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Ai prodromi del post-rock, se da un lato c’è “Spiderland”, dall’altro c’è “Laughing Stock” (Verve, 1991), con quel suo sommesso ed inafferrabile astrattismo esistenzialista, tra ritmiche non lineari e chitarre in feedback, dinamiche intime e profondità insperate. Un capolavoro edificato attraverso lo stillicidio e la stratificazione policroma delle bande sonore, un’opera radicale di jazz-rock incircoscrivibile, con melodie vocali non più tangibili, eppure così intime e rapprese all’animo umano.
Lo splendido “Spirit of Eden” (EMI, 1988) aveva segnato l’ambientalizzazione del pop, il post-pop, forzando la forma canzone, sgrossando un blues da camera vieppiù dilatato dal jazz e da una psichedelia sussurrata. Un lavoro che si presentava rarefatto e altamente evocativo.
“The Colour of Spring” (EMI, 1987) estendeva una pop music difforme dalle regole, diremmo complessa e tormentosa, già art rock.
“It’s My Life” (EMI, 1984) sapeva essere un album di pop elettronico sofisticato, palpitante, dove i sintetizzatori e gli strumenti tradizionali si ponevano a servizio di trame flessuose e di melodie personali, stringenti. Il songwriting cominciava a prescindere tanto dai contemporanei, quanto dagli archetipi (Roxy Music e Ultravox).
E “The Party's Over” (EMI, 1982)?
È l’album d’esordio, il punto di partenza cui giungiamo invertendo la successione cronografica di questo rimarchevole processo di evoluzione e rivoluzione.
British, inglesi, cioè “in quiet desperation”, i Talk Talk si formano nel 1981 a Londra, nel quartiere di Tottenham. Sono Mark Hollis, leader, polistrumentista, cantante (voce inconfondibile, che lacera, che graffia le pareti dell’anima), Paul Webb al basso, Lee Harris alla batteria e Simon Brenner alle tastiere. Quest’ultimo abdicherà presto, lasciando il posto al produttore e multistrumentista Tim Friese–Greene.
“The Party's Over” è un album di new wave commerciale, di new romantic, il patetico filone capitanato dai Duran Duran, dai quali, per l’occasione, ebbero a prestito il produttore Colin Thurston. Rilasciarono un LP incolore, scialbo, fuori fuoco, all’insegna di un synth pop convenzionale e senza estro. I singoli estratti non dicono molto: “Mirror Man” (pessimo esercizio sugli stilemi dei Depeche), "Today" (una sciabolettatina) e l’accettabile "Talk Talk", dalla ritmica ficcante riprodotta con enfasi nel testo: «Sono stanco di ascoltarti mentre mi rispondi per le rime/ …/ Tutto quello che tu fai per me è parlare, parlare / parlare, parlare, parlare, parlare». La cosa migliore, allora, sembra la sinuosa “Have You Heard the News”, mentre la titletrack alligna la buona prova vocale di Hollis che dà spessore a sintetizzatori così poco profondi da arrivare appena in superficie. Le parole dispensano una sconsolata amarezza: «Sono tutto ciò di cui sono colpevole/ Porta via questa condanna, Signore/ Dai un nome al crimine di cui sono colpevole/ Troppa speranza che ho inteso come virtù».
Nel complesso siamo di fronte a un album interlocutorio, passeggero, invischiato nella patina melensa e adiposa del new romantic. Tuttavia proprio qui si nasconde l’origine di una band in continua crescita e capace di diventare –sulla lunga distanza- influente come poche, spiazzante come nessuna. Val la pena, allora, apprendere da dove si provenga. E tornare qui suscita tenerezza, laddove, in ogni altra loro opera, possiamo trovare meraviglia.
L’album, per così dire, “degli occhi che parlano” va a vellicare anche il loro curioso artwork: ogni loro copertina risulterà sempre intrigante, piena d’enigmi, simboli, alberi, falene e fenicotteri. Tutte, in verità, migliori di questa.
I Talk Talk hanno dato luogo all’apoteosi rovesciata, l’esatto contrario dalle rock band, che giungono spossate allo scioglimento, mentre loro suggellano un ciclo decennale (in costante ascesa e mutamento) forti di due capolavori.
E pensare che l’inizio di Hollis era stato nel ’78 coi Reaction, autori di un solo singolo, “I Can’t Resist”, un r’n’r sguaiato con armonie vocali stentate. La chiusura sarà invece con un unico album solista, il commovente omonimo del ‘98, per poi svanire. Webb e Harris, come .O.Rang, chiuderanno poco dopo.
Come nelle elegie, “sentire è svanire”.
Ma vi aspettiamo ancora. Che altro fare?
Attendervi è giustificato.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Talk Talk (03:24)
Well did I tell you before
When I was up
Anxiety was bringing me down
I'm tired of listening to you
Talking in rhymes
Twisting round to think
You're straight down the line
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk
All you do to me is talk talk
If every sign that I see is to complete
Then I'm a fool in your game
And all you want to do
Is tell me your lies
Won't you show the other side
You're just wasting my time
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk
All you do to me is talk talk
When every choice that I make is yours
Keep telling me what's right and what's wrong
Don't you ever stop to think about me
I'm not that blind to see
That you've been cheating on me
You're laughing at me when I'm up
I see you when you're crying for me
When I'm down
I see you when you're laughing for me
When I'm up
I see you when you're crying for me
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk
All you do to me is talk talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk
02 It's So Serious (03:23)
I've given everything
With nothing in return
I'm filled with images
That play on every word
No-one to tell me
There's a cloud before my eyes
Not only broken,
I don't know the reason why
It's so serious
This endless sea of tears
The feeling that I'll drown
I'd try to catch them
But they're sure to touch the ground
My world of emptiness
A child without a toy
Forgiving anything
Restore me to my joy
It's so serious
03 Today (03:29)
Cover me with shades of disbelief
Can happiness be someone else's dream
Numbers call to spell my name
Move about as values change
Catch me if you can
But don't delay
Today, today
It's a dream away
Governed by the title on the wall
Commit me to a life within a fool
Happiness can often bleed
Beggars lay among the sheep
Let me take the choice
The sermon pleads
Today, today
It's a dream away
Visions in my cell begin to bread
Was everything a fact of what I read
Excuse my while l spell my name
Boat and ship could sound the same
Catch me if you can
But don't delay
Today, today
It's a dream away
Belle Malissima
Today, today
It's a dream away
04 The Party's Over (06:11)
The party's over
I never thought you'd stay
The love of laughter
My truth's no longer sane
The party's over
Much older than you'd say
THIS FRIEND OF NO-ONE
TIME, CREASES ON YOUR FACE
Take a look at the kids
I've been losing track
This crime of being uncertain
Of your love
Is all I'm guilty of
The party's over
I never thought you'd stay
A style of reason
This life of masquerade
Take a look at the kids
I've been losing track
This crime of being uncertain
Of your love
Is all I'm guilty of
Take this punishment away Lord
Name the crime I'm guilty of
Too much hope I've seen as virtue
Name the crime I'm guilty of
05 Hate (03:58)
RELAX YOUR STARE
It's laughing in my face
My foes beware
I'm tired of losing grace
The child's not there
The priest is losing faith
Defile my care
And stumble to the flames
People crying, People crying
My confusion
Are there illusions?
.... Hate
THE DICE WON'T LOSE
They've everything to gain
Devout prepare
The stones along my grave
People crying, People crying
My confusion
Are there illusions?
.... Hate
Don't say a word
If I've been away too long
I found out it's wrong
I found out ...
I DON'T NEED HATE
06 Have You Heard the News? (05:06)
I'm picking up again
Waint it got too much
After the accident
It could feel no worse
I turned around and saw him hit the ground
Alittle earlier, it was a game
I guess the barrier
Must have dropped away
I don't like to read the news
D'you know anything I'm going through
Did you see my photograph
It was on page ten
I swore to everyone
I'm not to blame
I turned around and saw him hit the ground
A little earlier it was a game
i'm so disposable
you can throw me away
I don't like to read the news
D'you know anything I'm going through
Wat a fool I've been
Didn't get to him in time
"What's been happening?"
Its so hard to sleep at night
Its so hard to sleep at night
To sleep at night
I don't like to read the news
D'you know anything I'm going through
09 Candy (04:39)
This sure is some kind of party
It's so useful
Surrounds my life with excuses
For what I choose to lose
And my name
Doesn't look the same to me
And inside
Don't you know I feel so bad
Candy,
When I tried to turn away
To feel new again
My emotion cost me pain
Did I look the same
When I think about the times
That I laughed away the idea you'd cheat me
But look again
What do you say 'That's my name'
AND I HOPE THAT I'VE KEPT YOU AMUSED
TO WIPE THAT SPIT RIGHT OFF MY BOOTS
And when I'm home and thinking in the dark
I hope that none of this has had to go too far
When it gets too late
To see me any other way
And it gets so hard to hold on
To everything that I want so bad
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