SPIRIT OF EDEN

Talk Talk's preceding album The Colour Of Spring marked the introduction of more experimental songwriting and arrangements. These leanings are further investigated here, an evolution that came at the expense of accessibility, catchiness and popularity.

The music is very delicate and fragile, with an elusive flair that words can't do it justice to. Talk Talk is backed up by a long list of session musicians but the music sure doesn't sound full or bombastic, quite the contrary. The Rainbow and Eden are introvert ballads with very bare and almost abstract arrangements that don't focus on melody but more on slowly rising and fading sound modulations. Desire takes in livelier percussion and offers a well-timed increase in intensity, allowing the listener to avoid being overpowered by the persistent melancholy mood.

The remainder of the album returns to the ambient sounds of the opening tracks, turning the album into a tough listen that I can appreciate for its creative and innovative qualities but that has never really engaged me. A significant indication of how distanced I generally feel towards post-rock. It's too subdued and meandering to appeal to my energy-need, it hasn't got the capricious song structures I like in Prog, it's not as musical as fusion and it's not thick enough in atmosphere to match the darkness I love in progressive electronic music for instance.

Spirit of Eden is the point where Talk Talk fully absorbed their influences from jazz and ambient music to create something very original that would turn out to be very inspiring for future music generation. Every post-rock band owes a lot to this album. An excellent album that I have yet to embrace fully. 3.5 stars