Random album review #4 - Adventure (a follow-up review to Marquee Moon)

There's a moment in the film version of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas that always makes me laugh. Thompson and Gonzo are flying down an empty highway, being chased by the police. They put the (left?) blinker on for a few minutes ... waiting ... waiting.... and then they turn the other way (right?). Its expected in that nobody would ever put their blinker when being chased by the police and acttually turn that way, but its unexpected in that the entire sequence is completely insane.

Television's second album, Adventure (released in 1978), feels like that to me. The first album lays out a clear trajectory, a clear and distinct sound, sonic bliss through guitar interplay... the second album shatters every expectation in good and bad ways. Its a the sudden and "unexpected" turn that you've been expecting... its just not the direction anyone saw coming... though they should have.

The album gets knocked for glossy production. Eh, that's not the problem. There's definately more revberb to the drums and more layering due to the keys and the simplicity of the song structures in comparison to the previous album is striking, but the guitar work is far from simple: its complicated in the exact same way the first album was, but there's something off about the entire enterprise if you are looking for a follow-up to Marquee Moon.

Glory (3:11)
Days (3:14)
Foxhole (4:49)
Careful (3:19)
Carried Away (5:14)
The Fire (5:57)
Ain't That Nothin' (4:53)
The Dream's Dream (6:45)

The album begins with Glory. This song doesn't sound like the same band that did Marquee Moon less than a year earlier. The song begins like some simple riffer tinged with repetive lyrics and ultra clean sound. It grows on you, not just with each successive listen, but as the song itself progresses. The guitars revel in the fact that you can barely discern the intricacies that are constantly thrown about. Great tune.

Days is gorgeous. Probably the single most accessible Television tune, this is a song that anyone would like to see their favorite band cover at any time. Its just wonderul. The song is all picking rhythm, even the solos just blend out of the main riff and back in again. Great tune.

Foxhole is sick. It centers around a very Stonesy main riff, big and bold and in stark relief to the beauty of Days. This is another guitar song. It, like Glory, is repetitive but just gets more and more interesting every second. Absolutely astounding solos just past the midpoint. The band goes into a bridge section and then just breaks into an entirely different groove for about 30 second. The song glides effortlessly back into the main riff again and continues back and forth with wild solos and lyric sections. Great tune.

The band seems to be channelling some combination of the Beatles and a TV commercial on Careful. The tune bounces too much, its too happy, its too carefree, and again, its totally disengaged from the songs it follows which, honestly, is really disconcerting. The guitar work of course is beyond flawless. Midway through the song the gorgeous solo brings it all home... and then like a puff of wind its gone. Great tune.

Carried Away feels like Days mellow little brother but with an Island twist. Keys on a Televsion song??? Marvelous. There is a certain sparsness to this band which is brought out nicely in this song. Verlaine's got a weird voice, but you can't immagine anyone else singing over these tunes. Their too clean, too strange, and his wacky way of singing really does do it. The guitar work on this song is delicate, very delicate. There's something ironic in the fact that nobody gets carried away on this tune which could easily have featured endless soloing and balladeering. Great tune.

The Fire is hard to pin down. Its super slow. Its incessant. Its kind of scary. This is the type of song that would make for a terrible song in a movie because you'd get none of the effect and its not a sound byte song, but a whole that can't be taken into parts, but imagine if you were walking through a burning house in slow motion... this is the sountrack for that moment in time. Not a fun song, but another great tune.

Ain't That Nothin' was the "hit" off this album. It like the other songs seems to have little or no associationg with anything else on the album. Another big riffer that just keeps building and building and building. The guitarwork just flows and flows. Oh one last thing, the jam at the end of the song is one of the coolest moments in jam history. Great tune.

The album concludes with The Dream's Dream. I think this is the coolest track (not necessarily the best, but definately the coolest) on the album. It was originally an instrumental dubbed Cairo and was supposedly supposed to recreate the feeling a Westerner would have had 100 years ago walking around Cairo. That's exactly right. What an odd concept, but its great. The song has a very sort of mid-east jammy feel to it - to the ears of a Westerner no less. Great tune.
Verlain's lyrics are obvious at times and at other times quite wrapped up in poetic mumblings. "The elevator called me up, she said you better start making sense"... what does that mean? It works wonders with the style of the music though. Its simple and completely intricate at the same time throughout, beginning with the song structures, but all through the individual instrument tracks, solos, lyrics, etc.

So what's wrong with Adventure? Nothing. All of the songs are great, but there is a huge disconnect factor from song to song and especially from Marquee Moon. The songs, the guitars, everything is there, but each song has a totally different sound. The effect is planned chaos. If that's your thing - and you dug Marquee Moon, this is a great album. Oh and the guitars are so good.