‘Adventure’ was always going to get a thorough musical examination from critics, coming as it did, not long after the rapturously acclaimed ‘Marquee Moon’. But the panning it received on its release seemed grossly unfair at the time and now, well over 25 years later, downright ridiculous. Which means to say that ‘Adventure’ was, is and always will be a truly great album.
Television’s sound has admittedly become less intimately raw and involving on ‘Adventure’ but the standard of songwriting and playing is truly something to behold. Smoother production cannot hide the sheer creativity of these songs, the way instrumental passages come flying in unexpectedly, and Tom Verlaine’s singing sounds more assured. The nearest I can come to describing it is as a kind of musical theatre where each instrument has its own dramatic role, and centre-stage is Verlaine’s painterly guitar playing. Songs such as ‘Carried Away’, ‘The Fire’ and ‘The Dream’s Dream’ are highly-developed soundscapes and, to these ears, more stirring than much of ‘Marquee Moon’, while other tracks such as ‘Foxhole’ wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the first album.
So there isn’t anything quite as bruising as ‘Friction’ here, but it’s not really missed. I defy anyone to be disappointed with ‘Adventure’ and to wonder how it could have had such a lukewarm reception that the band disbanded not long after its release. ‘Adventure’ is aptly named – buy it and you’ll have one.
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I can’t believe I am writing the first amazon review of this. There ought to be about 500 prose poems praising this one to the skies up by now. Television were the most stylish and the most edgy of the bands that kicked off the New York punk scene at CBGBs in 1970s. Blondie were cuter. Talking Heads were funkier and the Ramones were err faster. But Television, in their day, could blow them all off stage. The purists might prefer Marque Moon but Adventure is a classic album which has a clear right to be on anyone’s top 100 of all time. It has hard edged geeetar stuff on Foxhole and it has the gentle touch of Carried Away — which prefigures a lot of what verlaine would do solo. Brilliant.
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This review is from: Adventure (Remastered and Expanded) (Audio CD)
The problem that this album has is that the previous release had material on it that the band had played in clubs live in front of an audience for several years and the only songs that they had left from that batch were “Glory” and “Foxhole”,the rest of the album was written in the studio.
During the 9 weeks it took to record the band used a different recording technique compared to “Marquee Moon” using layers of sound such as keyboards and backing vocals and reverb on the drums, this gave the album “Adventure” a fuller sound, the orginal 8 tracks are all here sounding superb with the sonic overhaul they have been given.
The fact that the people from “Rhino” have gone into the archive and dug up bonus tracks such as the title track, “Adventure”(unreleased until now)which is a “John Lee Hooker” influenced boogie track (very unlike the rest of the bands songs)along with other rarities such as the un-listed (yes the people at “Rhino” have made a rare mistake the sleeve only lists 11 tracks there are actually 12) “Ain’t that Nothin'” 9 minute 47 second instrumental version, which sounds like a studio jam now closes the album.
I must disagree with the general option of this album most reviews call this album dire,in truth it’s not that bad it’s just that the release before it is such a seminal album and it just didn’t come close to it…
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Second album syndrome? Not a chance.,
‘Adventure’ was always going to get a thorough musical examination from critics, coming as it did, not long after the rapturously acclaimed ‘Marquee Moon’. But the panning it received on its release seemed grossly unfair at the time and now, well over 25 years later, downright ridiculous. Which means to say that ‘Adventure’ was, is and always will be a truly great album.
Television’s sound has admittedly become less intimately raw and involving on ‘Adventure’ but the standard of songwriting and playing is truly something to behold. Smoother production cannot hide the sheer creativity of these songs, the way instrumental passages come flying in unexpectedly, and Tom Verlaine’s singing sounds more assured. The nearest I can come to describing it is as a kind of musical theatre where each instrument has its own dramatic role, and centre-stage is Verlaine’s painterly guitar playing. Songs such as ‘Carried Away’, ‘The Fire’ and ‘The Dream’s Dream’ are highly-developed soundscapes and, to these ears, more stirring than much of ‘Marquee Moon’, while other tracks such as ‘Foxhole’ wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the first album.
So there isn’t anything quite as bruising as ‘Friction’ here, but it’s not really missed. I defy anyone to be disappointed with ‘Adventure’ and to wonder how it could have had such a lukewarm reception that the band disbanded not long after its release. ‘Adventure’ is aptly named – buy it and you’ll have one.
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|a staggering work of genius,
I can’t believe I am writing the first amazon review of this. There ought to be about 500 prose poems praising this one to the skies up by now. Television were the most stylish and the most edgy of the bands that kicked off the New York punk scene at CBGBs in 1970s. Blondie were cuter. Talking Heads were funkier and the Ramones were err faster. But Television, in their day, could blow them all off stage. The purists might prefer Marque Moon but Adventure is a classic album which has a clear right to be on anyone’s top 100 of all time. It has hard edged geeetar stuff on Foxhole and it has the gentle touch of Carried Away — which prefigures a lot of what verlaine would do solo. Brilliant.
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|The follow-up to a musical landmark…,
The problem that this album has is that the previous release had material on it that the band had played in clubs live in front of an audience for several years and the only songs that they had left from that batch were “Glory” and “Foxhole”,the rest of the album was written in the studio.
During the 9 weeks it took to record the band used a different recording technique compared to “Marquee Moon” using layers of sound such as keyboards and backing vocals and reverb on the drums, this gave the album “Adventure” a fuller sound, the orginal 8 tracks are all here sounding superb with the sonic overhaul they have been given.
The fact that the people from “Rhino” have gone into the archive and dug up bonus tracks such as the title track, “Adventure”(unreleased until now)which is a “John Lee Hooker” influenced boogie track (very unlike the rest of the bands songs)along with other rarities such as the un-listed (yes the people at “Rhino” have made a rare mistake the sleeve only lists 11 tracks there are actually 12) “Ain’t that Nothin'” 9 minute 47 second instrumental version, which sounds like a studio jam now closes the album.
I must disagree with the general option of this album most reviews call this album dire,in truth it’s not that bad it’s just that the release before it is such a seminal album and it just didn’t come close to it…
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|