It's My Life (album)


It's My Life is the second studio album by English band Talk Talk, released in 1984.

Recording

's bass player, Phil Spalding made an uncredited appearance on the album, substituting for Paul Webb on "The Last Time" – "Paul was exclusively a fretless bass player and they needed a fretted bass on this particular track." Spalding admits to having played the whole session while disastrously hung-over, and that – foreshadowing the approach Talk Talk would take on subsequent recordings - Tim Friese-Greene and Mark Hollis insisted that he record a whole afternoon and evening of multiple takes, despite the simplicity of the part. Ian Curnow adds "we always had to go all around the houses to get next door, just in case there was anything that turned up on the other side."

Cover

The cover to the album was produced by James Marsh, incorporating elements of The Boyhood of Raleigh by John Everett Millais.

Release

It's My Life was released in February 1984 by record label EMI.
It's My Life was a top 5 hit album in several European countries, thanks to the big international success of its singles, and was particularly successful in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany where the album peak-charted at numbers 2, 3 and 4, respectively. In the Netherlands, the album stayed in the charts for 64 weeks between 1984 and 1986. It also reached number 35 in the UK albums chart. In the United States, the album just missed the top 40, reaching number 42.
In 2000 it was voted number 872 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.

Track listing

Personnel

;Talk Talk
;Additional personnel

Certifications