Thursday 30 October 2008

Heligoland - Heligoland

Calcium Chloride CaCl003CD. 2000


My favourite band of all time was Talk Talk. Oh, what a sad day it was when they eventually split.

They couldn't have gone in much further directions than they did. While Mark Hollis stuck with the overall minimalistic, bleak feel of their last album, Laughing Stock, for his solo effort, Tim Friese-Green has picked up a guitar or two and some cheap keyboards, setting free his alt-rock alter-ego.

This is a beautiful record. Understated, seemingly effort-free. It sounds home-recorded, which it was, and has an honesty about it that would be hard to emulate in the studio. It sticks with the melancholia and general doom of Talk Talk's final foray ('We're all here to die. Put your head on the altar. Can you swear you've lived enough?'), but who needs happy-happy-joy-joy all the time?

Remind me a lot of The Auteurs, and his voice is often a bit John Lennon-ish - all good. There's a pointless version of Purple Haze hidden at the end which isn't worth waiting for. Other than that (and we probably can't count that since it isn't on the track list), 9 out of 10. Gold star.

Not to be mixed up with the Aussies who've nicked the name.

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