My Top 1000 Songs #926: Eden

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Talk Talk's astounding/divisive 1988 LP Spirit Of Eden is one of those records that really only works as a cohesive whole rather than as a collection of songs. So its representation here is more a stand-in for the album, rather than a stand-alone track judged solely on its individual merits. Still, "Eden," for all its experimental strangeness, is probably the closest the record may come to an actual song, rather than a mélange of weird music and hushed vocals that intermittently gels into what one might call an actual melody. Plus, the edited single version makes it a little easier to get your arms around than most of the record's sprawling, disjointed pieces.

Which isn't to say it isn't still pretty freaky. A tribal beat, spooky atmospherics, clanging guitars and a musical motif borrowed from the Velvet Underground's "Heroin"--it's a window into the striking adventurousness of Spirit Of Eden (and its 1991 follow-up/companion LP Laughing Stock), yet on slightly firmer footing.

(BTW, for fans of these records--or those unfamiliar with them--I created my own hybrid version, which you can read about & listen to here.)

Longer album version:

Live performance from tribute band Spirit Of Eden: