It's My Life (album)

It's My Life is the second studio album by English band Talk Talk, released on 13 February 1984.

Recording
Mike Oldfield'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 (notably "Such a Shame"), 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.

In 2021, Rhino Entertainment re-released the album on limited edition purple vinyl.

Personnel

 * Talk Talk
 * Mark Hollis – lead vocals and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
 * Paul Webb – fretless bass (except on "The Last Time"), backing vocals
 * Lee Harris – electronic drums
 * Additional personnel
 * Tim Friese-Greene – synthesizers, piano, programming and drum machine
 * Ian Curnow – keyboards
 * Phil Ramocon – piano
 * Robbie McIntosh – guitars
 * Morris Pert – percussion
 * Henry Lowther – trumpet on "Renée" and "Tomorrow Started"
 * Phil Spalding (uncredited) – bass guitar on "The Last Time"