A-Side: Today
B-Side: It’s So Serious
Record label: EMI 5314
Mixed by: Mike Robinson
Released: 21/06/82
Purchased: 17/07/82
The nearly men of synth pop take a huge lump out of the well-loved Original Mirrors with an inconsequential piece of atmosphere and no song. I’m sure they’ll have a nice video though. (Record Mirror, 03/07/82)
Above and beyond all else, it seems, Talk Talk desire to be taken seriously, and feel they haven’t been, at least by the press so far. However, with a Top 20 hit under their belts at the tender age of six months (vinyl-ly speaking) the importance of that particular parameter of credibility must be decreasing.
Today hit
‘Today’ charted in the UK purely on its strength as a song. The band had no image, visually or personality-wise, to precede them, and any preconceptions about their music which might have been engendered by the dubious Duran Duran comparisons cannot have worked seriously against them. (Sounds, 30/10/82)
Talk Talk attempt to redeem themselves after two successive single flops by a change of producer, Mike Robinson replacing Colin Thurston, and a change of heart from heavy-handed tub-thumping to a more airy, almost secular feel.
As a result, they at least sound a little less like a surrogate Duran Duran (perish the thought!) and more like themselves.
Their last 45 “Talk Talk” would probably have been a hit were the band not so hopelessly faceless. As it is, “Today” stands an even chance, if only for Mark Hollis‘s distinctive, dreamy vocal delivery. Wispy synthpop meets candyfloss psychedelia. (NME, 10/07/82)
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