From shiny ubiquity to magnificent obscurity, the story of Talk Talk is one of a band slowly awakening to and fulfilling its artistic potential. Their early singles--like the eponymous "Talk Talk" (here featured in both demo and extended versions)--were glossy, overly-emphatic, and clearly indebted to the likes of Duran Duran. But this collection can't be dismissed as mere juvenilia, simply by virtue of the rapid progress it describes: from the austere euro-pop of "Such A Shame" and "Call In The Night Boy", to the magisterial poise of "Life's What You Make It" and "Living In Another World". The final, most remarkable stage of their development, however, is unchronicled here, for the simple reason that the music they would make in that period--the sprawling, diffuse Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock--was inimical to the format of the three-minute single. A valuable document. --Andrew McGuire