Re: (TV) My Review (from memory) of New Cds r / RE: We Need More MM Lister s' Reviews!

[amilcar amarante <amilcaramarante2002@yahoo.com.ar>]

uh,leo ,you are being hard on the man , i agree with "a parade .." sounding out of place with the other songs , i love the melodies and the leslie guitar bits ,but the rythmn and general sound is a little dated ..."documentary " is complete genius for me , the review on LA Weekly pointed the aura of madness in the song ... "the day on you "doesnt sound so much superior to the rest of the album ,i love it anyway ,and "all weirded out " is so fun and rocking ,cmon! , in a whole it seems to me like he was really focused on this ...
  and i like "around" but like to hear a more composed instro album from him ,and also more collaborative records with other musicians ,like this guys ,television ...

"Casey, Leo J" <Leo.J.Casey@Volpe.dot.gov> escribis:
  Amilcar wrote:
>leo, you send a complete review ? ,maybe i missed it , 
>looking forward to listers opinions ...

Not only am I not a R. Thompson fan, I'm also a ffffin' 
hypocrite. I had only written a very short review to the 
List about a week before the cds were officially released. 

So here's some thoughts. 

"Songs and Other Things": I'm mildly disappointed. 
Depending on the day of the week, I either give it 
a B- or a B ---although the more I listen to it, its 
grade goes up a notch, somewhere between B to B+ .

IMHO, the first track, "A Parade In Littleton" is the 
worst first-track to ever appear on a Verlaine album with 
the exception of 1982's WFTF's "Present Arrived". My 
April Fools joke about TV being sued contained an element 
of truth: "A Parade In Littleton" sounds like a circa-1980 
Olivia Newton-John backing-track, or maybe good 
elevator/supermarket Music [I know, the latter is an 
oxymoron]. C-

"Heavenly Charms" is inferior to the song with the same 
name and structure from TV's 2001 Benefit show. Here it 
sounds silly, and the vocals' attempt at desire or passion 
rings false. 
C- to C 

On "Orbit", his voice is [dare I say it?] smoky, and it fits 
nicely with the song's storyline. His vocal is a lot like 
Iggy Pop's 19790[?] album, 'New Values'. But the his playing 
tries too hard to make sound baleful, and his pseudo-sinister 
organ riff sounds like something from a 1950's scary 
kiddie-show. I usually love his keyboard playing on all his 
records but here it sounds trite. B-

I'm writing this at work from memory, and I can't remember 
much about "Blue Light", which is ordinarily not a good 
sign. If it's the song I'm thinking of, it's beautiful, tinged 
with regret---almost mournful [Doesn't he sing a line that 
goes "I remember ..." ??] B 

"From Her Fingers" is a wall of driving guitars--hefty 
and ponderous, but the lyrics are lightweight---the 
refrain of: "Fa, Fa, Fa, Fa, Fa / Bring a 
dream girl ... ... to me"; otherwise it would be perfect. 
It's quite danceable, and it will be Tom's first 
million-selling single. A-

"Nice Actress" doesn't work--it leaves me cold. If it
weren't for The word 'fuck' it wouldn't have even been 
recorded. [Although Ms. Secret X said that it's a song 
about a real but bit-part actor, who Tom had once met.] C

"A Stroll" is another song I can't remember too much 
about. It's simple and stark [??]. B-

In "The Earth Is In The Sky", Verlaine takes a perfect 
song and almost ruins its whole mood and grandeur his 
guitar has worked so hard to achieve----by inserting a 
spoken-part that silly, not believable, too long, and 
makes me cringe every time I hear it 
"Valerie, I know I've ..."). A-

"Peace Piece" is a nice acoustic instrumental. A- 

"Lovebird Asylum Seeker" is tender and beautiful--except 
for its opening little monologue, 'Hi baby. It's just 
me ...'). Whereas his monologue on "Swim" worked for 
me, here it just sounds fake. A-

I think "The Day On You" is one of Tom's best songs 
ever (in my all-time top 10). A++. 

The song is an exaltation. In the beginning and 
mid-parts, the guitar(s) produces a stately, majestic 
mood as if we're walking through an ancient cathedral. 

Then the playing evokes sexual fervor (but in an almost 
sacred sense), and finally, the slide-work intensifies 
and then releases the sexual tension. It's transcendent. 
It's about the unknowable---something greater than 
Humankind, " ... a beauty cold and austere, without 
appeal to any part of our weaker nature,... yet sublimely 
pure, and capable of a stern perfection ..." (B.R.)

I get goose-bumps every time I play it. 

But IMHO, despite some of the songs above that are 
gems, most of the others on the cd drag down the 
final average grade for "Songs and Other Things". 

Their melodies are simple---unfortunately, simple in 
an uninteresting and overly familiar way. They're not 
'familiar' to other Verlaine album melodies--although 
"The Earth Is In The Sky" is a direct descendant of 
1987's "At 4 AM"---but from other commonplace artists. 
There's a song with a bass line and rhythm that a 
direct cop of a 1950's song (maybe it's "Duke of 
Earl"[??]). 

Although the rest of the songs have some nice little 
guitar fills, the songs' basic melodies are 
unimaginative. I even hear guitar melodies 
that " ... have been the billionth generation of 
some riff in a Top 40 song." (T.V.)

On the new cd Verlaine tries to sing with an 
intonation to assume the verbal persona of the male 
fictional character in each of the songs---similar 
to what he did on Flash Light's "The Scientist 
Writes A Letter"', or "'At 4am". 

The result on Songs and Other Things" is sometimes 
painful to listen to. It has some of his worst 
vocal-ideas ever (although I wasn't too happy with 
his unctuous [inadvertent I'm sure] vocals on most 
of "The Wonder"). 

I can't place the song "Documentary" except that I 
recall that someone on the List said it was their 
current favorite. (No grade yet.)

On "All Weirded Out" Verlaine had a chance to go 
crazy and get Real bizzaro as he does on his covers 
of "Psychotic Reaction". He wrote "All Weirded Out" 
in the early 80s, and there exists a live 1996 version 
with Jimmy Ripp on guitar, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums 
and, Tony Shanahan of The Patti Smith Group on bass. 
Because Tony Shanahan appears that the studio version 
on "Songs and Other Things" [again, I'm writing this 
from memory, so please send in any corrections, or to 
tell me my grading of the songs stinks!] was most 
likely recorded around the 1996. I'd wager, TV did 
little with/to it and just slapped it on the new cd 
as it was in 1996. Yeah I realize the liner notes say 
all songs recorded in the new century, so I'll say the 
"All Weirded Out" on "Songs and Other Things" sounds 
like it was just slapped on. C+

"Shingaling" is another lightweight--kind of Tom 
Verlaine does Hip Hop, but it works. B

So, converting all my letter grades to numbers between 
1 and 10: 
10 equivalent to an A; 9 = A- ; 8 = B+; 7 = B; 6 = B- ; 
5 = C+; 4 = C; 3 = C- ; 2 = D+ ; 1 = D; 0 = D- ; 
-1 = F+ ; -2 = F; -150 = F-; 
And A++ = 1,000!, and A+ = 11, 
I get an average grade for "Songs and Other Things" 
of 7 to 7.5.

Or taking the geometric mean, I get 7.513044. :>)

(Maybe my expectations and standards for TV could be 
unrealistically high.) 

PS: I like "Around" very much. A
--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"


		
---------------------------------
 Esa persona especial te espera en Yahoo! Encuentros 
!Dejate encontrar! 
Descubrilo aqum
--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"