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Laughing Stock | 
| Artist: Talk Talk
Label: Polydor / Umgd
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $7.97
You Save: $4.01 (33%)
Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 6827
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 847717
UPC: 042284771726
EAN: 0042284771726
ASIN: B000001FZK
Release Date: November 19, 1991
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Myrrhman | | • | Ascension Day | | • | After the Flood - Talk Talk, Friese-Greene, Tim | | • | Taphead | | • | New Grass | | • | Runeii |
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| Similar Items:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Dreamy and loose, Talk Talk's Laughing Stock turns 180 degrees away from the '80s pop sound of It's My Life and runs headlong into a web of Brian Eno, avant-garde, jazz, and experimental structure. The songs ache with languid phrases and the naked, vulnerable voice of Mark Hollis, the only element of the band that remains perceptible from their verse-chorus-verse past. The bashing, off-time clatter of "Ascension Day"; the impossibly patient organ motif snaking into a wailing guitar string in "After the Flood"; the terrifying, beautiful silences that engulf "Runeii" and "Myrrhman"; and the teetering, defenseless vocal Hollis lays down on "New Grass"--it all adds up to a stellar, shockingly original work that shreds all pretense of genre limitations, finding a transcendence in the light and shadow of musical color. --Matthew Cooke
Album Description
The band's final album, originally released in 1991 on Polydor. It was promptly deleted three months after it's release due to wrangling with the record company. Now available on the band's own label Pond Life. Standard jewel case.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
Unbelievable, Timeless August 23, 2007
N. Szeto (Austin, TX USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I remember anxiously awaiting for this album to come out. I had been a big fan of Talk Talk since It's My Life. And then the Color of Spring changed everything. They made such a huge break from their original 80's sound that it was shocking and wonderful all at the same time.
And then came Spirit of Eden. There was nothing, absolutely nothing like it. A work of sheer genius. A masterpiece. The sound other-worldly and alien. But vital and gorgeous nonetheless.
I remember in college listening to Laughing Stock for the first time. Melancholy, plaintive and downright riveting. I was blown away. The drum work in particular was astounding -- persistent and unrelenting and angry.
Laughing Stock is not only an extension of the direction that Talk Talk took on Spirit of Eden, it a transcendent masterpiece in its own right.
Heartbreakingly Beautiful August 16, 2007
Sean P. Smith (Ashland, OR United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
So many effluent reviews and yet how can one touch the majesty that is this album? I've owned it since the day it was released and I still listen to it regularly. It envelops like a hug and comforts you with a sympathy and understanding that brings tears to my eyes. Evocative, haunting, and flat out gorgeous, I would certainly consider this as much a "desert island disc" as Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way", David Bowie's "Low", and Cocteau Twins "Victorialand". Words cannot describe it...just give it a listen.
Worth every penny if for nothing more than Mark Hollis' voice rising one note 6:14 into "New Grass". Just hits you like a train!
 Late opinion May 12, 2007
F. Ceric (Amsterdam, Holland)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
It's obvious that Talk Talk were getting as far away from pop music as they could by the time this CD was issued. This CD sounds much more like solo effort that Marc Hollis released years later. The songs are well played, the tunes are nice but not really easy listening type, so you have to listen a copule of times before you remember them. I just missed a coulpe of more recognisable melodies (think of Life's what you make it, Living in another world, Tomorrow started etc), but wasn't disappointed in general.
Laughing stock Talk Talk May 12, 2007
Howard Robinson (Sunshine Coast, QLD, Australia)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
WORTH A LISTEN
This was a surprise to me, I did not know their music, but it's a blend of electric folk and acid jazz, very cool and uplifting vocals. A must for a music traveler.
HMR
Part two of Spirit of Eden April 3, 2007
Elan Bodwick (las vegas)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
The only complaint i could really aim at this swansong epic from Talk Talk is that it really breaks no new ground from Spirit of Eden- i find no real difference in tones sound etc. But ofcourse it is more a continuation or another part of that album. Most of the same guest musicians show up for this dark downtempo album- and the recording sounds nearly identical production wise and trackwise to Spirit of Eden. Still the fact remains these are two of the best minimal postrock art jazz whatever you want to call it recordings from the last 30 years. This was a band miles ahead of the pack that helped influence Portishead and Radioheads better moments. Its part ambient acoustic- very spacey and minimal before erupting into slowchurning bursts of almost triphop styled jazz. Some of the material foreshadows U2s achtung baby's darker slower tunes - the drums no doubt you will notice sound like that albums drums. I mention this only in sound - not to say TAlk Talk sounds like u2 or vice versa. The songs on L-Stock are long- far from pop verse chorus stylings and are completely uncommercial. This is music for musics sake and makes the new wave of Talk Talks' early career seem a bad distant memory. No band ever redeemed themselves so late in their career as well as TAlk TAlk. Not having both these albums is almost unforgivable for a music lover.
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