TS: Talk Talk v. Bark Psychosis

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Hex

― super ae, Thursday, 19 August 2004 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Cutting off my right hand vs. cutting off my left, HMMM.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 August 2004 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)

talk talk by a smidge

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 19 August 2004 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Talk Talk SO clearly superior. All BP did was come along and rip them off blatantly. almost embarassingly so. Hex is like, "let's be REAL OBVIOUS about trying to recreate all those cool sounds we loved on those Talk Talk records. except let's push the basslines out front. and use a piano with an annoying tinkly tone color. and have our less-nuanced vocalist mumble some vacuities." BP not an altogether unpleasant listen by any means, but massively inferior to their idols Talk Talk.

― Monetizing Eyeballs (diamond), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Talk Talk by a country mile.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Talk Talk by countless light years.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm, this is a tough one. Talk Talk made 3 of my favorite records on earth and I've never heard Bark Psychosis, so.....Talk Talk!

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Talk Talk = a graceful heron in flight.
Bark Psychosis = a steaming turd with feathers

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't hear Bark Psychosis until just a couple months ago, Scott! But I lived with Spirit of Eden for 15 years. I finally had to break down and investigate all these comparisons ILM likes to throw around. Believe, Talk Talk making 3 of my favorite records as well, I wanted to blown away by the BP stuff, I was aching to be blown away by the BP stuff, but ... nah. Just a facsimile. A fairly pleasant facsimile, though. On the surface, things sound great. Just like Talk Talk! But you can never escape the reference point, never escape the feeling that they are trying so DESPERATELY to cop a TT vibe.

― Monetizing Eyeballs (diamond), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I almost bought an Elbow album once. That was a close one. I would still buy Hex if I saw it cheap somewhere though. All that ILM raving is in my brain now and I can't turn it off.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Talk talk is superior.
The only downside is that they stopped making albums ages ago.

I like the new Bark Psychosis though. Imitation is the sicerest form of flattery.

― hector (hector), Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Laughing Stock is decent. Graham Sutton sings better than Mark Hollis, though.

― super ae, Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

People act like Eden and Laughing Stock are the only two albums the band ever did. You know, they did put out some damn fine 80s pop singles!

Talk Talk wins.

― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 19 August 2004 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"Graham Sutton sings better than Mark Hollis"

OOOFFF!

― hector (hector), Thursday, 19 August 2004 03:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Talk Talk slightly, but the bashing BP are getting here is grossly unfair. I like Spirit of Eden more than Hex, but Hex slightly more than Laughing Stock.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 19 August 2004 03:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Good man. I bet if a lot of these guys here were hearing Hex and Spirit of Eden for the first time just now, who came first wouldn't make a difference.

― super ae, Thursday, 19 August 2004 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

YEAH, I MEAN, COULD BARK PSYCHOSIS WRITE IT'S MY LIIIIIFE

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Thursday, 19 August 2004 03:38 (twenty-one years ago)

my answer: Does one need to be British to enjoy Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis & AR Kane?

― JaXoN (JasonD), Thursday, 19 August 2004 04:47 (twenty-one years ago)

but the bashing BP are getting here is grossly unfair

That's for sure. This said, Hex better than Laughing Stock, no.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 August 2004 05:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah I'm aware that this is a contentious point! My order of preference was based on the amount I listen to the three albums - it's very difficult for me to say which is better or worse.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 19 August 2004 05:06 (twenty-one years ago)

More than fair. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 August 2004 05:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Talk Talk. Hex doesn't move me as much as the last two TT records; in fact it has some parts which get on my nerves.

― Salvador Saca (Mr. Xolotl), Thursday, 19 August 2004 05:25 (twenty-one years ago)

///Codename: Dustsucker is better than Hex anyway. Why am I even on this thread? It's mentalism!

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Thursday, 19 August 2004 07:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"Talk Talk = a graceful heron in flight.
Bark Psychosis = a steaming turd with feathers"

ouch!

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Thursday, 19 August 2004 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Yadda, yadda, BP just ripping off TT = zzzzzz. On the basis of Hex, you could just about make that claim sonically, but it would require forgetting about Big Shot. However, the tone of Hex is entirely different to that of late period TT. There's a whole devotional aspect to TT entirely missing from Hex, which is a much tenser, twitchy, almost paranoid record than either SoE or LS.

This is before we get to the singles, most of which don't sound anything like TT at all, Blue and Manman/Bloodrush/Tooled Up in particular.

There also seems to be a bit of listening to BP in the expecatation that they should sound exactly like TT on this thread. If you approach them with that mindset, of course you are going to be disappointed.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 19 August 2004 08:04 (twenty-one years ago)

And for what it's worth: SoE > Hex > LS, AFAIAC

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 19 August 2004 08:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Yay Ricardo agrees with me!

I agree, too, about "Big Shot", which is one of those looking-over-a-precipice tracks for me - who will dare to go further than that? I keep buying records from people like The Notwist, Hood, Telefon Tel Aviv, insert x band here, in the hope that someone will, but no-one ever does.

People miss as well the much cooler feel of Hex compared to Talk Talk - all those sparkling irridescent keyboard moments especially, which look backwards to The Blue Nile and also hint towards the pristine beauty of Piano Magic at their best. Late era Talk Talk are never so crystalline; the sound is much more warm, organically flowing. It's like stalactites versus spring thaw.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 19 August 2004 23:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I obviously need to hear Big Shot.

― hector (hector), Friday, 20 August 2004 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Mr Snrub OTM, BP never made any bitchin new romantic or whatever 80s records so TT win

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 August 2004 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I will say again
my favorite Talk Talk is
It's My Life. "Renee...!"

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Friday, 20 August 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Yesbut... how many of you still listen to 'the party's over'? Lets compare like with like here. TT didn't really come into their own until Mark Hollis hooked up with Tim Friese-Green, and he obviously learnt a lot from him. At that point though, TT were in effect an unsuccessful synth-pop band with not much future. And even then, it was another few years before 'Spirit of Eden' saw the light of day.

Graham Sutton, on the other hand, had written parts of Hex before he left school, and the album was released when he was about 21 - pretty much self-produced as well, and without the benefit of an experienced producer to guide him. I've always seen it as one of the great 'London' records, but not the London of history or great buildings - it is the London of the paranoid and the poor, those caught in the interzone between the city and the suburbs, the aural accompaniment to 'Lights out for the territory' or 'Mother London'.

Disclaimer: I went to the same school as Graham Sutton and bought a bass off of John Ling. But I still think they're good.

― Barn, Tuesday, 24 August 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

ten years pass...

Going with Bark Psychosis on this... Somehow have been unable to penetrate the TalkTalk albums for some reason even though they theoretically should be right up my alley.

― Poliopolice, Thursday, 26 February 2015 06:54 (eleven years ago)

eight years pass...

RIYL either:

https://zelienople.bandcamp.com/album/hold-you-up-2

― But his face would not turn into hot Kirby (Evan), Monday, 10 July 2023 15:52 (two years ago)

FWIW, Zelienople covers "The Rainbow" on the Spirit Of Talk Talk tribute album.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 10 July 2023 16:08 (two years ago)

Zelienople are excellent & that's a great album.

Some bizarre Bark Psychosis opinions in this thread.

― (picnic, lightning) very very frightening (Chinaski), Monday, 10 July 2023 16:29 (two years ago)

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