why such a good album?

Talk Talk's 1988 album 'Spirit Of Eden' stood for everything that was going the other way from the general trends of the time. the previous album The Colour of spring had gained them commercial success and so their record company EMI, were willing to throw a lot more time and money at the group.

please read on.....

Mark Hollis' answer was to spend a year locked away in a studio, barring any executives and crafting an album which covered the bases from what are commonly referred to in record shops as from Jazz to gospel, ambient to runctious blues. The year up, the band sent a cassette to EMI and on listening, knew they didn't have anything marketable.
An article on amongst other things, Parlophone's (EMI owned) reaction

They asked Hollis to change things, but he stood firm and in the end they released a cut down version of one of the movements as a song. The album wasn't an album of songs, but each carefully constructed piece one side one gave way to another. it was only after the third of these segues that there is division. It is said they recorded largely with ambient low-lighting and the final work was put together digitally from the hundreds of hours of taped improvised, spontaneous music. I think you have to credit Mark Hollis' determination, certainly from this end of the telescope. its an album that has inspired countless groups into the 90's which is arguably where we get the so-called 'Post-Rock' continuum that we see the fruits of today.
A recent look-back at the album article (from 2005)

.there was no tour in support of the album.
EMI sued the band and Engineer for Technical incompetence. but the group won on appeal, although it changed how commercial recording were drawn-up; bands now having to produce something that was 'commercially viable' It's little wonder that Hollis in particular became disillusioned with the recording industry at the level Talk Talk were on. In my opinion, what is amazing, in technical and creative detail about this album is how textures are put together. have a listen to ...... you can hear a close-in miked drum together with a distant guitar, however they are again giving names to what should be appreciated. Apparently and it sounds that no compression was used at all, it was all done on the source instruments.This is nearly as hard as putting an Octopus in an Envelope. The way it was done creates the feeling of space and gave the album dynanism and vitality, that is too often lost or beaten out of tracks today. Indeed, this is what the engineer says about how the album was recorded.

- Engineer's Interview
- A recording magazine interview with Hollis

The brilliance of it lies in both its linear composition and the matching of the ambiences to make you hear disparate sound objects 'together'. Arguably the latter more than the former as it retains this curious wide-eyed anticipation while being deeply warm, sparse and poignant at the same time. its themes are of the religion of nature and are Omni-present as you could hope for in an album of this apparently intended scope. It's quite a masculine album aswell. Their following album on a different label of course, was entitled laughing Stock... it says alot. simply beautiful. Its like will come again.Click here to download and listen to mp3 of track 4 from album (7.7 MB)