Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, the group's 1991 final album, took a year to make, and yet it has required decades to fully appreciate. Following up on the abstract Spirit of Eden, which sufficiently alienated pop fans of the band's earlier material, Laughing Stock took spaces in recorded music to new extremes, with layers of silence breathing through strings, woodwinds, percussion and Mark Hollis's delicate vocals. The record exists as one complete thought, albeit with jagged diversions and tangents.
Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, the group's 1991 final album, took a year to make, and yet it has required decades to fully appreciate. Following up on the abstract Spirit of Eden, which sufficiently alienated pop fans of the band's earlier material, Laughing Stock took spaces in recorded music to new extremes, with layers of silence breathing through strings, woodwinds, percussion and Mark Hollis's delicate vocals. The record exists as one complete thought, albeit with jagged diversions and tangents.