“Pain is quiet
I’ve laughed at silence
For the last time
Let the show begin
For the last time”
That Mark Hollis, eh? Always banging on about silence. Although this is a lyric from Talk Talk’s second album, years before his (felt like) many pronouncements on the importance of silence. There’s not much room for your ears to rest in this track – it is full to bursting with an absolute multitude of sounds going every which way.
I used to own a tremendous pair of (fairly) vintage headphones that made everything extra space-y; they gave so much definition and separation to the music, it could sometimes be startling. I was certainly startled on a years-ago morning, doing my weekend chores and listening to Its My Life on said headphones when, suddenly, during The Last Time, there was a voice in my ear. Not Hollis singing. Just a single exclamation, a word – is it “woah”? I nearly jumped out of my skin, I thought there was someone standing behind me (in my empty house). Hear it for yourself, it’s at 2 minutes and 43 seconds in. I can’t unhear it, although those headphones are long gone and my more modern ones don’t give the effect of a voice at my shoulder.
People talk about listening to the later Talk Talk albums over and over and hearing new sonic details every time, I say you can do that with all TT albums – at least, once TFG was on board, amusing himself by leaving the mistakes in, using the accidents, happy or otherwise.
I can’t find any evidence of The Last Time being included on a setlist. No-one seems to have had much to say about it. Aside from the YouTube comments section of course. 16 years ago (!) khwrennz commented on the video linked below “quite the intense one, aren’t we” and that pretty much sums it up. The lyrics, that voice, forever surprising in its duality, intense and gentle all in the same breath; a track recorded carefully and soulfully and then left to drift, a bright star in Talk Talk’s brilliant constellation of tunes.
“What can I say? Yes, there is a sad overtone to my voice. But even that often comes with joy. You know that feeling that if you’re happy, you can cry with happiness? ” – Oor September 1984
The Last Time: