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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible rock n' roll alchemy,
By
This review is from: Marquee Moon (Expanded And Remastered) (Us Release) (Audio CD)
I don't know what ideas were tumbling through the minds of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd between Television's formation and the release of this masterpiece, but they somehow contrived a musical formula that sounds fresh on every listen. I first bought a copy of Marquee Moon in 1993 at the age of eighteen, and at thirty I still can't tire of hearing it. The brilliant guitar interplay, updating Quicksilver Messenger Service for the frenetic New Wave crowd, the machine-tight rhythm section, simultaneously funky and militaristic and Tom Verlaine's ghoulish whine and obtuse lyrics all conspire to keep your ears pricked up for the album's duration.Despite the stripped down instrumentation and the presence of classic rock producer Andy Johns at the helm, Marquee Moon has an amazing sense of variety between its eight tracks, entirely down to the structural inventiveness of Verlaine and co. The murky 'Torn Curtain' aside (my least favourite track on the original listing) each track possesses a searing, high-frequency quality that combines with intricate, solo-heavy guitarwork, melodic basslines and subtle variations in drumming over the various bars to keep your ears and mind active, following every note and beat without a second's fatigue. The uplifting 'Venus', a gem-like beauty and a poetic masterpiece is the only cut to feature synthesizer, but electronic musicians would do well to listen to this album as a textbook exercise in how to keep the listener turned on (I've lost count of the number of CDs I've bought only to finding myself falling asleep over ambient drones or pumping but blandly unchanging beats). The bright guitar EQ is a high watermark of engineering. The additional tracks are a varied lot but always surprising; I personally found 'Little Johnny Jewel' to be the most disappointing cut, too tentative and half-baked next to the vivid guitar flowering of the 'See No Evil' alternative take, where the instrumentation threatens to overwhelm Verlaine's vocal. The title track was always a thing of beauty and perfection and hearing a new version will always be interesting, but never enriching. My favourite added piece is the untitled thirteenth track, for some reason unlisted here. A jaunty instrumental that kicks off with crunching drumbeat underscored by hi-hat and a leaping, three note bassline leads into spare guitarwork that sounds like a dust bowl Hank Marvin jamming with Bill Haley. It's sweet and abrupt, ending as quickly as it started and it gives a tantalising taste of how compelling Television must have been as a live act. But digital remastering aside (and it really does a lot to bring out the mix), the real reason to own this CD lies in the album tracks as they were originally released. Still brainy, still funny, still mesmerising. Prepare to spend three quarters of an hour in mute wonder.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A place in every new wave heart,
This review is from: Marquee Moon (Expanded And Remastered) (Us Release) (Audio CD)
So much could have been learnt from Television, but if even Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd could never again get within a million light years of what this album achieved (not even by reforming the original line-up) there's nothing to learn. It was an album that came out of nowhere: Television had been tipped for greatness since 1974 but nothing they did before this album remotely hinted at it. There are not all that many albums that anyone ever calls their Favourite Ever. This is certainly one.Best guitar-band album ever? I've not heard anything better in the 30 years since and as for before, only maybe the best 12 Led Zep & Stones tracks ever would challenge it - and they're not on one solid single flawless album, are they. (You know, of course, that I wouldn't have mentioned Jimmy Page in 1977 without spitting, but you grow up.) Otherwise the only reference points would be Jeff Buckley's "Grace" - the guitar-heavy, Zep-ish tracks; and a few tracks on "The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads" which hint, sadly, at what Verlaine/Lloyd may have gone on to if their guitar partnership had continued to develop instead of dissolving into, well, two blokes with guitars in the same band like on "Adventure." Key moments: Venus, all of it, the most Most MOST perfect guitar song in history; the moment you nostalgically get, for the 3,000,001st time without tiring of it, that the beat of Marquee Moon isn't where you thought it was the first time you heard the intro; the recurring bit in Guiding Light where the elegiac guitar solo sounds like it's going to burst into a dual-lead Wishbone Ash thing which is an illusion caused by a couple of guitar notes in the backing but still, 30 years later, I hope...; the first four notes of the solo in Torn Curtain. I love Little Johnny Jewel, and for that matter The Blow-Up and numerous bootlegs and the so-called Eno demos and the officially-released 70s live albums. But yes, Marquee Moon is the only album anyone actually needs by Television, or needs on a desert island actually. The extra tracks are not much cop - except LJJ of course; and it will never QUITE be the same again as your precious vinyl copy with Nick Kent's review torn out of the NME in the sleeve - oh, just me? But if you haven't heard this, do. If you like any kind of rock music you're very much more than likely to love it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No 1,
By Marley's Ghost (Stafford, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Marquee Moon (Expanded And Remastered) (Us Release) (Audio CD)
The rating system on Amazon gives an option for a 5 stars review. ie 100%. But in reality only two albums warrant a 100% rating. This one and "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel. Very different albums but for each one you wouldn't change a note.People bang on about the twin guitars on this album and the guitar "solo's" but really there are 4 members of the band playing as a unit like no other band in history has managed to put on record. The strength of the album is the way the four components seem to effortlessly dance around each other. Or should I say five components, as they use the spaces inbetween with just as much expertise. The first true "Indie" record - Little Jimmy Jewel (Parts 1 & 2) - Fact Therefore the first "Indie" band - Television - Fact The greatest guitar album in history - Marquee Moon - Fact I didn't buy the original green vinyl version in 1977 as they'd just run out but a pal of mine did and it came with the bonus single of Little Jimmy Jewel. Since then I've wished I had a copy. So thanks very much to those nice people at Rhino. (Ditto for the track "Adventure" on album 2 which never did get a release.) Thanks also for the better sound on here (especially See No Evil) and the complete version of the title track that was curtailed on the original for reasons of space. Adventure is not as bad as some here make out and for me "Ain't that nothing" stands comparison.
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