Customer Reviews

Mark Hollis

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After Talk Talk left off at their peak with the intense and brilliant "Laughing Stock" in '91, I started to worry that we'd never again hear the voice and music of this utterly magnificent musician. Seven years it took, and when I bought his eponymous debutalbum I actually didn't dare to play it before considering it for aprox. 24 hours.

The opening minimalistic piano-chords of "Colour of Spring" almost sent me into depression. The disappoinment of hearing what I thought was a boring cliché coming from a man trying to mend his relations in the past, seemed at the time downright boring. However, Hollis is the kind of musician you can trust, and having listened to the full album about 10 times, its classic qualities shone through with immense power. They still do!

Hollis blends his unique contemporary compositions on horns (wooden, preferably) with a downbeat rhythm-section consisting of tasteful percussion and a double-bass that much reminds me of the equally unique soundscape of Tom Waits. But as always, at the center is the voice of Hollis, delivering abstract lyrics with an often equally abstract near-whisper phrasing. No less than beautiful and divine - completely up there with Talk Talks "Laughing..." and "Spirit of Eden".

Without a doubt, this ranks as one of the best two or three recordings I have ever heard. I have never heard anything by Talk Talk, so I was able to listen to the recording without any preconceived notions. To put it simply, it is fantastic. A gentle, minimalistic treasure, kissed with jazz with a strong foundation of avant garde music. To call it rock'n'roll is an insult to the creator. It is simple, sublime, magnificient - music for profound introspection. I can only hope that Mark Hollis gets an opportunity to make another recording. I'll purchase mine in advance...

If you fancy the later Talk Talk (Laughing Stock & Spirit of Eden, Mark Hollis only gets better! Simply the finest music That I have listened to while I sojourn here upon Planet earth!! I was nervous when I listened, not knowing if M. Hollis had departed from his new style. Upon the first three tracks I realized what a gem I had discovered. I have no music, that even comes close to this!

I stumbled upon this in mid-2000 and, because I worship the later Talk Talk albums, decided to give it a try. The first hearing left me a little cold, especially track 1 with it's overtly simple theme...... However, the man is a genius. The whole piece gets under your skin and will never leave you. Get it and enrich yourself.

Mark Hollis seems to be one of the very few contemporary musicians left in the world who has managed to remember that the most powerful note is often the one you don't play. I only wish there were more work coming from this gifted artist in our age of over-production for the lowest common denominator.

A record like this comes once in a lifetime, I think. One cannot call it rock. It isn't. If you are expecting/looking for rock, look further. If you want to hear something different, something quiet and gently like a spring shower, melodically poetic, something to turn out the lights and really LISTEN to, then this is what you are looking for. Combining elements of jazz and the avant garde, this album creates an incomparable landscape a sounds and silence. I have never heard anything else so serene and beautiful.

After Talk Talk's shattering two album finale, timeless pieces of work, I was startled to find this album purely by chance. I bought it but left it unopened for a couple of days, I suppose similarly to someone who got a check from the lottery.

On first listening I wasn't sold. But I kept on listening, and started to find the little details, as with Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock. This album is bone dry and minimalist, scratchy and rough at times, but raw and penetrating with every subsequent play.

This profound album is in some ways a retreat from the complexity of Laughing Stock, and even surpasses Spirit of Eden in its minimalism. It has an unshakable internal strength, the kind of which one is left with after the flood.

This album is not for anyone who views music as a recreation rather than a love. If you have been listening, really listening, to music for about 20 years, you'll probably enjoy this work. This album is meant for critical listening. An audiophile would probably appreciate it. From what I can tell, it's an all-acoustic recording. The instruments are recorded via a mic. Mark Hollis is not afraid to include silence as part of the song. The songs are uncluttered and "simply" beautiful. This album should not be in the rock category but, rather jazz. It's truly a work of art.

Those who enjoyed Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock should find much to love in this solo outing. Do not expect virtuosity. Coming into Mark Hollis with such an attitude will cause you to miss the point of this album. This is about emotion, and the very frailties that make us human. If you seek machine-like precision and processed-to-death sounds, look elsewhere. Mark Hollis is a much more *intimate* album than that. Imagine sitting in a circle of musicians, tucked safely away in a back room somewhere, playing without an audience, without pressure. On occasion, a chair squeaks or someone misses a note, or someone joins in just ahead or behind where they "should"...but that's *not* what matters. Instead, it is the private communion with each other, and with the music created between them, that matters. Unconstrained, slowly flowing along from one song to the next, it's rather like a beautiful, spontaneous practice session committed to tape. In today's world of grandeur and overprocessed everything, this is a value we've forgotten. Perhaps that's why Mark Hollis so stirs the heart.

Mr. Hollis' voice and lyrics are as vulnerable as ever, and these soft, melancholy wanderings offer an intriguing contrast to the open, sometimes even refreshing, uplifting arrangements. While never building into the crescendoes of Spirit of Eden's "Inheritance" or Laughing Stock's "Ascension Day", there is certainly enough of interest to keep the ear engaged. Soft and subtle are the key words here. Listen for the murmurring choir in "A life (1895-1915)" for such beauty...I could live in that gorgeous section forever.

While, to be honest, I do not listen to most of the lyrics (they are rather depressing, but furthermore, Mr. Hollis has always focused on tone and expressiveness more than on clear enunciation anyway), I was very impressed by the lyrics of "A new Jerusalem", which seem to capture quite accurately the desolation left in the aftermath of war. This is the return of the shell-shocked soldier to a home that has been ravaged in his absence. I showed this song to a friend who has been personally affected by war, and he was quite moved. We both focused immediately, on our first listenings, on these lines:

"Heaven burn me
Should I swear to fight once more."

This song is lyrically on the level of "New Grass" or "I Believe in You", and that alone is worth the price of the entire album, as well as the stunning music of "A life (1895-1915)". Of course, there is not a bad track to be found on this album. If you cannot tolerate minimalism, imperfection, or improvisation, I recommend looking elsewhere--but if you can keep an open mind, Mark Hollis is well worth obtaining. And, as with the solo works of Pink Floyd's keyboardist Rick Wright, this is an underappreciated work where too few copies were made--so be sure to get it before supplies run out.

While Talk Talk offered up some inspired moments (Colour of Spring) and endeavoured to break down traditional musical barriers (see Spirit of Eden), this solo offering from Mark Hollis - the band's singer/songwriter - is blacker than black. It continues in the same vein as Laughing Stock, and indeed is an introspective, intriguing record as you'll likely to find. BUT, there's something about this record that sends the spirit spiralling down into deep depression. It's dry like a gravestone, it creaks like an old coffin, and is completely bereft of any kind of kind of humour. I don't know whether anybody out there agrees with me. This is the only record I've ever heard that has had this effect on me. This to me is music that is the closest thing to unhappiness in sound I have ever heard.