Mark Hollis

Mark Hollis three-peats! After he silently retreats from the public eye in the early 90s, he just as silently comes back up, records this masterpiece, and silently disappears as he returned.

One of the aspects of the album is the souvenir that was brought from the Talk Talk journey that was not present in the Talk Talk albums themselves, and that is jazz. From what little press and interview scraps he gave us, we can see that he liked what Coltrane and Davis had done decades before him, which is apparent by the subtle spiritual jazz grooves on "The Gift", "The Daily Planet" and on "A Life (1895-1915)", which was Hollis' way of giving us something of a storytelling piece.

As for my favorites, I'd have to go with "The Colour of Spring", "The Watershed", "Inside Looking Out" and "A New Jerusalem", all of which use elements of Talk Talk music which I personally loved: the sparse instrumentals with the added pizzazz of hurt, cryptic lyricism sung in a special way by Mark himself.

If is about asking for forgiveness for yourself and those around you, and if is about the ascension, then Mark Hollis' self-titled masterpiece has to be about the post-mortem world, sparse, desolate, and with one less soul wandering on the Earth.

I just wish the recording process was more public because I'd love to see the atmosphere in which the album was recorded. But then again, we probably wouldn't have gotten the same results if that was the case.