonderful album, Laughing Stock was considered to be influential to the post-rock genre since it was one of the first post-rock recordings, and considered to be one of the best albums of the 90s, respectively, and the way it sounds obviously shows.
Record Label: Polydor
Release Date: November 19, 1991
The issue among many teenage music listeners is that most of them prefer something so obnoxious and in-your-face that they would look down upon beautiful and magnificent musical arrangements, while the music they listen to is nothing but repetitive synth-pop that's so awful that you can't believe it. Luckily, I've been out of the norm of these teenagers and graced with the stunning and timeless tunes of Talk Talk's influential fifth and final studio album, Laughing Stock.
For those of you who don't know this particular band, let me give you a brief history: Talk Talk were once called, in a nutshell, a bandwagon band influenced by Duran Duran. Overtime, their music grew from relying on synthesizers to organic instruments, with their fourth album Spirit of Eden (which is equally as great) being what people might describe as a 180-degree turn away from their New Romantic synth-pop. Because of this, Spirit of Eden was completely unmarketable, causing Talk Talk to leave their record label EMI for Polydor, on which they release their final album.
Like Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock contains six tracks containing highly religious lyrics, all ranging from almost five minutes to almost ten minutes in length. Filled with abstract sounds from improvisation, Laughing Stock might be either a very unique collection or a pretentious piece of rubbish. In this case, Laughing Stock is more of the former.
The first track "Myrrhman" begins with seventeen seconds of silence before a guitar strum breaks into the song out of nowhere, with strange string arrangements reflecting the mood of the song in place. When Mark Hollis's unintelligle and sorrowful vocals tremble throughout the song, one might be feeling relaxation coated within the quiet beginning.
Then, "Ascension Day" happened. While you think this might be another relaxing song, about forty-five seconds in, violent guitars cry out alongside the vibrant drum beat. One might consider this the most lively track on the album, but it's certainly not the highlight of the album itself, while the song is still a stellar recommendation.
(Yeah, I know I'm being a bit brief on the reviews of the songs themselves, because I can't further describe the gems, since they "speak for themselves.")
The next track "After the Flood" is the first of two major higlights of the album. To start off, the note arrangements of the song work with the theme of the track, the lyrics are beautifully oblique, and it might have one of the greatest "guitar" (it's actually a vibraphone doing the solo, as I heard) solos ever created, albeit it's simply just one note being played repetitively and abruptly for a minute.
"Taphead", the fourth track, might be notable for the bass guitar riff playing out throughout the beginning of the song, while several horns bleed into the song with grace, and the barely understandable vocals whimper beautifully.
Considering that this is the fifth and penultimate track on Laughing Stock, "New Grass" can be considered the next highlight of the track, as being the most beautiful song on the album, with the best lyrics, the best vocals... it might be the best song on the album after "After the Flood". The lyrics spiritually express the encompassing tapestry that this song weaves in itself.
However, there has to be a weak track on every album. Unfortunately, "Runeii", the final track, is such a track. While it's still a good song, it's not as memorable as "New Grass" or "Ascension Day". I'm not saying it's monotonous, but I'm saying that it just feels unnecessary, since "New Grass" sounds like a perfect album closer.
As time goes by and more people start discovering this wonderful album, Laughing Stock was considered to be influential to the post-rock genre since it was one of the first post-rock recordings, and considered to be one of the best albums of the 90s, respectively, and the way it sounds obviously shows.