Spirit of Eden was recorded, like several of my favorite albums, in the dark. Talk Talk took several hours of musical improvisation and edited it down to a digestible six-piece album. But Spirit of Eden is a lot more than an album; it's a musical suite. The vast, lush instrumentation and the sobriety of Mark Hollis' voice creates an ambiance that transcended entirely what the conventions of music were at the time of Spirit of Eden's recording, and almost singlehandedly launched an entire genre, a feat very few bands can lay claim to.
Talk Talk's influence on experimental and post-rock is enormous: linear song structures interweave with verse-chorus-verse forms and motifs, timbres and textures materialize at exactly the moment that they are needed. Musically, there are few works in the 20th century as musically complex as Spirit of Eden, and to think that it came from what was previously considered a new wave pop band gives Talk Talk's listeners optimism as to what all musicians may be capable of.
Enjoy.
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