(TV) Christgau on Television

["Brian Young" <raggedglory57@hotmail.com>]

Hi all-

I know these are probably posted somewhere, but I hadn't read them:

TELEVISION: Marquee Moon (Elektra) I know why people complain about Tom 
Verlaine's angst-ridden voice, but fuck that, I haven't had such intense 
pleasure from a new release since I got into Layla three months after it 
came out, and this took about fifteen seconds. The lyrics, which are in a 
demotic-philosophical mode ("I was listening/listening to the rain/I was 
hearing/hearing something else"), would carry this record alone; so would 
the guitar playing, as lyrical and piercing as Clapton or Garcia but totally 
unlike either. Yes, you bet it rocks. And no, I didn't believe they'd be 
able to do it on record because I thought this band's excitement was all in 
the live raveups. Turns out that's about a third of it. A PLUS

TELEVISION: Adventure (Elektra) Those scandalized by Marquee Moon's wimpoid 
tendencies are gonna try to read this one out of the movement. I agree that 
it's not as urgent, or as satisfying, but that's only to say that Marquee 
Moon was a great album while Adventure is a very good one. The difference is 
more a function of material than of the new album's relatively clean, calm, 
reflective mood. The lyrics on Marquee Moon were shot through with visionary 
surprises that never let up. These are comparatively songlike, their apercus 
concentrated in hook lines that are surrounded by more quotidian stuff. The 
first side is funnier, faster, more accessible, but the second side gets 
there--the guitar on "The Fire" is Verlaine's most gorgeous ever. A MINUS






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