Favourite 10 Talk Talk songs - my reply to a query from Toby Benjamin

Just prior to Christmas I received a message from author Toby Benjamin inquiring about 10 favourite 10 Talk Talk songs. He mentioned he would select some of it for a post he was going to do for his Spirit of Talk Talk page and honestly I was happy to oblige, but honestly, it wasn't a fair question. Narrow it down to only 10 favourites? Unpossible!

Here is the post where some of my Peanut babble made it mainstream. Woot! Thanks to Toby for the opportunity to stretch my writing chops a little bit over the holidays! :) Below this is my entire unabridged submission to Toby. 

It’s My Life - Hands down, my favourite because it was the first song I’d ever heard by them and it was this song that made me (many years later) decide to find out more about their other releases. Also as much as I hesitate to admit this, it was No Doubt that reminded me about this somewhat long forgotten song in my ill-gotten Napster-made library and made me go looking to get a better (read: official) copy of it. 

Runeii - On first listen this was the song that made me start the track over again because it was so subtle and quiet and clearly every note, sound and pause was meaningful and I knew my full attention was needed. 

Today - My love of Talk Talk made me many good online friends in the last few years. My friend Lorraine (in Australia , I’m in Canada) found this 7” single and randomly decided to gift it to me. It is one of the first actual physical piece of Talk Talk merchandise I owned. Living in Another World - I’ve always loved the power start to this song that set the high energy for the rest of it. Also the climax of the song where Mark sounds like he’s almost shouting. (God only knows what kind of tales you tell). 

Life’s What You Make It - This is the 2nd song by the band that I knew of. But it was different enough that it was a few years before I realized these were the same guys that wrote ‘It’s My Life’ I’ve always loved that about Talk Talk. Their albums sound different. Their albums are very much like those lined up school photos your mom has of you from kindergarten to university. They sound like that to me, except a wide gap from junior school pics (The Party’s Over and It’s My Life) high school (the Colour of Spring) university thesis (Spirit of Eden) and post doctoral (Laughing Stock) … sorry for being so wordy.  

The Rainbow - What a solid opener and definitely the moment I realized what Mark was going on about in his early interviews when he described Talk Talk was more like a jazz quartet. 

Candy - Same as ‘Have You Heard the News’ I have heard the ReAction version and I think I like them better. But I love that even then they were making sure they weren’t background music. The change in tempo, that marching drum beat, in the last half of the song jars you to attention. What happened there? Amazing. 

It’s Getting Late In the Evening - When I first heard this song (knowing it was a B-Side) I was immediately surprised it wasn’t a B-Side for a Spirit of Eden single. The same goes for ‘For What It’s Worth’. Both beautiful songs. 

Time is Time - My favourite non-single track off the album. It just sounded perfect. I couldn’t explain more than that. 

Taphead - I’m not sure why my brain connects this song to Mark’s solo track ‘Westward Bound’. Probably the guitar. I can’t explain why I like this song yet. But I do. I'm happy to listen a few more hundred times and come back with a more cohesive explanation someday.

(This one goes to 11) The Colour of Spring - You said Talk Talk but I love this song very much. It could have worked as the title track for that album. But it seems like such a perfect start to the last offering we were ever going to have from Mark Hollis. It was delicate, with that right amount of measured power behind his voice. I remember reading he said his voice was like one of the instruments and I think it really is here. Thanks Toby and hopefully you’re to use some of my babble. 😃

Blog P.S: There were actually 13 in my list, with Rustin Man Night in Evening City and .O.Rang Moratorium rounding out the final two, but I stopped short of writing anything about them because I felt that they were going to be left out anyway. 

 

 

Transcription: The Italia Uno Deejay Television Talk Talk Special

Translation courtesy Elena Carla Maria Cantoni (Grazie! https://www.facebook.com/groups/133866179978426/user/100000892584323/)

Video from Silvana Mendes Facebook here: Special Talk Talk, una produzione Italia Uno per Deejay Television Prima Parte (Talk Talk Special - a Italia Uno production for Deejay Television - First Part)

https://www.facebook.com/silvana.mendesdossantos.5055/videos/852563345520470

 

TRANSLATION from ITALIAN

First guy from audience: “Look I expect to space out! It’s been a depressive week, but now I am here and… ‘fiieeww’!!”

 

First girl from audience: “I await a concert with a music that is different from what we are usually used to…”

 

Second girl from audience: “I already saw Talk Talk in Milano and they were wonderful. I expect they will be even better here today, with all these people…”

 

First interview – Mark: “Why do I close myself in the wardrobe after the concert? Well, it happened twice in my life and both the times there were TV troupes in my room. You see, when I come back to the hotel and I am alone, I can slip into my bed and sleep. But if I come back and I find TV people in my room, so I begin to look for a better place to be quiet and I found out this best place is my wardrobe!”

Mark (in italian) on stage when introducing “It’s my life” song: “This song is very important to me because its title is ‘It’s my life’!!”

 

Second interview – Paul: “I have to say this was the best concert we ever did.” 

Lee: “It is a fantastic audience.” 

Mark: “Well, what can I say? I had fun. There is not so much to add, really. It was great and I had fun. I like doing concerts.”

 

Third interview, probably on the bus to the concert (not so easy to distinguish who is saying what) – 

Paul: “Here we are guys! All together while we’re going to the concert!” 

Lee(or Mark?): “First scene, ciak one!”

 

Fourth interview, immediately after the third, minute 10:16 – 

Lee: “Before getting on the stage I think about how I am going to play, I prepare myself psychologically, I think about the beats of the different songs and similar things…” 

Mark (laughing): “Before getting on the stage I train drinking two bottles of Gin!” 

Paul: “I do not think about anything before a concert. I get on the stage and play, just that. It’s simple.”

 

Again second girl from audience: “[I loved]… when they sang ‘Dum dum girl’, that is my favourite song from them…”

 

Fifth interview, from minute 24:10, on the bus – 

Mark: “You know, there is this guy here (points the cameraman with finger) that is following me everywhere! I woke up this morning…” 

Paul(?): “And you got up…” 

Mark: “No! No! I did not ever get up and there was this guy with the camera filming! But who are you?! (Shouting) Who are you??!!” 

Lee: “I was under the shower, under the shower!! (from under the shower) Stop! Cut! I do not want to see you no more! (this last part added by italian translation)”

 

Again on the bus – Interviewer: “Which is the main difference between Italy and the other countries where you played?” 

Paul: “Here they speak Italian!” 

Mark: “ Yes, it’s true! They speak Italian!”

 

Sixth interview, with the crew, minute 27: 

Interviewer: “What does it mean [for you] to be touring with TT?” 

Phil Reis: “It’s a question of life!” 

John Turnbull: “It is like delivering a baby!” 

Ian Curnow: ”It’s a terrible thing!”

 

Final greetings, minute 29:40 – 

Mark: “I would like just to say that it was a great pleasure to work with Deejay Television!” 

Paul: “Ciao Deejay Television! Thank you!” 

Lee: ”Bye Deejay Television! Over and out!”

Transcription: Talk Talk - Bravo TV Exclusive Interview + Studio (14.6.1985 Bravo TV)

Hello! I know, it's been a long time. A recently released into the wild video has turned up. From June 14, 1985 Bravo TV (Germany).

I can't take credit for the transcription. This is from the fabulous digital illustrator, Nika Purkis. Thanks Nika, you're awesome!

Text borrowed unceremoniously from Facebook (of course posted with kind permission from the amazing lady Nika):

Ok, here's a first go at transcribing/translating (I stuck to what was actually said by the guys as best as I could, please correct where I misheard stuff!) This was highly entertaining

==============

{on the tube}

 

Guy: {starts mid-sentence}…this is not the case anymore with the dudes you are about to see, they are among the top stars of the international music scene…

 

Lady:… and are currently recording their new album at Battery Studios. This is Talk Talk!

{outside Battery Studios}

 

Lady VoiceOver: On this road in Northwest London is where Battery Studios are located. From the moment you step into the place it is obvious that only top quality work is produced here. From Iron Maiden, Yes, to Cars..this is where only the best musicians come to record their stuff.

 

{TT walking in}


 

Lady VoiceOver: And when these guys are in productive mode it’s well possible to catch a few funny quips during the interview as well. The boys are really just up to mischief.

 

{the piano scene}

 

Mark: This is a piece from our new album.


 

Lee: That’ll probably set the single. {?}

 

Paul and Mark: yeah…

 

Lady (VoiceOver): A track from the new album? well, that doesn’t sound promising! One “plang” on the piano, and stupid faces. They are taking the piss, right!?

{She’s asking them something inaudible while sitting down, Lee says "I’ll sit here" but I didn’t catch Mark}

 

Lady: You’re working now on the new record?

{I can’t quite catch what Lee’s saying..”there’s a something here”? }

 

Mark: yeah.

 

Lady: What’s gonna be the name of the record?

 

Mark: Don’t know that…. Don’t know.

 

Lady: And when is it gonna be finished?

 

Mark: Uh..about 2, 3 months? 4 months? September, October perhaps. Unless it takes longer.

 

Lady: When you began with Talk Talk, Mark, didn’t you have the wish to be a pop star?

 

Mark: No I only ever wished for one thing…and that was that I could sit here and do this interview with you right now… {laughs} it’s beautiful innit…it’s beautiful.

 

Lee {laughs}: beautiful…beautiful

 

Lady: Ok, but seriously now: what does your recording process look like?

 

Mark: ah right. Lee comes in, right, and he starts hitting things. And we all go ‘ah stop that bangin’... stop that bangin’.
 But he won’t, right, until someone says: if we tape it…will you stop banging. And he’s yeah, alright,… and so we tape it, and he stops banging.

 

And then Paul comes around, …..oh that awful noise..that noise…dum dum, dum dum….so we tape that.

 

Lee: …and then we invite people down to make noise…

 

Mark: Yeah…

 

Lee: …so we can put it on tape.

 

Mark: Yeah. Trying to make it a bit better, with just him and Paul this thing is terrible. It is rubbish. It’s absolute rubbish. So we invite people who can actually play, to make it sound nice. And that’s it really.

 

 

Gonzai Magazine - Talk Talk Revisited - a 6-Part Article Series (en français) by Gwenaël Breës

The Reaction - Aylesbury Friars - September 2, 1978 - Mark Jordan

 

So it is with much surprise and much delight that I have become a footnote in an article about Talk Talk.

My new and amazing friend Gwen who directed this beautiful movie about Talk Talk called In A Silent Way has embarked on writing a six part series about Talk Talk.  I have been bestowed the title of "Shadow Archeologist" by the author. I am absolutely ok with this and will eventually design a certificate or diploma to hang in my office. 

Links for the article below (in French):

In a Silent Way - https://www.facebook.com/inasilentwayfilm/

The Introduction - https://gonzai.com/talk-talk-revisited/

Part 1 of 6 - https://gonzai.com/talk-talk-revisited-1-6-mark-hollis-en-reaction/

Part 2 of 6 - https://gonzai.com/talk-talk-revisited-2/

Part 3 of 6 - https://gonzai.com/talk-talk-revisited-3/

Part 4 of 6 - https://gonzai.com/talk-talk-revisited-4/

Part 5 of 6 - Pending

Part 6 of 6 - Pending

In a Silent Way (de Gwenaël Breës) - Trailer VOSTFR from Dérives asbl on Vimeo.

Transcription: The Countdown interview 1986

Photo by Rob Verhorst - 1986

Sorry for the long delay. I was having trouble remembering what interview transcripts had been requested of me. And then I got distracted. I blame Paul Webb's album for that. Go listen to his album. Tell him that weird person Motorcycle Peanut sent ya. 


Link to the interview on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/talkietalkie/permalink/1628838957147800/
 
Disclaimer: I don’t the rights. This transcript isn’t 100% and is posted for ease of comprehension especially for non-English speakers. As usual, feel free to run this text through your local translator. There's a handy Google translate tool in my blog post to the right side. And Brit people! Please feel free to correct the text if you can in the comments. Between the boys' accents, muttering and everyone talking over each other, I often don't understand what they're saying. I’ll do my best to keep the blog post updated with edits and changes. 

Note: the notation [?] indicates words I was unable to decipher. (?) indicates a guess at the word(s).

Adam Curry: In the [?] Countdown studio this evening Paul Webb-
Paul Webb: Lovely jacket.

Adam: Thank you! I like yours as well mate. Lee Harris. You’re not going to say anything to me? You’re not going to say to me will you? And Mark Hollis. You guys seem to despise the glamour group image. I always wonder what you think of groups such as Wham!, Duran Duran or the Drum Theatre. Mark maybe you could you tell me something about that?

Mark Hollis: I really don’t think about things like that. All I think about are making records. You know, image is [a] very simple thing. Images should be something that’s just based upon your music. I don’t think beyond that. I don’t consider other bands. I just consider making records. That’s what we’re here for. 

Adam: Do you find yourselves often limited as a trio to the number of instruments you can play?

Paul: Well we know we can take on more people anyway. 

Adam: How many?

Paul: It depends. I mean. Eight or nine usually, yeah.

Adam: And they play the violins or do you have a lot of synthesizers on stage? Especially with the new tour.

Paul: Uh. Yeah. I mean we work things out after we’d done the album then we work out how we’re gonna do it live. I mean…

Mark: With the thing with this live tour there is, purely from a point of view of economics, there is an extent to which we would have to use synthesizers live. I mean it’s just a fact.

Adam: Because you didn’t use any synthesizers on the album. So I was wondering if you were going to be touring that you were gonna have to use them.

Mark: This album really... With this new album we’re working with a base of 15 to 20 people. You see from a live point of view of touring you can’t take that number. We are limited to around sort of eight or nine people. So that’s what I mean consequently there will be areas where we will have to rely slightly on synthesizers. But that’s more in terms of the old material than the new, because with the new stuff, there will be some things on this album which will we will not be able to do live, because there’s no way at all we will resort to tapes or that sort of things. I mean, with the other stuff, it is, to an extent, sort of, you know organ and piano at least you know… We’ve forgot percussion really.

Adam: Your favourite video. Which one is that? The group’s favourite video.

(Off camera) Lee Harris(?): 'In Between Days', isn’t it?

Paul: What?

Mark: The Cure? [?] isn't it?

Lee: No. You’re suppose to tell them…

Mark: Oh… The Cure. 'In Between Days'.

Adam: Come on [?]. Why is it your favourite video?

Mark: Because we were told to say it was.

Adam: Very good answer! Here’s Talk Talk’s favourite video, The Cure and 'In Between Days'.

Adam: The Cure, 'In Between Days' video request by Talk Talk, even though they were told to say it was that. Yeah, missed it, but you’ve been broadcast.

Paul: {?}

Adam: What what that?

Paul: Sorry.

Adam: That’s all right. On the subject of videos in 'Life’s What You Make It', you had a lot of insects and bugs and no [?] in that one, I don’t believe. Could you tell me maybe why all the bugs and insects, Paul?

Paul: Well, we find animals more fascinating than ourselves really. So, uh, that’s why we do it.

Mark: I think animals are beautiful people.

Adam: Oh. Oh. Okay. I understand. Because you also have a lot of animals on your new album 'The Colour of Spring'. Let’s plug that here for you. Let's see if I can get it on the camera. I see a lot of butterflies in there but some pretty eccentric ones. What’s the reason for the animals on the cover here. What… Is there any meaning for the different colours and different types of butterflies?

Mark: You best ask the artist.

Adam: And who was the artist for the album cover

Mark: James Marsh. James Marsh.

Adam: Just a crazy kinda guy! Okay! Hold on! Now it took you two years to complete this album. Does the record company give you that much freedom to take all that time and spend all that money?

Paul: Yeah.

Mark: The freedom that we’ve had making this album, that’s been given to us by the success that we had with the last album. So the freedom that’s been given to us is really due to the people who bought our last album. I mean, it would be true to say when we made the 'It’s My Life' album the record company gave us freedom, you know, to make that album the way we did because at that point we hadn’t sold many records so we were lucky. But from the point of view of this album, that freedom’s been given by the people that bought it and [?] the record company.

Adam: Okay. You’re here to do your new single “Living In Another World'. I’ve listened to the lyrics. You came across kinda sad song or a breaking up song maybe. Mark, since you wrote them, maybe you can tell me what the lyrics are about exactly since I couldn’t find out for myself.

See how long you can keep this up without laughing. That’s not bad. Paul, maybe you can tell me.

Paul: Now, what I would like to say is we’d like to thank everyone in Holland who bought the record because it’s one of our favourite countries. It was the first place where Talk Talk actually broke as a band. And I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Adam: Great lyrics. Great lyrics guys. If you could go up to our official stage I think Mark is already up there by … Crazy guys. Talk Talk doing their single here in the Europe(?) Countdown. Here’s 'Living in Another World'.

Links to two of the performances from the show (the interview is not included in these clips):
Living in Another World - Countdown television performance - https://youtu.be/HUu3z_2nWBU

It's My Life - Countdown television performance - https://youtu.be/xe12p0sfU5o

Stuff I'm Listening To #81 and #82 - Gee that sounds familiar...

Artist: .o.rang

Title: Little Brother

and 

Artist: Mark Morgan

Title: Traders Life (The Hub) from the Fallout video game soundtrack

Why?: It's weird how things converge at times. I say this because as you know, I'm constantly blogging about my favourite music, and just recently posted about video game music. And unless you're new here, you know I'm a huge fan of Talk Talk and by extension, I've come to really love their other work, for example, .o.rang, Paul Webb and Lee Harris' amazing project after Talk Talk. 

But, who knew .o.rang could be found, in, of all places, a post-apocalyptic video game? Not me!

As per my usual, I can't sleep, so let's start reading unusual Wikipedia entries or tonight it was 'let's create a spreadsheet of Talk Talk related links so I can better remember which ones I've watched versus which ones I have not watched' because that seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, I was working steadily on my .o.rang section of the links. Seems like there's only one video on You Tube for 'N'hoojek' and the rest are just sound only.

In my browsing I found a piece of video game music that kept getting 'recommended' in YouTube for me. So I clicked on it. Like much of the video game music I like, it was ambient and probably set up some appropriate scene in the post apocalyptic world. Seemed ambient and pleasant enough. Then at the 1:26 point my ears perked up.

Ultimately, it's one thing to license songs for your video games (i.e. Talk Talk songs in one of the 'Grand Theft Auto' games), or even getting someone to compose music for your games (i.e. Nine Inch Nails for 'Quake') but this feels like deliberately stealing a riff without credit. I know it happens all the time. But there's a ton of video game players who likely had no clue who .o.rang is. Why deny them this gem? So this post is for all you unaware video game fans. Did you like this piece of music? Want to know where it was 'inspired' from? Look up "Herd of Instinct" and then "Fields and Waves". They're two really great experimental albums with some amazing music. "Spoor" is pretty damn good too. Just saying.

  

Stuff I'm Listening to #67 - Three kinds of "Candy" - Talk Talk and The Reaction

For the past couple of days my vinyl sensei @Threadpennyvinyl's been posting about Talk Talk's song 'Candy'. Officially, the song hails from their debut album, 'The Party's Over'. She noted an interesting counter-factual that reminded me 'Candy' had been planned as their debut single. Perhaps things would have gone differently for the band. But without bending the laws of time and space, and lacking the time circuits and flux capacitors to properly construct a TARDIS or Delorean Time Machine, we'll never know.

Last night she subtly pointed out the differences between The Reaction's version (lyrically speaking) versus Talk Talk's release. My mind geared up and decided, I'm going to write a blog post! It's NaNoWriMo after all. And while I just don't do well with things like that, getting off my butt to write anything which I'm willing to post publicly is always a challenge, fun, and exciting. Any writing exercise I get done for myself is good exercise. 

The original intention of this post was to prattle on about the how valuable demos are for fans of any band. They're usually made as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible (because what real struggling band do you know actually has money?) and meant to get them in the record company's door and signed. Years ago, I heard one of U2's demos where Bono must have been barely 15, a voice not quite cracked yet, on Alan Cross' Ongoing History of New Music (It's a wonderful show and I highly encourage anyone with an interest in learning about the backstories of new alternative music to have a listen). It was an eye (ear?) opening moment and a really good glimpse of what we all knew was to come for U2. Surprising for me because I had no idea Bono and the Edge had known each other for that long!

Personally, I adore demos. They're going to be the band at their very amateurish best, unrefined and full of energy. You're hearing conception in these demos. It's quite amazing, especially when you look at the scope of what the band will eventually become. The Reaction, Mark Hollis, Talk Talk. Their demos leave me speechless. To hear Mark Hollis so young and untouched by the music business is definitely a feast for the ears.

Speaking about demos being cheap, I need to relate the tale of my hometown band, the Barenaked Ladies. They made their demo for $1. We had a thing called Speaker's Corner, where, for $1, you could record a two minute video in a booth and once a week, they'd pick the highlights into a half hour show. It felt like Public Access Television deconstructed (think Wayne's World, Mike Myers being another Scarborough alumnus), but in Vine video length. Barenaked Ladies piled into this slightly larger than a phone booth thing and recorded their song 'You Can Be My Yoko Ono'. They waited until the weekend for the show to air. They recorded their piece and went off to the record company to show off their demo. The rest is clearly history.
  
As usual, I have digressed. 

So... Because of Threadpenny and a blog post by Dervswerve about the song (which I fully admit, I read last year back when Talk Talk was shiny and new for me, then decided maybe I should give this track a listen as I only had downloaded the singles from this album at that point), I had gone in to listen to the song again, all three versions that I have with an open ear.

Going chronologically backwards, let's start with the album version first. 

Quick note: All YouTube links are audio only. Please... please, let me know if the links go dead and I'll do my very best to find new ones. 

Talk Talk's official relase of the song from their debut album 'The Party's Over'

Here is producer Colin Thurston's cleaned and polished version of this song. At this point, the song had gone through two bands worth of tweaking and Colin made it as New Romantic ready as he could. A ballad worthy to sit with the other moody synth-pop staples of the time. Kudos to Simon Brenner for his synthesizer work here. You cannot beat Lee Harris and Paul Webb as a rhythm section. Instrumentally, this song is perfect. But to me, Mark always sounded a little flat, (not off key! but...) as if he's already sung this song too many times. It's a great piece, nonetheless and if you hadn't heard the other versions, you wouldn't hear the flatness I'm talking about. Almost as if the business had already started pissing him off and grinding him down a little. 

Talk Talk's demo - featured on their 'Asides and Besides' album

Now here is the demo, from Talk Talk. Fortunately they released this officially on their 'Asides and Besides' album so you need not worry about hissy bad quality tape recordings here. Slightly faster than the album version but mostly the same. Mark's not as flat here. All the emotion behind the song is much more pronounced here. But I think he's still holding back.

The Reaction's demo - unreleased

So when I started working on collecting the music I liked, it became pretty clear there was a specific style of music I gravitated towards. Anything ska, mod or punk was going to be my cup of tea. Here is the demo that Mark Hollis' first band, The Reaction, pumped out. Mark's younger here and channeling all the energy of the mod revival/punk. If you ever needed to hear this song at it's rawest, here is it. This is, vocally speaking, my favourite version.

This pack of candy comes with a 25% bonus - The Reaction's LIVE performance of Candy

 
It is with some surprise, when I started traveling through the Internets earlier today, that I should find this. I went out just to satisfy my own curiosity that there were no other versions of the song that I might have missed in order to write my directionless and rambling post today. I'm not sure how I missed this. The YouTuber posted it in May. I'll assume that I was being inundated by too much stuff all at once when he uploaded it for the world. There were a total of 6 views when I discovered it. Sad really. Seems a lot of people missed this.

I tend to steer away from discussing live versions of songs. They're all going to be different from one another and different from the demo/album/single. It also depends on how the musicians were feeling that night. Being a one time audience member, you're likely not going to notice if a performance was slightly off. But this being the only recording I've ever heard of The Reaction, well... Damn. It's pretty effing good! It's on par with the Reaction demo. Mark Hollis, as usual, is able to pull off a live performance that more often than not, overshadows the original album version (in this case, the demo). 

Oh, for good measure, here's a pic of the Reaction performing at the Aylesbury Friar for no more reason than I really like this picture. 

Photo by Mark Jordan. Found at the Aylesbury Friar's website.  From L to R (George Page (guitar), Bruce Douglas (bass), Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar), Gino Williams (drums)

Stuff I'm Listening To #60 - Rustin Man

Artist: Rustin Man

Title: Light the Light

Favourite Lyrics:
Light the light when the load ain't easy, light up, don't fade it
There's much to endure, so much to cast away
How, how, how long can you leave it? 
There's a grand highway out here, waiting for you to let go

Why?: 
I've hit some kind of milestone here. I've managed to commit myself to posting a song on average once a week for the past year on Facebook anyway. That's like 'Life Event' worthy. Some songs dripping with nostalgia for many, some songs clearly greeted with a giant "WTF?", even from my beloved husband who sat confused as to why I thought a lyric about "All the dishes rattle in the cupboards when the elephants arrive" was an appropriate love song from me to him. *insert mad giggling from me*.

But if you've followed anything I've written before you know I'm wordy and weird. But dammit, I have phenomenal taste in music. Which is why for this milestone thing I've decided to post this song. I've likely said it before and I'll say it again; the whole Drift Code album is good and definitely worth a listen. Outside of Vanishing Heart and Judgement Train, as per my usual pattern, i.e. If it has a video, I probably like it (hence, Our Tomorrows also liked by yours truly) Light the Light, was the one that popped out from the rest on my first listen to this album. 

I can't tell you why it popped. It just did. Something (my subconscious mind, no doubt) was screaming 'You need to go out for a long bike ride and appreciate this. There's many levels here. You'll see!' My subconscious mind knows me best. When I'm riding, I get into this zen state and suddenly the asphalt smells sweet, the sky is a sharper shade of blue, the clouds are a softer, welcoming texture. Even the roar of my motor backs off from the aggressive city barking it does, into a lulling purr. 

And it was on the first long ride this year, I managed to queue up my playlist in such a way that this song came up just in time for a long, uninterrupted stretch of highway. I think I must have Instagrammed Rustin Man immediately once we'd stopped for a break. He needed to know how perfect this song was on a motorbike! (And he, being a gentleman, replied and made my day!) The song was this playful romp across a piano, backed by this subtle jazzy drumming that permanently pasted an image of a smoke-filled speakeasy from the 1920s wherein these guys would have been the house band. The lyrics perfectly match my feeling of being out on an open highway, the strife and troubles left behind, for a little while anyway. You can tell I'm listening to this song as I start to do these full lane sweeps in time with the song. It's akin to me dancing on my bike. I am still listening to this song and the rest of the album and there is still more to be discovered. 

As for why it took so long for me to post anything off Drift Code... Simply put, I was a little embarrassed. I'm not great at articulating why I like certain music without some motorcycle or childhood/teenage anecdote attached to it. And I'm good at completely missing the point of songs at times (so apologies if I've done that here). This album deserves a far better review than I'm likely able to give. Also, me grunting "Good album, go buy", while perfect for the current attention span of people like me, just wasn't going to cut it.

Stuff I'm Listening To - Special Happy Birthday to Lee Harris Edition

Artist: Talk Talk

Title: Today

Lyrics: 
Cover me with shades of disbelief
Can happiness be someone's else's dream
Numbers call to spell my name
Move about as values change
Catch me if you can but don't delay

Why?: Happy birthday to the super talented and super adorable drummer Lee Harris from Talk Talk and .o.rang. I'd go on, but nobody needs (nor wants) to hear me gush about Lee Harris. Nobody needs to see me revert back to my 14 year old self.

Stuff I'm Listening To #2 - Talk Talk

Artist: Talk Talk

Title: It’s My Life

Favourite Lyrics: 
Funny how I find myself in love with you. 
If I could buy my reasoning, I'd pay to lose.

Why?: Mark Hollis’ deeply emotive voice. The lyrics speak of a tumultuous relationship. Love, drama, and so much emotion. I think of my own love life and the song makes me nostalgic. Quintessential 80’s new wave. A little alternative, a little pop, a little weird (watch both versions of the video, but also animal documentary footage! It was as if they crafted a perfect video for my nine year old self. I want to know who do I write to to get my digital cable provider to give me the option of watching any animal documentary with the choice of David Attenborough, Lorne Greene or David Suzuki narrating and the choice to have the original soundtrack or Talk Talk... sorry I digress). Also, Mark Hollis is super cute in the second version of the video. Nobody said I needed deep valid reasons for enjoying music, okay? Jesus... I could go on for pages about this, but I'm not here to scare anyone off. ... k. I'll stop gushing.

Honestly, I’m saddened that it took me this long to start seeking Talk Talk’s extended library of music. I love their music and they’ve broken up. Also, this song is no longer a song about a human relationship in my life. I sing it to my Precious motorcycle often. I'll be sure to explain someday.

Edit update: December 31, 2018: So… when I posted this video, I basically dove headfirst into this band. Like… dove in… In my head, I’ve gone and married all the core band members several times, written their last names after mine… you know… going through my mid-life crisis by being a teenaged girl. It was Duran Duran the first time round. 

Pity my husband who had to put up with me listening to Talk Talk non-stop for about a month (and counting) and visibly cringes if I mention the name Mark (eeeeeee. OMG…. I love this man so much… eeee!) Hollis, Paul (automatically I had the hawts for him because he's the bass player! Plus have you seen him lately with his Rustin Man stuffs? Still adorable.) Webb and Lee (OMG... he's like, not wearing a shirt... and he's hawt! And why are drummers shy? Roger Taylor from Duran Duran... hawt... shy... gah!) Harris and anymore. I think the whole Talk Talk library, and beyond (I’m talking, Mark Hollis’ solo stuff, O.Rang, Rustin Man) is very much worth a listen. It’s really great stuff.

Edit update 2: March 1, 2019: So of course, you understand that this was written months before February 25th, 2019. The day the news broke I was beside myself. Like, seriously? I just got into you and you go and die on me?! But as a Firefly fan, I know what it is to be disappointed by things cut short and what heartbreak is. *Yes, that was a terrible joke. This is why I have kept my day job. Shut up.* Needless to say, it’s a great song still. RIP Mark Hollis. Thanks for making me feel 14 again. *sniffle*. 

Edit update 3: May 7, 2019: First... apologies to the band for instantly objectifying them. I blame unbalanced hormones (But... daaaaamn! Super talented and hawt... Sorry! It's Scotch this time you can blame. Hehe). And hey! I can post multiple links in my blog! Here is the second video: 

     
Note: This was originally published with video link and lyric choice only.