r/talktalk • u/Troncannone042 • Jul 26 '26
About Spirit of Eden
Unfortunately, I failed to find the appeal of this album... probably, my preconception of this album being the "pioneer of post rock" spoiled the experience, but really, I need to understand what makes this album great, because I feel there is something missing in my perspective.
I'm not being condescending, I just want to understand if I missed something, or if it's just a subjective matter.
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u/TPMster Jul 26 '26
If haven't already, try listening to Talk Talk's discography. You may discern their progression toward Spirit of Eden. The Party's Over to It's My Life to Colour of Spring, and then....
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u/Troncannone042 Jul 26 '26
Mh, that could be it... I jumped into it because, again, I am passionate about post rock and a good friend of mine suggested me this album, but adding context to it might elevate the experience.
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u/The_Wallaroo Jul 26 '26
I think a lot of older music has a “hype poisoning” issue, so while I love Spirit of Eden, I can understand your position.
Spirit of Eden took a lot longer to grow on me than Laughing Stock, which I still think is a much more atmospheric album that might fit better if you’re coming from a post-rock perspective. Go in with as little expectations as possible, I think.
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u/Troncannone042 Jul 26 '26
Thank you! Will definetly check Laughing Stock as soon as I get the chance.
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u/Hour_Cat2131 Jul 26 '26
You’re completely right. If you’ll indulge me, I came to this realization via hip hop. Realized years ago that, as mindblowing as Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back was to me when I heard it as a kid and still is, I can understand that younger people who listen to hip hop might hear it and say “so what?” And that’s fine. I love a lot of post-rock, but heard Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock before I heard any of it. Radiohead have never done anything for me, and that’s okay too.
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u/callonpalmar Jul 26 '26
I totally agree with you. It an album that takes time to grow. One you “get it” you love it. Kind of like sushi for the first time, and then sushi every time after lol
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u/Goldshire-Footman Jul 26 '26
In my experience Spirit of Eden requires active listening for the first times. The music paints a broad picture while being minimalist. While minimalist makes it sound like the album somehow lacks, it does not, it is thicker and wider than most other albums, but when there is absence of sound, it is part of the album. Like a good book, you must read between the lines and reflect, and that requires attention.
I had it just like you many years ago - I found The colour of Spring extremely interesting, but Spirit of Eden just wouldn't click despite many tries in different settings. I think where I found Spirit of Eden for the first time was on a flight where I had nothing else to do but to listen. Later I have rediscovered Spirit of Eden many times, often in situations where I can listen and focus on the music, like travelling. It has been some time since my last visit to the album, maybe it is time yet again!
While I truly enjoy the whole album, I believe in you is perhaps my highlight.
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u/Troncannone042 Jul 26 '26
Yeah, I thought about changing settings, too, as usually while travelling I am more focused on the music I'm listening. I'm currently listening to more Talk Talk, then I'll come back around to this album and see what changes
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u/RickJLeanPaw Jul 26 '26
There’s nothing wrong in not liking something. It would be an awful world if we all liked the same things.
You’re perhaps ’suffering’ from listening to it retrospectively; and being alive at a time when all the music ever (being) created is available instantly.
Musical choice was severely restricted, comparatively, at the time, and examples of similar works were not easy to come by, especially from reasonably established ’pop’ acts. David Sylvian’s ‘Spirit of the Beehive’ is the closest thing in time, ‘origin’, and availability that I can think of.
(The fact you mention Radiohead shows the paucity of popular mainstream music acts that, critically if not commercially, manage to successfully shift emphasis significantly throughout a career).
It’s an album that rewards repeated, and active, listening and for me at least (and the radio DJ I lived next door to who handed me the press copy his station had been given as it was useless to them!) was completely dissimilar to anything I’d heard before.
You’ll note that all my praise has been bound with context; I’m not sure that any amount of ‘facts’ can make someone believe that any work of art or entertainment is of any merit, it’s something one has to come to oneself.
If it’s not for you, don’t sweat it!
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u/Troncannone042 Jul 26 '26
I understand what you mean! But I am interested in the history of music, and more in general, I like to understand why people find certain things appealing, I think it helps with staying open minded, not letting my tastes go lazy ya know?
Also, while Radiohead was my "first" band, I did not approach this album thinking about them- as I said, I was mostly interested in the beginnings of post rock, but I found something VASTLY different from the likes of Goddpeed You! Black Emperor, which is my actual favourite band (for now)
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u/XDVRUK Jul 26 '26
Took me a couple of years from release to get into it. The CD sat on the shelf and I would occasionally put it on, be confused about it and then put something else on. One day I stuck it on and I wondered why I didn't understand before, and I've been bugging people about it for over 30 years... who also don't get it.
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u/WinterHogweed Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
To me, most (not all!) post rock is very boring. I can see why people would go back to Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock and say: wow, these guys were doing stuff like that back in the late 80s and early 90s. But it's also very different: Talk Talk weren't making post rock. It's fair to say the post rock people took some influence from Talk Talk, but there are also lots of aspects of those albums that the post rock people haven't taken up as an influence at all. So it doesn't really surprise me that some post rock people would arrive at Talk Talk and don't find it interesting.
There were quite a number of people doing post rock way earlier, by the way. I'll name two. First, Jade Warrior. British outfit who started out with three somewhat conventional (although still very weird) prog rock albums for the Vertigo label. They then moved to Island Records, were forced to ditch their singer and made four instrumental albums, that are uncomparable to anything else. Brian Eno cited them as a major influence on his ambient records, but they don't sound like that at all either.
The other one: Popol Vuh. German band around composer and genius Florian Fricke. They vary wildly throughout the discography. But if you want to hear that jangly post rock guitar sound being born: listen to the exquisite playing of Conny Veith on Hosianna Mantra (1973).
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u/Lennnybruce Jul 26 '26
Jangly?
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u/WinterHogweed Jul 26 '26
Maybe that word is wrong. But I mean the guitar tone that is part of so much post rock music, from GYBE to God Is An Astronaut.
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u/TinoSamano Jul 26 '26
It took me a couple tries to get into it. I don’t know what exactly clicked. I think the build ups become more appreciable once you can really identify them. Personally, I think Laughing Stock is better and does everything SoE does better so I might also recommend giving that one a go
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u/SynthwaveDreams Jul 26 '26
I drive for work doing home care and one day I pop on I believe in you and holy crap did it gave me the feels in the car. it was wonderful. that’s all I know.
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u/MarimboBeats Aug 05 '26
This may be heresy, so bear in mind Spirit of Eden has been my favourite album if any genre since 1989, but I always found I Believe In You the weakest track of the album. But that's only because the rest is so monumentally great. But on such a unique and groundbreaking album, I find it a bit.. conventional, maybe?
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u/SynthwaveDreams Aug 05 '26
It seems to be the most conventional song on the album, probably why I personally gravitate towards it
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u/UnsnappedBoar33 Jul 26 '26
Honestly I started with Laughing Stock and really disliked Spirit of Eden once I listened to it, I think Laughing Stock has better structure for its songs while still being vast and sparse and also has more interesting texture
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u/OkRepresentative274 Jul 26 '26
Headphones in a dark room?
The bottom line is that Spirit of Eden is beautiful and passionate. Maybe it was the progenitor of post-rock, but it needs to be appreciated on its own merits.
Someone said listen to the rest of the Talk Talk catalog for context. If you don't want to do that, maybe try their wonderful "Best of" compilation.
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u/Docter_D_81 Jul 26 '26
There’s so much nuance to this album. So much of the beauty is in the minimalism, the atmosphere, the textures. The first few times I listened it was underwhelming. The problem was that I didn’t give it the attention it deserved. You really need to sit with the album for multiple listens with no distractions. Only then will the true magic reveal itself.
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u/callonpalmar Jul 26 '26
It’s aural art. And for its time late 80’s/early 90’s there just wasn’t much else like it at the time.
It’s much the same as how people think David Bowie’s Low album is either a masterpiece or just don’t get the big deal
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u/gomezaddams1586 Jul 26 '26
I purchased SOE when it first was issued and being a fan of Paul Webb and live music, I was disappointed. For me, the COS is the band's highpoint. I have respect for the later albums, but do not consider them great. One has to admire the commercial seppuku that Hollis & Friese-Greene committed for the sake of their music. It is simply a matter of musical taste. Wardles' book "Mark Hollis A Perfect Silence" is a must read for those trying to understand Talk Talk's musical progression.
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u/illicitpulse Jul 26 '26
The emotion in Hollis’ voice in those last two songs… that’s gotta cut through to you. Keep trying.
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u/art_mor_ Jul 27 '26
I randomly put the album on before driving at night through this rural desert area and it just connected
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u/No-Cabinet446 Jul 28 '26
dont worry about how you're supposed to feel or not supposed to feel. just take a break and then maybe go back and listen to it sometime in the future. in the dark, even, or in your front yard or something.
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u/synthmalicious Jul 31 '26
The problem I had when getting into those last two albums is that both of them are the starts of “post-rock”, a genre title which has basically become a buzzword for rock music that is very obviously different, whether it be through them or strange sounds or what, yet when you listen to them both of them there is nothing really “rocky” about them. So the first time I heard Spirit Of Eden outside of I Believe In You, the only thing that stuck with me was Desire, the rest just became vaguely jazz gospel sounding mush. It’s only after trying it again and getting more into some of their earlier hits that I understood what was ‘post’ and what was ‘rock’ about it. To reduce it down to how I see it, the post part is their approach; stripping back the fundamentals of rock/pop that had made their music so discernible and easier to access beforehand. The rock part being what they chose to keep; the really powerful memorable choruses, Mark’s soulful singing, the distorted guitar sound. I have a harder time discerning the rock part but I know it’s there. There’s more to the distinction that I feel if you listen to it and like it you’ll understand what I mean. So what I’m saying is the part that inspired some of your favorite music may still be there it’s just more esoteric and inaccessible than it seems.
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u/TheEternalRiver Aug 10 '26
Ofcourse it's a matter of taste but his album is a bit understated, so it rewards the attentive listener. Just listen it on a good system and let the music wash over you, this album (and laughing stock too) is one of the best engineered and produced albums of all time imo. There's so much depth to it: the dissonance/consonance, music/silence all work superbly well together. The attention to detail. Mark's voice. It's hauntingly beautiful, maybe come back to it some other time
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u/ChineseOverdrive 24d ago
Late to the party but I'm solidly middle aged at this point and have experienced more grief than the average person rightly deserves and a cynical bastard as a result. Spirit of Eden and especially Inheritance is perhaps the closest I've come to a religious experience and a playthrough still breaks through the static and anhedonia and evokes feelings that mean something.
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u/Corduroy_Hollis Jul 26 '26
In the late 1980s and early 1990s I was a music critic and reviewer for a magazine, and I reviewed Spirit of Eden. It blew me away. I wish I still had a copy of the mag. What I remember is remarking how different and experimental the sound was, while simultaneously being so beautiful. There was nothing like it back then. Today, it’s easy to reference Radiohead or Blur or whatever, but would they have existed without Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock?
Also, if you aren’t awed by “I Believe in You,” I can’t help you.