Talk Talk - Natural History (1990)

A "best of" compilation of songs from the group's four albums released 1982-1988, plus a b-side and two live bonus tracks. Talk Talk worked in moody, minor key synthscapes; sometimes it works for me, sometimes not. Over time, the band moved from New Wavish synthpop to straight ahead pop to prog rock. When you do stuff like that, it's hard to develop a following - those moves are more fulfilling for the artist than for fans. Singer/group leader Mark Hollis never really liked the business end of the recording world so he naturally didn't like the EMI label profiting from re-releasing his work as a compilation:

A compilation album is not my idea of an album. I don't like compilation albums and I didn't like that one. It certainly wasn't the selection of tracks I would have liked even if there had to be one. But, at the end of the day, they had every right to do it so…

(from Melody Maker, September 7, 1991)

Nonetheless, Talk Talk only released five studio albums but have released no fewer than 14(!) compilations. Hollis may be a contrarian after my own heart, but he's also got one of the more distinctive voices of the eighties - I always enjoy his vocals. In any case, only about half the songs here have been ripped to files.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

	Year	UK	US
Today	1982	14
Talk Talk	1982	23	75
My Foolish Friend	1983	57
Such A Shame	1984	49	89
Dum Dum Girl	1984	74
It's My Life	1984	46	31
Give It Up	1986	59
Living In Another World	1986	48
Life's What You Make It	1986	16	90
Happiness Is Easy	1986
I Believe In You	1988	85
Desire	1988
Life's What You Make It (Live bonus track)	1990
Tomorrow's Started (Live bonus track)	1990

It's My Life is not only my favorite Talk Talk song, it's one of my favorite eighties songs (it's also the group's only US Top 40 single). Other top picks are Talk Talk, Dum Dum Girl, Give It Up, Life Is What You Make It, and I Believe In You.

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox,
go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  I had a cassette dub of the group's debut album, The Party's Over, and I bought the LP of It's My Life. Not long after I had purchased the album, I was at a high school pool party near graduation. They had a Houston rock radio station playing (probably 101 KLOL) and I was stopped in my tracks when I heard the single It's My Life played alongside Ozzy and AC/DC. Never heard it again on that station, but I was pleasantly surprised that afternoon.

I had this very bumper sticker (with metallic skull) on the back of the Markmobile, circa 1984.