Aha! Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks New Grass is the greatest song of all time!fluffmoln wrote:Man, don't get me started on Talk Talk. Not five/six years ago, I had heard probably It's My Life and Life's What You Make It (both fantastic songs, of course) on the radio, only thinking that Talk Talk is probably the second stupidest band name I've heard since hearing about the Pet Shop Boys. Then, a couple of years ago someone on another forum (in a thread called "What's the most perfect song?") mentioned the song New Grass off an album called Laughing Stock (I think the post said "New Grass. Always New Grass."). So I listened to it, knowing fully well that Talk Talk was basically Duran Duran light and as such I wasn't expecting much. Since then, I've probably played that track over a 100 times, and the album just as many times. It's amazing. It's transcendental. It's perfect. Talk Talk was so much more than two songs on your local 80s station.
The band, after two albums with some pretty nice songs everyone would remember if they heard them on the radio, evolved from being this admittedly bland new wave band to a completely different beast. Main guy Mark Hollis just followed his artistic vision, not giving two shits about what the label would think. The three following albums were much more experimental and much more what Hollis wanted to do. All of them are worth a listen, but the 1991 Laughing Stock is just unbelievably great. And New Grass is absolutely one of the greatest songs ever recorded. Thing is, I guess only two people will read this post, and hopefully at least one of them will actually listen to the song (and as such I should question myself putting twenty minutes of thought into typing this down). Then again, if I'd get that lone person to listen to this song, my mission is complete. It's not for me, it's for you.
Sorry for the history lesson, I just love this band. This entire rant is so much better explained in this awesome Quiteus piece of famed "only four out of five for Electric, you must be joking!" music journo/reviewer Wyndham Wallace.
There is depth in this song I've never heard in another pop/rock song. It's like birth, life and death, put to music. Only musical thing that can compete with it is Rachmaninov's Vespers: Now Let Thy Servant Depart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEHufcT3jmw
