Talk Talk - A Chameleon Hour (1984)

Talk Talk began as a quartet consisting of Mark Hollis (vocals/guitar/piano), Lee Harris (drums), Paul Webb (bass guitar), and Simon Brenner (keyboards), and in their early years they were often linked to the New Romantic movement, more specifically with Duran Duran, as both bands sported a name which was a single word repeated, a Roxy Music-inspired musical direction, and shared the same record label (EMI) and producer (Colin Thurston). The band released their first single 'Mirror Man' in February 1982 to little public recognition, and this was followed by a re-recording of an old song by Hollis's previous band The Reaction, entitled 'Talk Talk', and this actally reached No.52 in the UK Charts. The band's first album 'The Party's Over' was released in July 1982, and they had their first UK Top 40 hits with the singles 'Today', and a re-release of 'Talk Talk'. Brenner left before the 1983 non-album single 'My Foolish Friend' was released in 1983, which was produced by frequent Roxy Music collaborator Rhett Davies, and this song was intended to be the first single from their second record, a concept album entitled 'A Chameleon Hour'. This would have been based on the book 'The Dice Man', but the record in its original conception was never released, although several songs, like 'Such A Shame' and 'Call In The Night Boy', did appear on their second album, and others ended up as b-sides. Hollis explained the concept of the album as being "inspired by the book 'The Dice Man', which is about decision making through dice throwing. Although they didn’t actually refer to it in the book, there's a scene when he's in a party for an hour undergoing about ten different personality changes and that idea seemed quite appropriate in terms of what we’re doing. It's a fabulous book, the idea is so appealing. I’ve just written ten times as many lyrics as I needed and thrown the dice on which ones go in. It’s ultimately wrong though, definitely immoral!". 

At this point Talk Talk was officially a trio, as Brenner was not replaced, although keyboard player Phil Ramocon, who had already played piano on the band's live shows beside Brenner, basically took up his role. However, Tim Friese-Greene was brought in to assist with the recording of 'It's My Life', and he soon became the band's producer and occasional keyboard player, as well as Hollis' frequent songwriting partner. After 'A Chameleon Hour' was abandoned, more songs were recorded and in 1984 'It's My Life' became their official second album, and with Fries-Greene on board their music became much more esoteric,with both 1986's 'The Colour Of Spring' and 1988's 'Spirit Of Eden' being rightly regarded as classic albums of the period. The band have even been credited with inventing "post-rock" in their last two albums, 'Spirit Of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock', and artists who've praised the band or cited them as an influence include Tears For Fears, Radiohead, Doves, Elbow, Shearwater, Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the Mars Volta, and Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. Mark Hollis died on 25 February 2019, aged 64, and the obituaries from friends and fellow musicians showed the high regard in which he was held by everyone who knew or worked with him. Hopefully you'll enjoy this reconstruction of the 'A Chameleon Hour' album, as there's only a couple of songs from 'In My Life', so a lot of the material might be unfamiliar to all but the most avid fans. 

Track listing

01 Again A Game...Again

02 Call In The Night Boy

03 My Foolish Friend

04 Renée

05 Desire

06 Why Is It So Hard?

07 For What It's Worth

08 Without You

09 Such A Shame 

Thanks to the stevehoffman site for the suggestion, and to Jules for the revised opening trio of songs.