Song of the Week #2 – “Happiness is Easy” by Talk Talk

It’s safe to say that Christian rock has something of a bad reputation in most quarters of the Internet – from the nu-metal evangelism of P.O.D. to the post-grunge proselytising of Creed to the passable alternative rock preaching of Sixpence None the Richer, Christian rock isn’t very highly regarded by the greatest proportion of people.

The average rock listener doesn’t like the idea of being preached at through the medium of rock music, especially by an external authority they regard with scepticism and contempt. Indeed, punk rock grew out of a desire to bring rock back to its raucous roots after a decade of increasingly pretentious and preachy psychedelic and progressive rock. Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine and Matching Mole once gave his opinion that “progressive” rock was a racist term, used chiefly by white music critics to suggest that the rock and roll produced by Little Richard and Chuck Berry was in some way backwards, and needed to be “progressed” to higher artistic echelons by, surprise surprise, bands consisting of mostly-white men.

Concurrent with the development of punk rock was the development of new wave music, a branch of rock music characterised by its use of pop melodies and incorporating more danceable beats – early on, it resembled a more pop-oriented punk rock (see early Blondie), but later started to incorporate electronic sounds and disco aesthetics into its musical milieu (see Duran Duran). It was out of this boom in the early 1980s that there emerged a modestly successful synth-pop band by the unassuming name of Talk Talk.

Talk Talk were headed up by Mark Hollis, a vocalist with a distinctive voice and a talent for songwriting. Their initial releases, The Party’s Over (1982) and It’s My Life (1984) drew comparison with Duran Duran, and consisted largely of danceable synth-pop, carried for the most part by Hollis’s vocals and the instrumentation of Paul Webb and Lee Harris. It’s My Life featured the song of the same name, which was later covered in 2003 by No Doubt (yes, that’s right, folks, it’s a cover).

However, the group’s third effort, The Colour of Spring (1986) was a different beast altogether. Where the previous efforts had been electronic pop, the new release took on an altogether more baroque and “arty” sound. The synths and drum machines were still there, to be sure, but they took a back-seat to a more traditional sound. To open this album was the remarkable track “Happiness is Easy”, which not only marked a change in the band’s musical trajectory, but also takes the form of a religious exaltation that touches the soul of even the most hardened atheist.

The song opens with drums that sound electronic and robotic, which act as a bridge between Talk Talk’s first effort and their new release, before being followed by a piano chord and a quiet organ backing. Then in comes Hollis’s vocal, peppered with a couple of acoustic guitar flourishes – “Makes you feel much older / Sublime the blind parade / It wrecks me how they justify their acts / Of war, they assemble, they pray”. Clearly this album is aiming at something much more metaphysical than the previous two efforts. This album has much broader ambitions.

The pre-chorus and chorus give us an insight into what Hollis is communicating: “Take good care of what the priests say / After death, it’s so much fun / Little sheep don’t let your feet stray / Happiness is easy.” Yes, this song is imploring the listener to convert, so their soul can be saved. And one might think this is a generous interpretation of the lyrics if not for the fact this is immediately followed by a choir of children, singing “Joy be written on the Earth / And the sky above / Jesus, star that shines so bright / Gather us in love” as the organs, string section and synthesisers swell.

“Happiness is Easy” is a modern hymn, to be sure, and yet it is immensely listenable. Having been to a primary school in England in the days when daily hymns and prayer were still the norm, I can recall how utterly dull I found singing hymns and prayer to be, which was likely part of the reason I followed in my father’s footsteps in becoming an avowed atheist in my teenage years (a position I still hold – albeit far less militantly – today). Yet this is a hymn I can get behind. It is an honest and truthful expression of faith from someone who genuinely believes in religious salvation and in the possibility of Heaven.

I have been trying to work out why I like this song that is so at odds with my personal worldview when I have myself, for the most part, written off the vast majority of Christian rock as almost universally boring and preachy. I think in the case of “Happiness is Easy”, it is because it is not trying to be anything – it is not trying to compete with anything like, say, Creed, P.O.D. or Relient K, all bands that hopped on the bandwagon of post-grunge, nu-metal and pop-punk, respectively, instead of doing something original. Quite a lot of Christian rock feels like it is trying to play catch-up to more “sinful” forms of rock music that have swearing and references to sex, violence and drugs.

“Happiness is Easy” is not trying to ape the aesthetics of other artists, it is its own beast. It can be called a hymn, for sure, but it is also an original piece of work, helped by the strength of the composition and songwriting. The prechorus and chorus are infectiously catchy and the swelling instrumentation is so utterly beautiful that it almost induces a spiritual experience unto itself. It is an insight into a worldview that I do not necessarily share, but that I feel, after listening to the song, I can completely understand. This song is blue skies and sunshine, it is the ocean and it is vast forests – it feels like I am getting a sneak preview of Heaven with each successive listen.

Is “Happiness is Easy” Christian rock? It’s hard to say – it’s certainly Christian, and it’s certainly rock, but is it Christian rock? I suppose that’s up for the listener to decide – do you classify Christian rock as rock that is Christian, or do you classify Christian rock as corporate-sponsored rock music with a Christian bent that plays catch-up to other, more successful bands?

Talk Talk would, in their last two albums, Spirit of Eden (1988) and Laughing Stock (1991) continue to experiment – their lyricism growing ever more esoteric and their track-lengths growing exponentially in size. This is not to say that these two albums are not good – they are masterpieces in their own right, and almost single-handedly created the genre of post-rock – but The Colour of Spring is the album which bridges between Talk Talk’s synth-pop roots and their culmination in post-rock. It is for this reason that I consider The Colour of Spring to be Talk Talk’s strongest album, and “Happiness is Easy” to be, without a doubt, Talk Talk’s greatest song: It sits neatly between the band’s two phases, with music that is still recognisable as conventional rock and pop, while also veering a little into artistic experimentation – which is more than can be said for Duran Duran, I’ll say.