RIP – Mark Hollis (1955-2019)
The Song of the Day is:
Talk Talk – “It’s My Life”
From the album It’s My Life (1984)
Funny how I blind myself
I never knew if I was sometimes played upon
Afraid to lose, I’d tell myself what good you do
Convince myselfIt’s my life
Tim Friese-Greene – Mark Hollis
The lead singer and songwriter for the influential new wave/post rock band Talk Talk has died yesterday. Mark Hollis was 64. Talk Talk, comprised of Hollis on guitar, piano and vocals, Lee Harris on drums and Paul Webb on bass, began their career as an English new wave band in the early eighties. In America, they are viewed not quite as a one-hit wonder, but as a band that couldn’t quite survive the eighties with their career in tact. They were viewed as a lesser INXS or Tears for Fears. “It’s My Life” was their biggest chart hit, and it is a very catchy piece of synth pop. At the end of the eighties, the group issued the album Spirit of Eden, which has grown in stature as an unrecognized masterpiece. The album was innovative in its jazz and classical inflections and its emotional resonance. Bands such as Coldplay, Radiohead, and the Verve are said to have been influenced by this album, and built upon its legacy. Spirit of Eden was considered one of the first post-rock albums and it was followed up by the band’s final album, 1991’s Laughing Stock, which continued the experimentation of Spirit. The band split up following Laughing Stock, and in 1998 Mark Hollis released his lone solo album. Hollis died yesterday of an undisclosed illness. “It’s My Life” became known to a new generation through No Doubt’s 2003 cover.
Hear Today, Grown Tomorrow 