The Colour of Spring is commonly viewed as a bridge between Talk Talk's earlier, synthesized pop sound, and their later, more improvisation-based work. Despite the extensive use of synthesizers on the previous two albums, Hollis was vocal in his distaste for them, stating that they were used primarily for economic reasons and that “if they didn’t exist, I’d be delighted. During the recording of the album, Hollis frequently listened to the music of composers such as Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, and Béla Bartók, with the latter being a particularly significant influence on the album. Like other Talk Talk albums, outside musicians were heavily utilized. Guests contributing to the album include Robbie McIntosh adding guitar, and Steve Winwood, who played organ on the hit "Living in Another World", alongside "Happiness is Easy" and "I Don't Believe in You".
Founded in 1981, British band Talk Talk achieved moderate success with their first two albums. The music on the albums The Party’s Over (1982) and It’s My Life (1984) could be classified mainly as synthpop. However, vocalist/keyboardist Mark Hollis, had higher ambitions. He wanted to create lasting art rather than chart pop. For some time, Hollis had been listening almost exclusively to art music and jazz. Unlike Talk Talk's previous albums, Hollis's favorite records did not feature synthesizers or drum machines, and he desperately wanted to get rid of those gadgets. Hollis even declared that he had only used synthesizers for financial reasons and that, musically speaking, it would have been better if such contraptions had never been invented.
As the band's first two albums had raised Talk Talk’s profile, they were able to make their third album with a larger budget than before. This gave Hollis the opportunity to make more ambitious music with a richer instrumental palette. Talk Talk had already been supported by several studio musicians but now the number of outside musicians increased significantly. The Colour Of Spring featured 13 studio musicians and two choirs. The role of these reinforcements grew so large that drummer Lee Harris and bassist Paul Webb were somewhat overshadowed; there are a few tracks on the album where neither of the rhythm section plays at all!
Producer Tim Friese-Greene, on the other hand, becomes an even more important collaborator on The Color Of Spring, with all of the songs on the album written jointly by Hollis and Friese-Greene. Friese-Greene also plays piano, organ, and Mellotron and even synthesizers on a few tracks throughout the album, and it could be said that at this point he became an unofficial member of Talk Talk.
The album opened with "Happiness Is Easy" a playfully pulsating song, with Hollis' sarcastic lyrics gave it a dark undertone. The song itself was simple, but the arrangement is meticulous and rich. It is colored by, among other things, a solo played on a Variophone and Danny Thompson's tastefully popping double bass. The song is playfully crowned by a children’s choir singing alongside Hollis.
The melancholic yet emphatic "I Don’t Believe In You" showcased Hollis's magnificent singing voice. Hollis’s soulful voice is at its best in this song. Hollis's slightly nasal baritone voice stylistically falls somewhere between Scott Walker, Peter Gabriel, and David Sylvian. His voice blends Sylvian's luxurious softness, Walker’s crooner-like swagger, and Gabriel’s rough drama into a sufficiently original combination. This stylish song, based on a simple chord pattern, gets an extra boost from Robbie McIntosh's slightly rough electric guitar riffs. The third song, "Life's What You Make It," grooves along somewhat mechanically on a rolling piano riff, and David Rhodes's (Talk Talk also borrowed percussionist Morris Pert from Peter Gabriel six-note electric guitar riff, repeated here and there, serves effectively as a punctuation mark. Overall, the song is a bit repetitive and not the most interesting track on the album.
The next song, on the other hand, is very interesting, both musically and in terms of Talk Talk's future. The delicate and minimalist "April 5th" is the first of the two songs on the album that most clearly foreshadow the future. Its instrumentation is built on Hollis's lightly humming Hammond organ, Friese-Green's impressionistic piano, and a simply jangling percussion track. Here and there, David Roach’s lyrical soprano saxophone and McIntosh's vigorous dobro playing add a little embellishment to the simple and almost solemn-sounding music. Both are heard so sporadically and rarely that whenever they appear, the effect is extremely powerful. Hollis's wandering and meandering vocal performance is also impressive. The lively "Living In Another World," which kicks off side B of the album, was written right at the end of the recording sessions when the record company announced that the album was missing a hit song. Hollis and Friese-Greene took up the challenge and wrote a song that became the biggest hit on the album.
The brilliant "Living In Another World” was carried by a simple drum beat, with Steve Winwood's organ Winwood also plays on two other tracks humming and buzzing effectively in the background, but mixed quite far back. The song has a bit of the spirit of Winwood’s old band, Traffic and the highlight of the song is Mark Feltham’' harmonica. "Give It Up," featured pleasant melodic bass playing from Webb and impressive Hammond organ playing from Friese-Green. Rhodes' electric guitar also growls satisfyingly a few times. Hollis' vocal performance is once again impressive. "Chameleon Day" a very abstract, wandering song in which it can heard mainly impressionistic piano and Hollis's voice, at times, Hollis whispered his vocals, and at other times he literally roared powerfully.
The album concluded with its most grandiose arrangement and, at eight minutes, its longest track. "Time It's Time" began with a soft, almost pastoral-sounding with soft drum track in the background. With the first chorus, the song grew as a choir begins to sang insistently in the background. This time, instead of schoolchildren, another example of Talk Talk's open-minded approach to combining elements that at first glance seem incompatible; it is rare to hear choral singing borrowed from modern art music combined with a solo harmonica.
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