COLOUR OF SPRING: THE POLL

Still my favorite, and "Life's What You Make It" is a marvel.

Ooh this is hard. It's down to "I Don't Believe In You", "April 5th", "Living In Another World" and "Time It's Time".

Not the cool answer (it doesn't "prefigure their mature phase") but I love "Living in Another World".

im going with "time it's time"

end of it has me welling up

it doesn't "prefigure their mature phase"

think it was cutty who said this elsewhere (or maybe it's a thing already) but it's mad balearic

xp Yeah if "Time It's Time" ends up being my choice what will have clinched it is the keyshift from OH NOES melodrama to final scene in first Star Wars film TRIUMPH.

"Happiness Is Easy"

"Give It Up" -- but this is my favorite TT album, and one of my favorite albums ever. It's perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBAavaeyErc

i'll just leave that there

Interesting. Never heard this version!

Well then. On one hand she has the good taste to cover this song... on the other hand, it's Sarah McLachlan and she effectively half-asses the song and butchers it to all fucking hell.

torn between:
i don't believe in you -- the synth/guitar/whatever solo gives me chills
living in another world -- "did i see tenderness where you see hell? did i see angels in the hand i held?" really pulls on my heart-strings. plus the song FUCKIN' ROCKS MAN! dig that harmonica
give it up -- not really sure what to say about this one other than the chorus really just nails it and i can't stop listening to it

I like the idea of a transitional Talk Talk album, but CoS doesn't really appeal to me as a cohesive work. the way it jumps from gauzy, downbeat tracks like "April 5th" to relatively poppy fare like "Living in Another World" is just too jarring for my taste. a lot of the time I skip over the singles (which are great on their own) and listen to the dreamier stuff all at once, as sort of an EP-length precursor to Spirit of Eden.

I'm much more likely to listen to It's My Life (which deserves its own poll) straight through.

Tough to choose from this album. I prefer the extended version of "Life's What You Make It" to the original.

Just listened for the first time in about a year and voting for 'Time It's Time' because that's the one that made my eyes water. But 'Don't Believe' and 'Give It Up' cut it real close.

BTW everyone voting in this poll needs to hear the live album from this tour, so awesome.

Literally love this band so much it hurts.

voting for 'Time It's Time' because that's the one that made my eyes water

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5bck6t2a0j8/SnGkFFVlltI/AAAAAAAAAIc/hzV0keRR3FA/s400/032-crying-chef.png

This was one of the hardest polls to vote in, i had to play the album again to try and make a decision. I went for I Don't Believe in You but I could have picked almost any of the songs.

This is only my third favourite album of theirs but it's so perfect, It really shows what an amazing band they were.

Living in Another World

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

'Happiness Is Easy', one of my favourite opening tracks of all time.

every thing's aaaaaall right

Voted for "Living In Another World", which is a great pop song that still would have sounded better with a fully (preferrably analogue) electronic backing.

One, a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;
Two, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; Three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Needs more votes!

(i.e., album needs more listeners!!)

funny how the 2 tracks that didn't get any votes are the ones that most obviously "prefigure their mature phase".

Because they're so damn good at writing pop songs!

"April 5th" is one of my favourites on this album but I think ilxor basically gets at it - at this point they were still in pop songwriting mode and I think it's be very weird to really like this album and not route that appreciation through enjoyment of the songs qua songs. There's great atmospheric production here but it all comes together so well as these fabulously overwrought pop songs. Why not just listen to Spirit of Eden if atmosphere per se is what you want from Talk Talk.

By SOE/LS obviously they'd abandoned that and in some ways song polls of those albums would make less sense - I think of my love of those albums as love for the whole albums or for specific moments: the children's choir breaking in during "I Believe In You", the guitar solo in "Ascension Day", the woodwind climax of "Taphead" etc.

Well said.

guys the moment when the recorder ensemble takes over from the choir at the end of Time It's Time ;_; ;_; ;_;

Crey 5ever

'Happiness is Easy' is such a beautifully recorded piece of ear candy.

Time It's Time for me. No idea how they managed to make a recorder group sound so great and epic

haha just saw Jon not Jon's post
* high fives over the internet *

I spent a lot of time with this album last Autumn. It's perfect for that time of year. Nice to be revisiting it now. I should buy a hard copy of it.
Man, those piano chords and the various instruments that chime in and out of the mix at the start of Happiness Is Easy - it's got that stormy, 'come in for a mug of cocoa' vibe that's shared with other songs of around that time, like 'Running Up That Hill'.

Do love this album so much. It would be their best album by far if they had stopped here. Somehow, they managed to get better.

This single has one of their best songs of the era on the b-side.

I did have this on an old external drive that crashed. I haven't heard it in a long time, but it's a fantastic document of the band in this era.

All of the b-sides from this era are outstanding... It's Getting Late in the Evening, For What It's Worth, and apparently John Cope is a Colour of Spring-era track as well. Add April 5th and Chameleon Day and you end up with an transitional-period EP that's as good as Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock.

otm (but I did not know that about john cope -- makes sense!)

Yeah, I used to have that Asides Besides compilation, but somehow foolishly got rid of it for some no doubt idiotic reason. It was good, but the ratio of how much the last five tracks on disc two were played in comparison to the rest of the collection was totally lopsided.

i generally play the whole of disc 2. Sadly, 'John Cope' on my copy has a bad scratch

"John Cope" is such a great b-side. Paul Webb's bass rules. And the a-side is one of their best songs, probably their richest one. On the 33 series thread someone wrote about writing a book just on that one song. I totally get that idea. "I believe in you" is a miracle. I think it deserves a thread on its own.

there's never been a decent documentary on these guys has there?

"time it's time" is completely astonishing

i listen to more and more talk talk every year. "i don't believe in you" and "i believe in you" are an incredible pair of songs

haha yeah i was just contemplating those.

"i don't believe in you" is very cathartic. the weeping guitar solo ;_;. the album as a whole has a definite trajectory. when it gets to "time it's time" it cracks open into nirvana. that song is a miracle. my jaw drops in disbelief every time.

when the boys choir in "happiness" shows up i just completely lose it. what band had a thing for boys choirs, harmonicas and free jazz? talk talk, that's who.

i'm making some mix cds for no real reason, a boy who probably won't listen to them (he means well). "i believe in you" is on it.

i was reading the wiki entry on "i believe in you" the other day - about mark's brother who overdosed on heroin? which is turned into a meditation on being and eternity. as one does.

my only quibble with this album, and probably my least favorite track though it's still quite good, is when mark tries to sing a bit of a blues lick on "living in another world". his angelic voice doesn't quite match the blues there imo! he got much better at it later though.

I love it but yeah that harmonica barrels in from another song

I love the harp!

Overall, just the most extraordinary album and yes yes yes to all the 'Time It's Time' praise.

The harp adds to the tremendous propulsiveness of the track. It's constantly trying to keep up with itself.

Living In Another World makes more sense if you think of it as a (really good) Steve Winwood song (and his organ on it is absolutely killer and thats coming from someone who normally detests organ)

Anyone think the previous album's "Tomorrow Started" (which kills me) might've fit in here?

I hear that, but also that song and 'Renee' are so fucking wintery, just completely desolate

Never really thought before that CoS starts with a children's choir and ends with an adult one

the album as a whole has a definite trajectory. when it gets to "time it's time" it cracks open into nirvana.

Exactly. It's a cliche to say it, but this album is truly a "journey" in a way the following two aren't. Much as I love LS and SoE (and do think they are objectively some of the "best" albums ever made), I've probably listened to CoS at least twice as many times as either (or Mark Hollis s/t) over the years. Of course, what followed CoS is not exactly every day listening...

Living In Another World makes more sense if you think of it as a (really good) Steve Winwood song

always thought this! There's even a similar vocal quality

The two little Variophon tone poems at the center are the liqueur of this record for me.

Also let’s not forget the three B-Sides - one of the best album-cycle’s worth of B-sides by anyone ever imo

The gentleness of Mark's vocal at the beginning of "Time It's Time" really makes how epic the tune gets even more startling. The balance of the songs on the album (with the partial exception of "I Don't Believe In You" I guess) tend to simmer at roughly the same level from start to finish (though obviously the different songs are at very different levels) whereas "Time It's Time" feels very invested in stretching its own dynamic range to the maximum extent feasible.

The results of this poll are baffling to me

Never really thought before that CoS starts with a children's choir and ends with an adult one

There's a similar contrast, maybe a reversal, between the hymnal choir on "I Believe in You" and then children singing a threnody in "A Life (1895-1915)".

let’s not forget the three B-Sides

This is the only Talk Talk album I feel like messing with:

Side 1
Happiness is Easy
Life's What You Make It
Pictures of Bernadette
It's Getting Late in the Evening

Side 2
Living in Another World
Give It Up
For What It's Worth
Time It's Time

"I Don't Believe in You" is too MOR (I wince when the horn section comes in at the final prechorus), and the "gauzy, downbeat" tracks are outclassed by their subsequent work (as well as the tracks that I've replaced them with).

Needs more April 5th

Yeah I can see thinking “Chameleon Day” as a practice run for what came next, but “April 5th” is its own little sound world, a really singular piece of music.

I find the programmed percussion on that song aggravating, "It's Getting Late in the Evening" does something similar, better.

LOL I feel the other way around: I love the programmed percussion and think it distinguishes/prevents the song from being a Spirit of Eden practice run like “It’s Getting Late In The Evening” (though I adore the weightless midsection of the latter).

this funny sticker, added to the "life's what you make it" 12", after the fact:
https://i.imgur.com/htJ9ouS.jpeg

(if it was added to properly credit james marsh, that's fun because the cover illustration is typically amazing)