One listen.

I planned on doing writing about this song a while ago and ended up putting it to the side. I think my feeling on it was that it was too much of a song or something, as though that’s ever a good reason to not write about music. Essentially it didn’t feel right at the time. I’ve been going through the drafts I need to wrap up before I wrap this blog up and came across the draft I saved so I could start writing about the song. Decided to give it a go.

I don’t think I did the best job I could have. Some of the song’s atmosphere came through, but I feel like I could have said more about the flow and progression.

Talk Talk’s “Time It’s Time” is from The Colour of Spring.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Keys make a gentle statement, and it’s not long before other instruments come in and play gentle, but excited, almost. Seemingly walking out and walking forward, or waking up to something that looks at tomorrow. Vocals drift in soon, rise and fall but remain fairly low. Clear in words, and indistinct at the same time.

The melody shifts to something a bit louder and a bit more tense. A bit more dramatic, raising something, and the vocals rise to suit. Another shift, less “flow” but still flowing. There’s more space as sounds come in and create new frame. Almost staggered, sharp, but still smoothed around. And soon they start clearing, or at least start to spread out and clutter less.

Back to the main pattern, back to calm, back to a more obvious flowing feel, but it doesn’t last long and the sounds return to a greater drama. A more overt drama. And then more space. It is cluttering, but it doesn’t feel cluttering. It feels spaced. It’s cluttered at a distance, at a particular point. And once more things spread out more. It’s as though the additional voices in this section seem to just be moved away in lines, but they remain calm and they gather again before disappearing, and something a little more loosely tight comes in, and harmonica drifts over, relaxed, and it comes to a stop.

The sounds build their drama again, and once more back to the chorus. The cluttering. The gathering. A gathering of choral voices in a chorus, and they seem to shrink before becoming more lively than they were before. And everything keeps moving and voices disappear, and there’s something here that now feels revealing. Energetic, calm, and voices are gone, and this is the climax and plays pretty and beautiful. Big and small, and there’s some words here and there, in the calm, in the quiet, in this joyous moment of the mundane, and it’s fantastic. It’s fantastic and wonderful, and so small and accepting, and walking forward with a smile, and gradually everything fades out and the song ends.