Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a staggering work of genius, 17 Aug 2001
By A Customer
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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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second album syndrome? Not a chance., 18 Jan 2006
'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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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but should have been better, 23 Mar 2003
Television's follow-up to the astounding and hugely influential classic Marquee Moon, this was hastily-recorded and as a result suffered in comparison. It was released too soon after Marquee Moon and consequently, critics still reeling from Marquee Moon's brilliance gave it a panning. But with the opportunity to look at this album from a fresh viewpoint, it quickly becomes clear that it is actually a fine work itself. Of course, it isn't as good as Marquee Moon (hardly anything is), but it's a different kind of album. Where Marquee Moon was angular and more than a little funky, this is smooth and laid-back, with Marquee Moon's Torn Curtain and Guiding Light seemingly providing the blueprint for several of its songs. All the Television hallmarks are there - Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd's virtuoso guitar teamwork, Verlaine's strangulated vocals, and Billy Ficca and Fred Smith's tighter-than-tight rhythm section. However where it falls slightly is that whereas every single track on Marquee Moon could be considered a standout, here, the only real standouts are Foxhole, with its slightly Stones-y stylings, and The Dream's Dream, the beautiful, almost psychedelic closer. While none of the tracks are any less than good, the majority of them fall short of true excellence, and it is clear that if they had taken longer over the album rather than rushing it out, they could have equalled, and perhaps even bettered Marquee Moon.
This is, though, not to detract from Adventure, which is still a very good album, and a better one than many bands could ever hope to produce. But if you're new to Television, Marquee Moon is still the starting point.
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