For a brief time around 1991 I became obsessed with the track Living In Another World, but I liked some of the other tracks on this album too and when I found a Talk Talk compilation album in HMV for £7 I thought I’d buy it. But there was a typo – it wasn't £7, was £17. Which in 1991 was a hell of a lot on a student budget, so I didn’t get it. And then l probably ended up interested in another album instead and forgot all about it.
But you know what, it’s still an excellent track, with a relentless beat that seems to build to something but never quite gets there, but also doesn’t feel frustrating for all that. The big single from the album, Life Is What You Make It, is similar, almost like the melody of Living In Another World played in reverse.
I think what makes this album more enjoyable than some other so-called “art pop” is that Mark Hollis decided to eschew synthesisers in favour of real instruments. Although, yes, there are some synths used here and there they are more to provide body to a song rather than form the entirety of the instrumentation. We get Steve Winwood on Hammond organ, both a glorious throwback to the psychedelia era and a glorious harbinger of the likes of The Charlatans. Hollis plays a bit of Melodica on the almost prog-length Time It’s Time. Paul Webb on bass is a key ingredient to many songs with some pleasingly complex basslines.
Hollis is quoted as citing Debussy and Satie as influences, and these are most apparent on the track April 5th with the delicate dashes of piano throughout. He may not be quite as experimental as the likes of Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, but he creates some lush and uncompromising tunes, and I’m glad I still like the band’s work. I still wouldn’t pay £17 for a CD though.
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