Spirit of Eden - Legacy

Legacy

Some music critics consider Spirit of Eden and its 1991 follow-up Laughing Stock influential to post-rock, a music genre that developed in Britain and North America in the 1990s. In a review of Bark Psychosis' album Hex, where the term "post-rock" was coined, Simon Reynolds opined that Hex aspires to the "baroque grandeur" of Spirit of Eden. Andy Whitman of Paste magazine argues that Spirit of Eden represents the beginning of post-rock: "The telltale marks of the genre—textured guitars, glacial tempos, an emphasis on dynamics, electronica, ambience and minimalism—were all in place, and paved the way for bands like Sigur Rós, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Low and latter-period Radiohead." Simon Harper of the Birmingham Post adds, "Certainly, their combination of jazz, classical, rock and the spacey echoes of dub, using silence almost as an instrument in its own right, lends itself to the vernacular of post-rock, and there can be little argument that Tortoise and their Chicago-based compatriots would hardly sound the same were it not for the staggering achievements of Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene." Music historian Piero Scaruffi believes that with Spirit of Eden, Talk Talk "invented a new form of music, one in which a complex atmosphere is created out of slow, inorganic, inarticulate streams of simple sounds. The six lengthy, free-form, brooding and cataleptic ruminations pioneered 'slo-core'." Numerous bands and artists, ranging from Catherine Wheel to Sarah McLachlan, to Matthew Good, Graham Coxon, Doves and Elbow, have praised Spirit of Eden or have cited it as an influence in their own music. Indie folk group Bon Iver covered "I Believe in You" during a 2008 show in Dublin and Edinburgh.