Spirit of Eden

But the term was originally coined by journalist Simon Reynolds in his four star Mojo review for this very album.

And really, it was the best way that he could describe this sound that a lot like those talk talk records like Spirit of Eden and Laughingstock goes from ambient electronic soundscapes to sharp bursts of noise to pastoral jazziness.

It's just an absolutely mesmerizing album, and it rightfully received heaps of critical praise.

It got a five-star review from AllMusicGuide, 10 out of 10 from Uncut, 8 out of 10 from NME, 9 out of 10 from the smug barometer of hipster elitism Pitchfork.

feel the same.

I think I'll revisit Spirit of Eden next.

It's another one that pushes boundaries.

Great choice.

But, you know, so they start out making, like, commercial 80s pop records, and their career gets...

Basically, everything they put out is... less and less commercial until, you know, the last two records, um, spirit of Eden and laughing stock are like, they're, they're these long sprawling, like, like, you know, he's barely singing words.

Basically they're like credited with inventing post-rock, but it's like, I don't really like a lot of like what people think of as post-rock these days.

I mean, like, I love like, like I love like Godspeed and I love do, make, say, think, and I, you know, but, and, and like, But it's like,

I was aware that they were a band who were very influential to a certain type of music, post-rock really, and I was aware that they'd kind of gone a bit mad and then completely vanished from view.

But I'd never really listened to them And in 2018, my friend, my-- a guy I worked with was like, "You know that band Talk Talk? They've got this album called Spirit of Eden.

We should listen to it because apparently it's really, really, really incredible." And we put it on at work in our office, which is the two of us there, and we were kind of silent and didn't do any work.

And I was like, "Wow, that was really incredible, really transcendent, really brilliant." And I listened to it again on the train on the way home, and it made me go, "I need to listen to the other albums." I listened to the other albums.

But in the mouth of someone who truly means them, who truly means them, and the way that that guy carried himself throughout his career, I find incredibly inspiring and influential, and it means that I believe him.

When I watch Talk Talk Live in Montreux from 1986, I think, when I watch that on YouTube for the billionth time and I see this man with this incredible voice, um, put so much into every single syllable that he sings and yet show so little of himself, uh, I dunno, I find it like it scratches an itch, and it speaks to me in a way that I don't think any other musical artist has ever really, like genuinely ever really spoken to me.

And I own original OG vinyl copies of all five of their albums, and if I stick on Color of Spring, Laughing Stock, or Spirit of Eden and put it on my record player and turn that right up, I have to sit and just listen to it.

It is paralyzing.

Uh, went to some great studios in London, Rak, uh, Wessex, where, where Talk Talk ended up.

They, you know, did Spirit of Eden and all those seismic, uh, albums that I love.

Um, so really, really spoiled.

I, I, that's a kinda treasured memory of turning up at Rak, walking up from Bayswater where, where the record company put us up- Across the park into RAC.

It's just this, I don't know, the drummer of whatever is playing the album of this with various musicians.

I mean, it's like the whole thing about the Spirit of Eden concert coming up.

What is the point of that, really? I mean, they never wanted to play it with themselves.

What is the point of someone playing it now? It doesn't make any sense.

So...

but I was familiar with the Kate Bush book and this book by Graham Thompson came out this year in 2026 beginning of the year and I have read it with some interest over the last couple of months and this is the first time we've actually discussed a book about music rather than The original music itself, although obviously by talking about this book, we inevitably were going to be talking about Talk Talk, whom we have discussed.

There is somewhere down the line, inevitably, a podcast about Spirit of Eden, which I remember we did possibly in our first season, so a long time ago.

And as you said, the reputation of Talk Talk has grown in all sorts of ways.