Laughing Stock is the fifth and final studio album by English band Talk Talk, released on 16 September 1991. Following their previous release Spirit of Eden (1988), bassist Paul Webb left the group, which reduced Talk Talk to the duo of singer/multi-instrumentalist Mark Hollis and drummer Lee Harris. Talk Talk then acrimoniously left EMI and signed to Polydor, who released the album on their newly revitalised jazz-based Verve Records label. Laughing Stock was recorded at London's Wessex Sound Studios from September 1990 to April 1991 with producer Tim Friese-Greene and engineer Phill Brown.
Like Spirit of Eden, the album featured improvised instrumentation from a large ensemble of musicians. The demanding sessions were marked by Hollis' perfectionist tendencies and desire to create a suitable recording atmosphere. Engineer Phill Brown stated that the album, like its predecessor, was "recorded by chance, accident, and hours of trying every possible overdub idea." The band split up following its release.
The album garnered significant critical praise, often cited as a watershed entry for the budding post-rock genre at the time of its release. Pitchfork retrospectively gave the album a perfect 10 out of 10 score and named it the eleventh best album of the 1990s, saying it "makes its own environment and becomes more than the sum of its sounds." In a 2007 list, Stylus Magazine named it the greatest post-rock album.
Background In 1986, Talk Talk, then a three-piece band consisting of leader and singer Mark Hollis alongside drummer Lee Harris and bassist Paul Webb, released their third album The Colour of Spring, which saw the band shift from their earlier, synthpop-oriented sound towards a more organic art pop sound, where musicians improvised with their instruments for many hours and Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene edited and arranged the performances to get the sound they wanted. A total of sixteen musicians appeared on the album. It became their most successful album, selling over two million copies and prompting a major world tour. Nonetheless, for their next album Spirit of Eden (1988), the band chose to work towards an even more unconventional and uncommercial direction. The album was compiled from a lengthy recording process at in Studio 1 at London's Wessex Studios between 1987 and 1988 where the band worked again with Friese-Greene and engineer Phill Brown. Once again working largely in darkness, the band recorded many hours of improvised performances which were heavily edited and re-arranged into the final album.
Spirit of Eden was not a commercial success and although it would be acclaimed in later retrospective reviews, it initially polarized music critics. Their record label EMI had doubts about whether it could have been successful many months in advance. They asked Hollis to re-record a song or replace material, but he refused to do so. By the time the masters were delivered later in the month, however, the label conceded that the album had been satisfactorily completed, and chose to extend the band's recording contract. The band, however, wanted out of the contract. "I knew by that time that EMI was not the company this band should be with," manager Keith Aspden told Mojo. "I was fearful that the money wouldn't be there to record another album." EMI and Talk Talk went to court to decide the issue.Wallace, Wyndham. "After The Flood: Talk Talk's Laughing Stock 20-Years On". thequietus, 12 September 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2015 Centered around whether EMI had notified the band in time about the contract extension, because as part of the agreement, the label had to send a written notice within three months after the completion of the album, but the band said they had notified them too late, arguing that the three-month period began once recording had finished; EMI argued that the three-month period did not begin until they were satisfied with the recording. Justice Andrew Morritt ruled in favour of EMI, but his decision was overturned in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Talk Talk were released from the contract.
Nonetheless, in 1990, bassist Paul Webb left the band, officially reducing Talk Talk to the duo of Hollis and Harris. EMI also issued two compilations without the band's consent in 1990 and 1991; Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk – a best-of/greatest hits album, and History Revisited – a collection of new remixes of old material from the band. Hollis was vocal in his opposition to both releases. Before the latter was released, Hollis sent letters requesting that the compilation be stopped, but EMI did not respond. In November 1991, Talk Talk sued EMI, delivering four writs against their former record label.Encyclopedia of Rock Stars, 1st ed., s.v. "Talk Talk." The band claimed that material had been falsely attributed to them and that they were owed money from unpaid royalties. Talk Talk won the case in 1992, and EMI agreed to withdraw and destroy all remaining copies of the album.Mark Roland, ed., "Info Freako: It's the Hollis! ," Melody Maker, November 1995.David Stubbs, "Mark Hollis: Talking Liberties ," VOX, February 1998. Manager Keith Aspden hoped that the case would set a precedent for future recording contracts."History Revisited: Pop remix faces legal challenge," The Independent.
As the band's legal battle with EMI concerning their contract had freed them from the label, the band began searching for other record labels, and eventually, their manager Keith Aspden signed them to Verve Records, the jazz offshoot label of Polydor Records. Hollis was pleased that they signed Talk Talk because the Mothers of Invention were once on Verve. The band set to recording their new album soon after the contract was signed. Again hiring an array of guest musicians, producer/multi-instrumentalist Tim Friese-Greene and engineer Phill Brown, work began on Laughing Stock in 1990.
Recording
With Verve Records guaranteeing full funding for Laughing Stock and offering not to interfere during recording, the band took full advantage of the scenario and "locked themselves away for the duration of recording." As with the band's previous album, Laughing Stock was produced by Tim Friese-Greene and recorded at the North London recording studio Wessex Sound Studios with engineer Phill Brown, and around fifty guest musicians, although a total of only eighteen guest musicians feature on the final album. Working in an environment influenced by that of Traffic's recording sessions from 1967 that Brown worked on, Hollis' vision with Laughing Stock was to "collect a group of like-minded musicians together" in the studio where he could then record the "perspective of instruments in physical distance rather than off the board," after which "each player gets to improvise around a basic theme as he or she feels it." The process continued over a long period of time, and ultimately the album took a year to record, although its liner notes state it was recorded from September 1990 to April 1991. The record was "only complete" when Hollis felt each guest musician had "expressed their character and refined their contribution to the purest, most truthful essence."
Hollis' discipline during the recording is well-noted; Jess Harvell of Pitchfork noted that "the recording process has long been described as one of the most arduous and prone to control freakitude ever." Wyndham Wallace of The Quietus said that "what went on in that studio strengthens the belief that Hollis was on a crusade to push boundaries and perfect his art on an even grander scale than Spirit of Eden. Furnished with the opportunity to fulfil his most extreme creative instincts." Often working in darkness, "there was an effort to create a vibe in the studio sympathetic with the feel of the album," as Aspden recalled, and the band removed clocks from the walls, covered up the windows, "set up oil projections on the walls and ceiling, and used no other light apart from a strobe," to create a suitable atmosphere for recording.
The guest musicians were brought in "to improvise on sections without hearing the full track. With just a basic chord structure at most, they were encouraged to try out anything their hearts encouraged them to, and then, thanks to the emerging digital technology, any results felt appropriate were employed, sometimes in places for which they had never originally been envisioned." Most of the music recorded never made the final album, with Brown commenting "it takes a strong discipline to erase 80% of the music you record. Few have the discipline to get rid of 'stuff'." As with previous albums, Hollis alone chose what parts of the recordings to use and in what context. Compared to Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock was recorded with "a more conventional '80's set up." Brown and the band worked with a Studer A800 24-track recorder with Dolby SR noise reduction, which, to make editing simpler, was run at 30 inches per second.
Harris' drums were firstly set up against the far wall of the studio's main recording room, Wessex Studio 1, and were microphoned in "the usual rock arrangement", using "about ten microphones all close to the kit – bass drum, snare, hi-hat, tom-toms, overheads, ambient etc." Following this, Brown and Hollis rented the Telefunken U47, a large-diaphragm condenser valve microphone manufactured by Georg Neumann GmbH during the years 1949–1965. They chose it from an offering of several valve mics, which besides the U47 included a Neumann U48, M49 and "Tube", alongside "the old Wessex Collection" which included three AKG C12As. They carefully listened to each before settling on the U47. However, they placed it "30 feet away from the kit near the control-room window," which became an issue as the physical distance triggered a delay of 26-32 milliseconds.
Having by that point created backing tracks, they "made up Mitsubishi Digital masters" as they had done with Spirit of Eden, although this time they operated five analogue slave tapes, which gave them access "to over 120 tracks for recording ideas." From this point, they continued to overdub further textures and instruments, including cellos, pianos, harmoniums, guitars, double bass, violas, harmonica, percussion, Melodica, Hammond organ, Variophon, drums, and unusually, a water heater and kettle, as well as techniques such as "sampling, looping, off-setting, and the odd backwards F/X." Differing, distant miking techniques were employed for these instruments, with mics being placed "six feet from acoustic instruments, and about twelve feet from amplifiers." With the album now completed, they used only "an old spring echo, an EMT echo plate, and a DDL" to mix the album.
Music
Laughing Stock consists of six tracks; Steve Sutherland said the album is "divided into six parts although it's really one long piece spanning an evolution of moods." Ian Cranna of Q said the album was "even more withdrawn and personal than before." Comparing the album to Spirit of Eden, Jess Harvell of Pitchfork says "the song structures are even stranger, built up from the tiniest musical gestures, clashing in mood from track to track, frequently more improvised-sounding than ever. The goal, assembling a coherent album from all this stuff, probably seemed quixotic to many of the contributors as it was being made." In a 1991 interview with Melody Maker, Mark Hollis said "the last thing I would ever want to do is intellectualise music because that's never been what it's about for me. Nothing has changed from the ethic of the last album and I would never want that to change because I can't see any way of improving upon that process. As before, silence is the most important thing you have, one note is better than two, spirit is everything, and technique, although it has a degree of importance, is always secondary."Steve Sutherland, "Talk Talk: Silencing the Scams ," Melody Maker, September 1991.