The popularity of British synth-pop outfit Talk Talk was something of a slow burn. Despite a constant stream of albums throughout the 1980s, the group seemed to be continually denied the kind of success that they hungered for. They would, of course, later be chronicled as a shining creative force - an inventive alternative to the more ephemeral synth-pop of the era.
The title track to the band’s second album, It’s My Life, was released as a single in January 1984. Surprisingly, this extremely effective song reached a meagre 46 in the UK chart, but elsewhere, more promising results proved that Talk Talk's work had legs.
In the US, It's My Life struck a notable chord, and reached number 31 on the Billboard Chart, their highest position to date. The track - and parent album - did quite well in Europe, too. But, the UK maintained a frosty disposition toward a band it was difficult to pigeon-hole.
Article continues belowIt was released again in Britain the following year, but this time only managed to climb to a depressingly undeserved 95 in the UK chart. Britain, clearly, wasn't having it.
It took the release of Talk Talk’s greatest hits album Natural History in 1990 for It’s My Life to finally gain traction on home soil, peaking at 13 in the UK chart. This was largely thanks to a number of DJs realising that it had the same BPM (126) as many club favourites, ensuring it was more widely played at nightspots across the country.
Further recognition came much later, with the beloved No Doubt cover of the song.
Gwen Stefani's vibrant vocals and on-trend pop-punk arrangement helped thrust the song to an incredible number 10 in the US chart in 2003 - exposing an entirely new market to the genius of this Talk Talk gem.
Talk Talk were always a little bit different; despite the bemused incredulity of publications such as Smash Hits, who described Talk Talk as “…yet another synthesised pop group, complete with singer who wants to be Bryan Ferry…” Talk Talk were much more than another chart-hungry pop conceit. They drew influence from a number of creative quarters, and had considerable production and songwriting chops.
The group’s perennially shy lead singer and songwriter Mark Hollis initially studied psychology at university for 18 months, before drawing the conclusion that the course wasn't for him.
His interest in the complexities of human behaviour was not wasted though, and recurred as a theme throughout his work as a musician. It’s My Life is a good example. Its lyric stressed the importance of retaining hold on individuality when in a particularly angst-ridden relationship.
As with Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive, It's My Life has become something of a post break-up staple. Best belted out at the top of your lungs after several large glasses of wine…
Tim Friese-Greene produced the record, and would eventually become a fully-signed up member of the band, co-writing many further Talk Talk cuts.
The stylised playing of bassist Paul Webb was a signature component of Talk Talk’s output, predominantly through the use of fretless bass. Playing fretless was a fashionably unique calling card for bass players such as Mick Karn from Japan, and Pino Palladino, who was a regular band member for Paul Young.
Drummer Lee Harris completed the band, known for playing both acoustic and Simmons kits, although drum machines were often used in production too.
Synths and tech infiltrate and influence It’s My Life in a number of ways. There is plenty of Roland Jupiter-8, with other probably instruments being the Oberheim OB-X, Fairlight CMI and TR-808 drum machine.
Despite being often labelled as a synth-pop outfit, synths had begun to make Hollis’s blood run cold. He became more vocally anti-synth over the ensuing years.
“You see, when we made It's My Life, we had to rely a lot on synthesisers,” Mark Hollis said in an interview with fan website, Within Without. “Now, I do not accept that we are a synthesizer band. Synthesizers mean electronic things to me, and I don't think we have any sort of relation to that. We used synthesizers on that album because from an economic point of view it was the only way we could do it."
He was even more forthright in a 1986 interview with Electronics and Music Maker; “In terms of the first two albums and the live field, synths are simply an economic measure. Beyond that, I absolutely hate synthesizers. To me, the only thing that was ever good about them was the fact that they gave you large areas of sound to work with; apart from that they're really bad - horrible. I can take their existence from a live point of view now, but if they didn't exist, I'd be delighted.”
Back to the song itself, and beyond the electronic elements, there are also plenty of live and acoustic additions within the track too, provided by guests Robbie McIntosh on guitar and Morris Pert on percussion.
We can also hear Yamaha’s CP-80 stage piano, which was a firm staple for pianistic output during this period, largely thanks to its convenience when used live or in the studio.
One interesting facet of the song is that it begins on an eighth-note/quaver anacrusis. This entry from the outset immediately throws the listener off-balance, before quickly adjusting as the 1st bar of the song settles into a regular backbeat, with the snare on two and four.
We've already mentioned the beautifully complex bass lines that form part of Talk Talk’s DNA, with It’s My Life being a shining example. It also offers some twists and turns, if we consider its position against the underlying harmony.
We are going to think of the harmony in a relatively pianistic way, although there are other relevant ways of describing the same chord sequence, particularly if you prefer guitar symbols.
Firstly, the song opens with a chord of Eb major - not the most obvious chord for many commercial tracks, given that it lies a semitone lower than a guitar's home key.
It’s a less obvious choice for fret-based musicians, although popular with keyboard-based musicians. We hear Eb major for two bars, before shifting to a chord of Db major and Ab major (add6) for a bar each, although the movement between chords is handled very fluidly
When we hear the chord of Db, the chord moves downward by a tone, while the bass part moves up to the note F, placing the chord of Db in a 1st inversion, before rising to Ab for the final chord of the 4-bar sequence.
You remember the anacrusis at the beginning? This continues with each chordal entry, providing a push into each bar as the chord changes, it’s a regular move in the jazz and funk domain, but feel incongruous here.
We also hear a repeated entry from a lead synth, using the notes F to Eb, although this entry also throws us off, timing-wise, with the last entry in sequence occurring earlier than in previous instances.
One of the unique twists in this song occurs at the pre-chorus bridge. After the final chord of Ab in the verse, there is a preparatory dominant chord of E major which is held for 2 bars, before modulating to A minor for the bridge.
Although this has nothing to do with our previous home of Eb, it sets us up nicely for the following seismic harmonic shift.
We shift to the next series of pre-chorus chords, which are held for two beats at a time; Am, F/A, G, C. We land on a chord F, which is held for six beats, with two further beats shifting to a chord of G, before the sequence is repeated.
Much like the structure to the verse, many of the chords are ‘pushed’, using further anacrusis.
There is an obvious similarity between the pre-chorus bridge chords, and the chorus, with the repeated use of Am, Dm, G and C, with the first and third chords being pushed, leaving the second and fourth chords to land on the third beat of each bar.
At the very end of the chorus structure, which repeats to enforce the hook, we land on an eventual chord of Fm for a full two bars, before heading back to the verse.
There is something incredibly endearing about the music underpinning this song; the shift between the key of the verse and chorus is substantial, modulating by an interval known as a tritone, (AKA the ‘Devil’s Interval’!)
It's an unrelated harmonic shift, and under normal circumstances, one that would make us feel uncomfortable, but it is handled so seamlessly in this context, you barely notice the switch.
If you have ever taken the time to look this song up in video form, you will doubtless have stumbled across the bizarre visual accompaniment, featuring all sorts of wildlife, alongside a less-than-happy Mark Hollis.
As a form of protest against lip-syncing, the band decided to create a video which could be played as an accompaniment to just about any music track in existence.
Directed by Tim Pope, the video made use of existing material from the BBC wildlife documentary Life on Earth, as well as new footage of Hollis standing in front of animals at London Zoo.
Animated composite overlays included ‘virtual’ tape over Hollis’s mouth, as well as squiggly lines and even animated sperm. EMI insisted that a second video was made, in which the band mimed very badly, intentionally highlighting the banality of the process!
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