Album of the week : Television - Adventure
For as many words that have been directed at their earth shattering debut (for good reason!), Television’s second LP has gotten an almost equal amount of short shrift. True, it doesn’t have anything as majestic as ‘Marquee Moon’ or ‘Venus’, (to be fair, what else does?) but, it could be argued that Adventure predicted the sound of one facet of the guitar based music of the 80s even more than Marquee Moon. The jangling, conversation- like guitar sound on ‘Days’ is practically a picture perfect blueprint for the early R.E.M sound!
It’s never easy to follow up an album that has ranked very high in the eyes of critics since its release; add in the specter known as the ‘difficult second album’. I’ll defend and praise this one at any opportunity. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd continued one of the most magical guitar duos of all time, Billy Ficca and Fred Smith continued to be a flawless rhythm section, and the songs remained powerful and inspiring.
Typical criticism of this album focuses on this album being musically less angular and with less lyrical creativity than Marquee Moon. To me, it’s simply a different, more subtle side of their brilliance. The anti-war, guitar blowout ‘Foxhole’ is as strong as anything in their catalog, capping off with a Verlaine solo that’s nuclear in its intensity. Opening track ‘Glory’ is a subtle, catchy, downright exquisite piece of accessible songwriting, and ‘Ain’t That Nothin’ achieves the same vibe on side 2. ‘Carried Away’ is majestic and ethereal, full of impressionistic, unexpected chord changes and melodic beauty. I also appreciate how Richard Lloyd has more backing vocals on this album than MM. Speaking of Richard Lloyd, the way he plays the guitar fills and solo on ‘This Fire’ burn with an intensity that matches the song title, and plays another of his finest solos on ‘Ain’t That Nothin’. The freaky theremin is another memorable touch, and males the song feel like ‘Good Vibrations’ played at half speed.
The album floats off into the ozone with the closing track, ‘The Dream’s Dream’. This song predicts the direction Tom Verlaine would take on his own; while he continued to create gorgeous music, it never quite reached the level of satisfaction that the three albums and one debut single from Television achieved.
As I listen this time around more closely than ever before, I’m finding Adventure to hit the same serotonin spots in my brain as Marquee Moon; essentially music that seems to come from the cosmos and I don’t fully understand how mere mortals could create music as unique and mind expanding as this.