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.
