Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Drowned in Sound	9/10
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Mojo
NME	7/10
Q
Record Mirror
Sounds
Tiny Mix Tapes	5/5
Uncut	10/10

Spirit of Eden is the fourth album by the English band Talk Talk, released in 1988 on Parlophone records. The album found neither critical acclaim nor commercial success on release but has since become a cult favourite.

The songs were written by vocalist Mark Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene and the album was compiled from a lengthy recording process at London's Wessex Studios between 1987 and 1988. Often working in darkness, the band recorded many hours of improvised performances which were heavily edited and re-arranged into an album in mostly digital format. The songs contain elements of rock, jazz, classical and ambient music.

Critics often view Spirit of Eden as a departure from Talk Talk's earlier and more accessible albums. Compared to their 1986 hit The Colour of Spring, it was a commercial disappointment. However a plurality of critical reviews laud the album.

Talk Talk, led by singer Mark Hollis, formed in England in the early 1980s. From the start, Hollis cited jazz and classical artists like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Béla Bartók and Claude Debussy as major influences. But Talk Talk's first two albums, The Party's Over (1982) and It's My Life (1984), did not readily reflect such influences; critics compared the band to contemporary new wave groups, especially Duran Duran. Hollis partly attributes the shortcomings of their early music to a financial need to use synthesizers in place of acoustic instruments.

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Wikipedia