Label: EMI Records
Year of release: 1984
Production: Tim Friese-Greene
Album length: 43.16 min
Genre: Synth Pop / New Wave
British new wave greats Talk Talk released their second album, “It’s My Life”, right after original keyboardist Simon Brenner left the band. The record deepened their innate feel for artistry and swung the doors even wider to outstanding sonic sophistication. They never went looking for an official replacement for Brenner. Instead, charismatic singer/multi-instrumentalist Mark Hollis, the soul and most recognizable face of Talk Talk, met the gifted composer, keyboardist and producer Tim Friese-Greene. Friese-Greene became Hollis’s key songwriting collaborator, regular producer and a superb keyboard stand-in for Brenner. He never became an official member of the band, but from “It’s My Life” onward he was an indispensable guest keyboardist, producer and Hollis’s writing partner. As mentioned, “It’s My Life” brought Talk Talk huge success in Western and Central Europe, especially thanks to hit singles led by “Such a Shame” and the title track, and it took them up another level when it comes to weaving sophisticated forms of synthpop with plenty of art rock elements.
Much like Talk Talk’s debut, “The Party’s Over” (1982), “It’s My Life” was laced with towering synth arrangements, occasionally keeping company with piano. This time they also used a few guitars, courtesy of guest guitarist Robbie McIntosh, and even some woodwinds. But the central sonic ingredient that made Talk Talk forever one of the new wave movement’s true oddballs and one of the eighties’ biggest experimental hopes wasn’t just the art of crafting sophisticated, complex keyboard landscapes. It was Hollis’s distinctive voice, which had no equal on the scene at the time. The talented guy had an incredible vocal charisma in which indescribable melancholy and nostalgia blended together, as if his voice were coming from some near future where all hopes and expectations had long since died at the dawn of a “brave new world”, leaving his voice as the silent witness to the beginning of the end of human civilization. Of course, the electronic-futuristic synth textures surely contributed to that, and so did the sharply sarcastic, self-ironic and socially mocking lyrics hiding behind unlucky love adventures.
Right from the opening of the album, the hit “Dum Dum Girl” offers a fine example of how to pull off an arrangement-heavy synthpop gem with a strong art rock streak. Thick bass lines are laced with the icy ambience of synth textures, while Hollis’s vocal sounds like a cold gust on a spring morning. A short synth solo gives a nice glimpse of the fact that, with Friese-Greene’s arrival, Talk Talk gained a musician, composer and producer of exceptional talent. Ian Curnow, another guest musician, also played some of the keyboards on the album. In the intro of the big European hit and melancholic songwriting masterpiece “Such a Shame”, mentioned above, Talk Talk heavily manipulate all kinds of percussion and synth effects, making for a pretty unconventional opening to this otherwise thoroughly melodic and melancholic composition. Subtle keyboard arrangements pave the way for a mighty, multi-voiced chorus that hypnotizes the listener in an instant, no sweat, with its ambient magic, while the futuristic-tinged main riff makes the whole thing sound like the band is beaming in from another galaxy as they play. Hollis reportedly got his inspiration for the lyrics from reading “The Gambler”, one of his favorite books.
The next track, “Renée”, a great example of a complex and sophisticated love ballad, is solid proof that ambient music influences, audible mainly in the intro section where mighty bass lines dominate, were taking over more and more of Talk Talk’s sonic vocabulary. Hollis’s vocal sounds utterly inconsolable, while the woodwind section chips in too, rounding out the melancholic keyboard arrangements. “It’s My Life” was a big dance hit in the US, while in Europe, surprisingly, it didn’t do as well as “Such a Shame”, though it’s still one of Talk Talk’s best-loved and best-known songs to this day. It was used in a TV ad for the French car Peugeot 205 and even in the video games Saints Row: The Third and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. This synthpop masterpiece is yet another picture-perfect showcase of compositional and instrumental sophistication, where seemingly minor sonic embellishments do a huge amount for building the grand atmosphere, peaking in an epic, melancholic chorus. The tempo shifts are set up in an extremely intelligent way, while bassist Paul Webb, laying down thick bass lines that he often plays as if he had a guitar in his hands, brings plenty of movement amid the complex keyboard arrangements.
From here on, none of the tracks on the album has any great commercial potential, but they’re stacked with other good qualities. “Tomorrow Started” is another thrillingly sophisticated love ballad with plenty of experimental moments, where the rhythmic nuances are strongly shaped by jazz fusion, while nostalgic-sounding synth layers are the perfect match for Hollis’s “frozen” vocal. Short improvised trumpet bits liven up the whole thing in a fun way, too. On “The Last Time”, the next specimen of “intelligent” synthpop, Hollis’s singing at times sounds almost friendly. In this ambient-wise somewhat brighter track, though, that’s only the calm before an explosion of melancholy. The dominant bass lines and massive synth layers are this time backed up a few times by guest guitar passages as well.
“Call In The Night Boy” brings in a sinister atmosphere with grooving bass lines and dark synth curtains, while Hollis’s vocal sounds almost vengeful. Short improvised bits can be heard almost the whole way through, but they don’t upset the melodic structure of the track one bit. “Does Caroline Know?” is a fine example of a successful sonic collage of ambient music, jazz fusion and synthpop. In other words, the band experiments like crazy with genre-wise super-diverse rhythmic elements and variable effects, while Hollis’s singing once again creates an unforgettable mood. “It’s You”, yet another ice-cold report from the “brave new world”, is marked by dominant synth textures that wander off into pretty unpredictable improvisations a few times.
With “It’s My Life”, Talk Talk finally stepped into the league of the greatest masters of the experimental take on synthpop, and made it loud and clear that every one of their albums would uncompromisingly burst past genre boundaries. Their commercial success was short-lived anyway, since Hollis had ambitious plans to steer Talk Talk as far as possible from synthpop and traditional new wave influences with a new, even more experimental sonic direction. Most labels of the day, EMI at the head of the pack, of course immediately branded that commercial suicide, and that success blossomed precisely with the release of “It’s My Life”.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Dum Dum Girl (3:52)
2. Such a Shame (5:43)
3. Renée (6:23)
4. It’s My Life (3:54)
5. Tomorrow Started (5:59)
6. The Last Time (4:24)
7. Call in the Night Boy (3:48)
8. Does Caroline Know? (4:41)
9. It’s You (4:42)
Lineup:
Mark Hollis – vocals
Paul Webb – bass guitar
Lee Harris – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Tim Friese-Greene – keyboards
Henry Lowther – trumpet
Ian Curnow – keyboards
Robbie McIntosh – guitar
Morris Pert – percussion
Phil Ramocon – piano
