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Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk

 
Album Review: Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk

  • Artist: Talk Talk
  • Rating: StarStarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: 1990 10
  • Total Time: 71:47
  • Type: Compilation (best of)
  • Genre: Rock

Review

During Talk Talk's hiatus following Spirit of Eden, EMI issued a hits collection compiling the singles from the first four albums as well as the non-LP "My Foolish Friend," a couple of live tracks, and an edit of "Desire." Natural History serves as a nice introduction to the band, showing it as an effective singles act despite its more recent album-concept experiments, and the added rarities make the package a necessary addition for fans as well. ~ Chris Woodstra, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Today (Lyrics) Paul Webb, Mark Hollis, Simon Brenner, Lee Harris Talk Talk (3:30)
Talk Talk (Lyrics) Mark Hollis, Ed Hollis Talk Talk (3:15)
My Foolish Friend (Lyrics) Simon Brenner, Mark Hollis Talk Talk (3:18)
Such a Shame (Lyrics) Ray Davies, Mark Hollis Talk Talk (5:22)
Dum Dum Girl (Lyrics) Mark Hollis, Tim Friese-Greene Talk Talk (4:02)
It's My Life (Lyrics) Mark Hollis, Tim Friese-Greene Talk Talk (3:51)
Give It Up (Lyrics) Mark Hollis, Tim Friese-Greene Talk Talk (5:19)
Living in Another World (Lyrics) Tim Friese-Greene, Mark Hollis Talk Talk (7:00)
Life's What You Make It (Lyrics) Mark Hollis, Tim Friese-Greene Talk Talk (4:25)
Happiness Is Easy (Lyrics) Mark Hollis, Tim Friese-Greene Talk Talk (6:29)
I Believe in You (Lyrics) Mark Hollis, Tim Friese-Greene Talk Talk (5:55)
Desire (Lyrics) Tim Friese-Greene, Mark Hollis Talk Talk (6:56)
Life's What You Make It [Live][*] Tim Friese-Greene, Mark Hollis Talk Talk (4:40)
Tomorrow's Started [Live][*] Mark Hollis Talk Talk (7:45)

Credits

Mark Hollis (Keyboards), Phil Brown (Engineer), James Marsh (Paintings), Phill Brown (Engineer), Mike Robinson (Mixing), Lee Harris (Drums), Tim Friese-Greene (Producer), Talk Talk (?), Rhett Davies (Producer), Paul Webb (Bass), Mark Hollis (Vocals)
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Wikipedia: Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk
Top
Natural History
Compilation album by Talk Talk
Released May 1990
Recorded 1982–1988
Genre New Wave, Synth pop, Post-rock
Length 71:47
Label Parlophone/EMI
Professional reviews
Talk Talk chronology
Spirit of Eden
(1988)
Natural History
(1990)
History Revisited
(1991)

Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk is a 1990 greatest hits album by Talk Talk. It collects songs that the band released under EMI between 1982 and 1988. The compilation spent 21 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at #3,[1] and went on to sell over one million copies worldwide.[2] The North American version appended two live bonus tracks. A companion collection of the band's music videos was released in July 1990.

EMI released the compilation without the band's supervision. Talk Talk leader Mark Hollis said, "A compilation album is not my idea of an album. I don't like compilation albums and I didn't like that one. It certainly wasn't the selection of tracks I would have liked even if there had to be one. But, at the end of the day, they had every right to do it so . . ."[3]

In light of Natural History's success, the remix album History Revisited was released in 1991. Talk Talk sued EMI for remixing their material without permission.

Though the collection contains no new material, It does have the non-LP 1983 single, "My Foolish Friend", which had never appeared on a full-length release before.

On 12 March 2007 the album was reissued with a bonus DVD of their music videos.

Track listing

  1. "Today" (Brenner/Harris/Hollis/Webb) – 3:30
  2. "Talk Talk" (Hollis/Hollis) – 3:15
  3. "My Foolish Friend" (Brenner/Hollis) – 3:18
  4. "Such a Shame" (Hollis) – 5:22
  5. "Dum Dum Girl" (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 4:02
  6. "It's My Life" (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 3:51
  7. "Give It Up" (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 5:19
  8. "Living in Another World" (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 7:00
  9. "Life's What You Make It" (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 4:25
  10. "Happiness Is Easy" (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 6:29
  11. "I Believe In You" (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 5:55
  12. "Desire" (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 6:56
  13. "Life's What You Make It" [live from the Hammersmith Odeon] (Friese-Greene/Hollis) – 4:40
  14. "Tomorrow Started" [live from the Hammersmith Odeon] (Hollis) – 7:45

Credits

References

  1. ^ Tim Rice, Paul Gambaccini, and Jonathan Rice, The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums, 7th ed. (Guinness World Records Limited, 1996).
  2. ^ James Neiss, "Talk Talk," Record Collector, December 1991.
  3. ^ Steve Sutherland, "Talk Talk: Silencing the Scams," Melody Maker, September 1991.

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk" Read more