Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring (1986), 7/10

The Colour of Spring is often touted as a blend of the band’s successes or a bridge between their pop roots and their later experimentation. While they do begin to utilize more satisfyingly complex sounds and textures, their writing methods are only complicated rather than transformed in a meaningful way, resulting in a mixed bag of successes and misses. You can hear the evolution taking place, however, in moments like “April 5th” and its use of space or “Time It’s Time” in its use of elongated dynamics. The rest of the album assembles into scattered meandering rather than a focused product. “I Don’t Believe in You” and “Life’s What You Make It”, for instance, feature strong, catchy songwriting and novel layering but fail to venture into the unknown in a metaphysical sense despite their newly pleasing theatrics. Hollis’ vocals are as infatuating as ever despite the range of results from the choruses, the best example of group singing creating maximum effect undoubtedly being the closer. Despite its varied results as far as worthwhile listening, The Colour of Spring is a necessary step in Talk Talk’s evolution of sound, and ultimately a great standalone album. The greatest moments in the record are those that truly surprise you, which may be different for everyone, but are likely spread across a large volume of time, making the experience feel consistently uninspired. While this is not their best set of compositions, there is a lot of meaningful detail dispersed throughout the track list, resulting in a notable work within an outstanding discography.