Spoons - Talkback

Spoons were never a band that was on my radar back in the day. I knew who they were, "Nova Heart" was a pretty great song, but there were a lot of great songs that never made it into my collection. Talkback was produced by Nile Rodgers. Bowie's Let's Dance was the other project Mr. Rodgers produced in '83. Oddly enough, Nile passed over Culture Club who were hotter than something that was really hot to produce Talkback by Spoons. You'd have thunk that this would have helped secure Spoons a decent distribution deal ... but nope. Talkback would only see the light of day in Canada. Good for us I guess, bad for them and everyone else. Like the band's previous album Arias & Symphonies, Talkback would go gold in Canada, but the band's subsequent releases wouldn't fare so well.

The big single was "Old Emotion" which is a song I sort of like and am sort of irritated by. The whammy bar dives never worked for me. It's not like Gordon Deppe isn't an accomplished player, so whatever was going on was deliberate. Considering the decades worth of water under the bridge the song has stood the test of time, and frankly it's the most accessible track on the record. Not the best but it was radio friendly. It grows on me more each time I hear it ... and I've heard it a lot over the last couple of days.

The rest of the album was all new to me, and it's a bag of licorice all-sorts. I really wanted to like this one. I mostly got my wish, this is pretty good European techno rock with brooding undertones. The album sounds really good too. The songs border on being generic mid tempo rockers, and while I wouldn't go so far as to call them boring, they also don't have a kick either. They're just sort of there.

The one song that started off really strong and then fell off a cliff when the vocals came in was "Quiet World." I hate to shit on Sandy Horne as her ethereal vocals were charming throughout the record backing Gordon's new romantic delivery, but on her own it didn't work for me ... I suppose some would favourably compare her to Kate Bush. I don't hear it. In the context of the album, though it's not enough of a wobble for me to get up and move the needle to the next track ... too much effort.

As an aside I do remember reading an article with Derrick Ross who played drums, and how Nile Rodgers employed programmed drums, but Derrick played the breakables as Mister Rodgers was impressed with his ability to keep time with a drum machine. I have no idea why that stuck with me, but it did.

Gordon Deppe has been a touring member of A Flock of Seagulls since 2017, which is kind of cool, I wonder if they ever resurrect "Nova Heart" when they're playing? Why not? Styx lets Gowan do "A Criminal Mind" in concert.

Talkback is a sleeper. If I'd have just given it a cursory listen my ears would have perked up when the second side opened with "Old Emotion" and then put it away when it was done. However, there was enough to warrant another play, and then another and another - I wanted to give it time to breathe.

Breathe in, breathe out ... wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off ...

The more I played it, the more I appreciated the songs. It's not like they got better, I just got used to them. I listened and waited for them to Talkback.