Read an extract from In Another World: The Four Seasons Of Talk Talk - The Wire

Between Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, Talk Talk faced turmoil with the music industry and major personal upheavals, including deaths and departures that ended the band. Those pressures may have influenced the record, but projecting personal angst too directly is cautioned. The Colour of Spring and Spirit of Eden reflect carefully considered titles and a polished, nature-evoking sound, with parts of Spirit of Eden described as country proud and beautiful in a way that feels non-man-made. Laughing Stock shifts toward raw human frailty, with audible pulse, ragged breath, and messiness. Its serrated edge includes the distorted Variophon solo on “After the Flood,” likened to a nervous system gone haywire and humanity loosed from reason.

"There had also been more personal upheavals. Ed Hollis had died, aged 37, in May 1989. Paul Webb was gone, although he later insisted that he and Mark Hollis parted on good terms. Lee Harris was going. Any semblance of Talk Talk as a band was over. No doubt some of these feelings, and many more privately endured personal and professional challenges, spilled over onto the record."

"But, still, I would be wary of projecting too much personal angst - mine, yours, the band's, Hollis's or Tim Friese-Greene's - onto Laughing Stock. It is a consciously fucked-up record. The darkness and aggression were clear aesthetic choices."

"Remember, Friese-Greene told Phill Brown that he felt Spirit Of Eden has been too slick, a little too polite and polished. It's all relative, but the point feels valid. Parts of Spirit Of Eden are country proud; not exactly bucolic but heart-bustlingly beautiful in ways that only nature can be. In a sense, it strives to sound non-man-made, a work delivered complete by the hand of some omnipotent unseen force."

"In contrast, Laughing Stock brings the blood and guts of human frailty into the room. We can hear the pulse, the ragged breath, the sheer messiness of it all. It has a serrated edge. The infamous distorted one-note Variophon solo on "After The Flood" is a kind of scar, the sound of a nervous system gone haywire, of unattended car alarms ringing forever across waste ground. It is the sound of humanity loosed from reason."

Read at The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music