Spirit of Eden
I've been doing some CD buying recently and happened to be looking at Talk Talk's first album - this led me to the usual critical appraisals of their other records and the almost deafening praise for 'Spirit of Eden'. Now regularly cited as 'one of the greatest albums ever made', it stood at number 87 in Mojo's all time list above 'Physical Graffiti', 'Raw Power' and 'Dusty in Memphis' to name a few. That sounds like some album doesn't it? And yet, it's a strangely dispiriting album. Mark Hollis mumbles, the band (what's left of them) try hard to shape the songs but in the main, lose the fight. Dissonance mixes with Satie and primitive drum patterns to make an enigmatic soup, which the critics fall for every time. The first track lasts for over 23 minutes. Sound familiar? Track Three 'I Believe In You' is actually quite affecting and manages to avoid some of the muso failings of the other tracks - but only just....