Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden
Origin Stories
When it comes to pinpointing the genre’s origin, post-rock historians tend to identify most with one of three sources: Bark Psychosis’s 1994 album, Hex, Slint’s 1991 album, Spiderland, and Talk Talk’s 1988 album, Spirit of Eden. Ignore the chronology here, if you can; it isn’t as simple as saying the oldest of the three must be the first post-rock record. After all, we’re not simply trying to identify the first among three records generally considered post-rock. The question we’re trying to answer is this: at what point did this distributary of rock music commonly referred to as post-rock branch out? A stream we now identify as a standalone genre having clear identifying characteristics – pronounced soft-loud-soft dynamics, rare or absent lyricism, and prodding buildups – and stalwarts like Mogwai, God Is An Astronaut, and Sigur Rós. Looking back, at what point can we say this shift became apparent? At what point was the groundwork for classics like Mogwai’s Young Team, Sigur Rós’s Ágætis byrjun, Tortoise’s TNT, and Godspeed You! Back Emperor’s F#A#∞ laid? I make the case that the oldest of the three aforementioned albums – Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden – really is that point of origin.
Spirit of Eden
Set aside the fact that Spirit of Eden is among my favourite albums of all time. So is Spiderland. That isn’t the foundation of my case. This is: the sharp left-turn from rock to post-rock is best echoed in the sharp left-turn in Talk Talk’s musical journey, and those stylistic shifts became the basis of the genre we know as post-rock. Both of Talk Talk’s albums preceding Spirit of Eden – The Colour of Spring and It’s My Life – were hits in their native country, the UK, while also charting across Europe and making the Billboard 200 in the US. Theirs was a progressive synthpop sound, not unlike a mellower Duran Duran. While certainly a little more cerebral than a lot of what was on the charts, their sophisti-pop wasn’t really out of place in the world of eighties pop music and art rock. Seeing their proven track record of commercial success, the band’s record label, EMI, gave them a free rein, both from a creative standpoint and a financial one, to record the album that became Spirit of Eden as they pleased. What followed is a fresh twist on the old-as-time tale of the battle between art and commerce (remember Loveless).
Armed almost entirely with analog instruments, and with synthesisers almost completely eschewed, Mark Hollis, Lee Harris, Paul Webb, and a roster of contributors (primarily Tim Friese-Greene) recorded a roller-coaster of a slow-burner, replete with improvisation, peculiar arrangements, and odd dynamics. It sounded like the aural equivalent of the room in which it was recorded: dimly lit and bathed in the scent of melting wax, something that deliberately turned away from every trope of how rock music must be recorded. When they received the record, EMI saw no singles; they refused to release it in its original form, then relented, then exercised an option to extend Talk Talk’s recording contract, then – when Talk Talk decided against the contract extension on the grounds that EMI’s offer was delayed – sued the band to force them into signing the extension, then finally let them go record their final record elsewhere (at Polydor), but only when ordered to do so by an Appeals Court. All this while Spirit of Eden was released to middling commercial success and critical confusion, which would later turn into acclaim. I can’t think of a better metaphor for post-rock’s sound.
Post-rock
Post-rock wasn’t born from obscurity. It was born from a rejection of what was allowed to be called ‘rock music’. Why couldn’t a forty-minute meditation on spirituality and the soul make for good rock music? Why couldn’t the music industry offer listeners more alternatives to verse-chorus-verse rock? Why couldn’t a band like Talk Talk make an album like that? While the sound of post-rock would evolve over the nineties, its fundamental ethos and basic building blocks were laid out in plain sight by Talk Talk in 1988 both through what they chose to do and what they chose not to. It really is a 🐐 album.
