Talk Talk: It's My Life [PARLOPHONE]

Why you'll love it

This Parlophone reissue is pressed in the EU with a glossy paper inner sleeve. The album went top 5 in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany, and the title track reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 30 in Canada.

This edition

• Glossy paper inner sleeve
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Talk Talk would later make some of the most hushed, patient records of the age, but in 1984 they were a synth-pop band with hits on their hands. Mark Hollis wrote most of the songs, several with producer and keyboardist Tim Friese-Greene.

Hollis sings, Paul Webb plays fretless bass and Lee Harris drums, with Ian Curnow and Phil Ramocon on keys, Robbie McIntosh on guitar, Morris Pert on percussion and Henry Lowther on trumpet. The title track glides on Webb's bass, "Such A Shame" became the band's best-known single around the world, and "Dum Dum Girl" made it three singles. "Renée," "Tomorrow Started" and "It's You" hint at the space and stillness to come. Walter Samuel mixed "Call In The Night Boy," and "The Last Time" and "Does Caroline Know?" round out side two. James Marsh's cover borrows from Millais's painting The Boyhood of Raleigh.

The album spent 64 weeks on the Dutch chart, and No Doubt took the title track into the US Top 10 in 2003. Not bad for a song whose own video had Hollis standing in London Zoo with his mouth taped shut.

Also at Kops: more Talk Talk on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On EMI / Parlophone, a reissue of the 1984 album.