Talk Talk

Best known for their sole US Top 40 single, "It's My Life," innovative British art pop outfit Talk Talk inspired a generation of musicians with a string of seminal albums driven by the singular vision of enigmatic frontman Mark Hollis. The original Talk Talk line-up of singer-songwriter Mark Hollis, keyboardist Simon Brenner, bassist Paul Webb and drummer Lee Harris came together in London in 1981. The group initially enjoyed UK chart success with a New Romantic direction which drew comparisons with Duran Duran, reaching No. 21 with 1982 debut The Party's Over, before Brenner decided to make his exit. After forging what would become a long-standing relationship with producer Tim Friese-Greene, the band scored a worldwide hit with the title track from 1984 sophomore It's My Life. 1986's The Colour of Spring saw them move further away from their synth-pop beginnings on an idiosyncratic and ambitious affair which threw everything from children's choirs to Miles Davis-inspired horns into the mix. Largely considered Talk Talk's masterpiece, 1988's Spirit of Eden pushed the boundaries even further, combining Hollis' signature anguished tones with a blend of ambient, classical, jazz and rock that's widely credited as the invention of post-rock. The record's lack of mainstream appeal, coupled with the famously reclusive Hollis' reluctance to play live and appear in music videos, led to a major fallout with EMI which nearly resulted in court action. The band were reduced to a duo shortly after when Webb left to pursue other musical endeavors but they returned to the upper reaches of the charts in 1990 with the million-selling compilation Natural History. Released through Verve Records, 1991's largely improvised Laughing Stock featured Hollis at the height of his perfectionism but proved to be Talk Talk's swansong as later that same year the band announced their split. Webb and Harris later reunited to form experimental project .O.rang, with the latter also later releasing music under the guise of Rustin Man, while apart from a low-key self-titled solo album in 1998, Hollis disappeared from the spotlight altogether. Hollis' untimely death at the age of 64 in 2019 prompted a whole host of tributes from the countless artists inspired by his work, including Doves, Field Music and Broken Social Scene.