Customer Reviews

Adventure (Dig)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Adventure has never gotten the respect of Marque Moon. Perhaps its because it builds on the model of the first album and the songwriting is a bit more refined and polished. The British press have reassessed Adventure and decided it was superior album to the debut. They're very different albums but then again, who am I to argue with the Brits?

Verlaine's singing is more confident and less self-conscious and the playing show the band in synch. Lloyd and Verlaine's guitar interplay is every bit as inventive as the debut. Adventure is the result of a band playing together over a longer period of time and a songwriter finding the best voice for his band to express themselves.

Adventure is fleshed out with the title track, Ain't That Nothing (both the single and the rehearsal) and an early version of Glory. All these tracks (with the exception of the single version of Ain't That Nothing)are interesting to contrast with the more complete final versions. It's like watching a great master paint. While you get an idea of what the final painting will look like, you don't get the complete picture until the paint has finally dried.

I had originally picked up Marquee Moon and couldn't stop listening to it. My thirst for more Television music brought me to Adventure which seems to be black or white to most fans.
Love it, or hate it. Not much middle ground here.
I was disappointed upon first listen because its not MM part II. The production is different. The guitars on MM are more in-your-face but on Adventure they are more refined, brought into the mix more. It took me a little while to digest. I kept spinning it and started to really get into it.
On Adventure the songs that really struck a cord with me were the softer entries "Days, Careful, Carried Away." The passion that pushes MM to such great heights is here in a song like "The Fire." The epic song is again presented in "The Dream's Dream." "Glory" is an infectious feel good pop song and "Ain't that Nothin'" is a hook laden gem with a really satisfying guitar riff coming out of the solo.
Another thing to consider when listening to this record is where MM had the benefit of having the songs fully fleshed out live before the album was recorded, Adventure was made up of mostly brand new, untested material. Some of which was written in the studio.
I would put Adventure on even footing with Marquee Moon. If you really loved MM and are interested in checking this out, give it more than a few spins in your CD player. Some of the best and most enduring music doesn't hit you the first time you hear it but grows on you over time.

. . . but an honest one. I got MARQUEE MOON back in the late 80s and went crazy over it. It's truly one of the greatest guitar albums ever and still trips me out to this day. I had heard ADVENTURE was good too, but when I finally picked it up I was sorely disillusioned. True, making an album after MARQUEE MOON must have been a daunting challenge, but ADVENTURE doesn't turn me on much. It really lacks the power and excitment and strangeness of their enduring masterpiece. ADVENTURE reaches none of the majestic heights found on MARQUEE MOON. I simply see no reason to ever listen to ADVENTURE when I can just put on MARQUEE MOON again.

If you're craving more Television and just about worn out your MM copy, I'd much sooner get THE BLOW-UP, especially for their sprawling live version of "Little Johnny Jewel." Incidently, the MM re-release with that original single added on is well worth getting. Their '92 comeback album is sadly unimpressive as well. Sorry die-hards, it's my honest opinion.

Television's "Adventure" is an interesting and surprising second, and final effort. This album is prettier, and less confrontational than "Marquee Moon". That album screamed to be either loved or hated, but this cries for approval. Tom Verlaine keeps the songs a little shorter and even allows a co-write (guitarist Richard Lloyd on "Days"). Also, many of the jagged rhythmic figures and precisice syncopation is lost in favor of seventies rock approved power-chords, pentatonic rhythm guitar and country flourishes. This is, however, no standard rock record. It retains the arty compostition and interesting orchestration, but in a more mainstream context. "Glory" is upbeat, and strangly optimistic, while "Days" is a superb riffy ballad. "Foxhole" is a brillaint anti-war rant with a lively rock beat. "Careful" and "Ain't That Nothin'" are decent songs that are lessened in impact by their formulaic sound and standard choruses. "Carried Away" adds organ to the mix, and delivers an outstanding but creepy ballad that stays with you, and "That Fire" adds theremin and a slow groovy bassline to Television's guitar attack. The album closer "The Dream's Dream" has about six lines of almost non-sense lyrics, but is kept interesting through almost seven minutes with first rate, creepy, orchestration. This album, although more ornatly produced and upbeat than "Marquee Moon", posseses an understated quality and an innate sadness that hits after several listens. Overall, while not as great as "Marquee Moon", still deserves to be a classic, and worthy of purchase.

Between the release of Television's acclaimed 1977 debut, Marquee Moon and the recording of their second album, 1978's Adventure, the New York punk rock scene, which they helped to found, had branched into a full-fledged movement. Bands on both sides of the Atlantic were taking pride in their youthful angst, limiting their music to three chords and calling for the fall of corporate pop culture and pretentious dinosaur bands. Television never intended to be part of a movement, though and the sharp contrast between their clean-cut, electric cohesion and the speedy, jagged-edged sound of many of their contemporaries exemplified that. New York's punk rock circuit was merely a way for the band to expose their uncorporate-ized, unique sound and Adventure stays true to that mission, ignoring the day's punk rock hoopla and featuring another set of distinct, finely tweaked songs. They did their fare share of the bouncy rock and roll ("Glory," "Careful" "Ain't That Nothin?") that was common to their peergroup, but Television also showed that young, hip rockbands were still interested in quiet reflection with "The Dream's Dream" and the achingly beautiful "Days," and that were they dispassionate about musicianship. The finely unified electric streams that are Television's arrangements are breathtaking. Listen to the multi-layered guitar drama of "The Fire" or the shimmering beauty of "Carried Away" for examples. It would be a shame if Television's flawless cohesion, astonishing for a band who have only played together for three years, were to be lost in an attempt to fit in with the nihilistic, musical ruggedness that punk rock strongly promoted. Hey, revolution is great, but so is the time-honored tradition of unique, substancial, finely-crafted rock music. Thank, you, Television for some of the finest of the day.

"Marquee Moon" is the 1977 classic debut that embodies the truism that an artist/band has a lifetime to produce the first work, and seven months to get going on the second. MM is visceral, part manifesto, part New York's best rock and roll band creating tension and release and poetic evocations of lyricist and Delaware native Tom Verlaine's adopted hometown (the dense music evokes those Mapplethorpe photos that adorn front cover and inner sleeve, yes, but also the shimmering NYCscape on the back of 1981's "Dreamtime", too - blacks and whites and greys, angles and shadows, dusted with silver, an impossibly bright toy night). "Adventure" - the title ALMOST feels ironic - perhaps intentionally aims for someting much different. This album is lyrically both more erotic, explicitly or implicitly preoccupied with relationships, and yet paradoxically less grounded - the imagery is often evocative of water, fire, air, gravity and the stuff of dreams ("Foxhole", one of only two guitar driven rockers, certainly stands out for its aggression, and its images of earth and flesh, war and sex). The lyrics are also full of frequently witty wordplay that's as earthy as much of the music is ethereal. And Allen Licht's notes notwithstanding, I can't see how anyone would find "Adventure" any more commercial than the debut. I'm happy the cover (it matters) is red (not early Stones/Patti Smith black and white) - even Richard Lloyd's jacket, zippered up (his gaze, which met the camara straight on in "Marquee's" Mapplethorpe portrait, is here averted, disappointingly - cast down), is of the same fire-engine red that frames the band photo. Funny, "Adventure" didn't "hit" me with the force of that astonishing debut back in the summer of 1978, and my response was hardly unique. Yet in this newly expanded edition, the second and final Television album (at least until fourteen years later, when the band's fine 1992 reunion album was issued by Capitol) is nearly as dazzling as the debut, notwithstanding various 'issues' that plagued the band during the period of its creation (and that contributed to its breakup)...Tom Verlaine obviously didn't want another New York Rock album to follow "Marquee Moon", however coiled and (in)tense - as he remarks in the liner notes, he was aiming for a less hurried pace, and says he envisioned various tracks and rhythms to sound "lumpy", as if the band were recording at some humid little studio down South in 110 degree weather, sweating and "sloppin'" through the material (I bet that's just what Green Day axed for when they cut their breakthrough, too!); and certainly the opening song, "Glory" captures this less urgent(indeed, "lumpy") feel nicely, until you fix on the hypnotic buzz just beneath the surface. Next up, "Days", with Lloyd's exquisite Byrdsian (5D) guitar and Verlaine's 'pastoral' lyrics, floats by like a dream. "Foxhole" explodes with energy: boldly sexy, funny, and somehow a gritty antiwar song bundled into one - the band rocks and the guitars sting and slash and caress, like "Elevation" one more once. "Careful" may suggest the Ramones' "I Don't Care" thematically, but the words are more nuanced, the music jauntier, more playful. Then the first of Verlaine's longer songs that indicate a greater interest in keyboards and creating textures and moods outside of the two guitar format, "Carried Away", a seductive beauty whose pianos and guitars chime and echo out of the speakers. "Carried Away", which closed the original album's first side, also features a brief watercolor organ solo. The meticulously crafted sound and relaxed rhythms evoke waves against rocks, and the lyrics' water imagery offer a suggestion that its narrator is letting go as "the old ropes grow slack." It's a lovely and slowly paced - yet compelling - piece you'll be carried away by. On the other side, "The Fire's" music is just as appropriate to its title, with "jacknkife" guitar slashing through a dramatic and unnerving narrative that achieves in a truly fresh and original manner what "Torn Curtain" from "Marquee Moon" couldn't, quite. "Ain't That Nothin'" is crunching Stones rock and roll with one of Lloyd's brilliantly planned and executed solos, and like many of "Adventure's" tracks it seems to fade too soon. The original album closed with a long, moody, exotic, dreamy track Verlaine had first titled "Cairo" (as imagined by one who'd never been there, certainly not in 1880), its slow buildup, single sung verse, keyboards, guitar effects, and watergongs closing the original proceedings with aural evocations of the unconcious, the ebb and flow of sleep and water and a Blakean/Paul Bowlesian lyric ("the dream dreams the dreamer...").... Slow fade to black, then - with this new expanded edition - we're back.
"Adventure", when first released, clocked in at under forty minutes, and just like the charged/electric/forward motion of MM, this mysterious and haunting work was over way too fast...An underrated followup to an epochal deput, it holds up better than some fans might have been expected a quarter century ago. Imperfect, sometimes eccentric, with the understated (even uninviting, at first listen) sound mix of a "Goats Head Soup", with hindsight it all seems quite deliberately paced, including the performances - yet these songs are of a piece (and the piece is "Adventure"). And the musicianship - Verlaine's guitars and keyboards creating a broader range of mood and effect, Lloyd's angry and incandescent axe mastery, Fred Smith's supportive, melodic, supple basslines and Billy Ficca's inventive and masterfully controlled drumming, are collectively, truly the work of a great band working together most of the time (you do sense even when Verlaine takes a left turn, we usually ends up somewhere strange and intoxicating as well). God I wish there were more Television records! Verlaine and Lloyd are together unstoppable, the pair creating a 'third mind' when working as one...Should you have "Adventure" already on vinyl, or the first edition CD, it's time to get it again, for now there's plenty more to entice and enlighten even if you 'know' the album intimately. First we get the title track that never was, "Adventure," a nearly six minute outtake that rocks like the Stones with John Lee Hooker when they performed "Boogie Chillen" together a few years ago; Lloyd emerging again as a brilliant rock 'n roller, and Verlaine pushing the band forward until the swing and raunch of the guitars is (at first, barely perceptably) displaced by a calming piano that takes over as lead instrument by song's end. Definitely a keeper, even if it didn't fit the mood of the original album. The single mix of "Ain't That Nothing" is next, and this mono mix is different, more dirty, dense and intense (maybe not better, but I love it) than the album take. An alternate "Glory" is somewhat longer than the officially released version, with more guitars (Lloyd's especially) and different lyrics - a nifty contrast to the album take. Finally, I only wish the dazzling, wild, pedal to the floor instrumental version of "Aint That Nothin'" that closes the set wasn't tape spliced (a la "Rice Pudding" or "I Want You (She's So Heave") after a mere ten minutes - a Stonesier, more linear "Johnny Jewel"? - well, maybe not, but another great, long Loyd/Verlaine/Television opus to add to the too slim catalog.
The package, which is a digipak that evokes and expands on the original LP cover, is gorgeous. Great photos too. Worth its weight in water, air, fire, gold, red, and black.

Tom Verlaine's guitar has a unique voice. Either you love it - or you don't - Typically, big fans of groups like Styx, Toto, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Boston, Kansas and The Doobies... might not appreciate Verlaine's voicing and style. It's just off the radar enough to miss major classic rock radio play... you are more likely to hear Verlaine on a college radio station.

Adventure is my favorite Television album -Marquee Moon may be better - but I just like "The Fire" too much to knock this one down. The soloing is brilliant and the mood of the songs are laced with anticiaption that fully delivers.

I would especially recommend this album to a guitarist who is searching for a unique and brilliant sound.

If you do not like this music, it is strongly recommended that you buy a buick, grow a horrible mustache and start selling Amway products.

I like this more than Marque Moon b/c this is a bit more commercial and accessible. I love "Glory" which is their most mainstream song. I also enjoy "The Dream's Dream" which has gorgeous guitar solos throughout and a very dramatic closing solo.

I think "Marque Moon" is over rated and "Adventure" is hugely under rated

When this album came out in the late seventies the critics said it didn't hold a candle to their debut album Marquee Moon. Over time its reputation grew until it was finally recognised for what it is- a work of near brilliance. It doesn't have the hard edge of MM, but that is where its appeal lies- the hard edges have been smoothed out and replaced with a dreamy, surreal quality that acheives moments of greatness- check out "Carried Away", one of the few keyboard-based Television songs, and especially the final track "The Dream's Dream"- the interplay of guitar work between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd has never been better than on this track. One of the best late seventies albums, no question.

Punk was a genre cultivated on the principles of do it yourself sloppiness that under ideal conditions could breed a sound free of all commercial aloofness and flowing with unbridled passion. Unfortunately, while this harsh anti-commercial mentality did result in a number of the century's greatest musical acts (ie: The MC5, The Stooges, The Velvet Underground), it also virtually ignored a huge back catalogue of talented musicians simply because their motives didn't fit the strict punk criteria. The most disappointing example of this was by far the blatant anti-Beatles stance assumed by most of punk music in reaction to the band's ... perfectionist leanings. Thankfully though, when the initial shock factor of the late 60s punk coup began to fade in importance, this limiting facade gave way to reveal a number of brilliant pop acts that had been quietly maturing on the stage of CBGBs. Among these influential artists were the likes of the ultra quirky Talking Heads and the brutally under-recognized Television, freely referencing defunct pop geniuses like The Beatles and the Beach Boys to create a distinctive blend of 60s melodies and modern punk aggression.
In their short lived career, the original Television incarnation generated only two albums. Marquee Moon was perhaps the quintessential Television record, displaying an instrumental prowess and sonic complexity that was sorely lacking in punk music at the time, but it was not until the heavily underrated Adventure that Tom Verlaine's impressive songwriting skills truly came to full fruition. Moving from an instrumental focus that emphasized the integration of free jazz aspects into more traditional rock arrangements to a format that was much more along the lines of a true rock band, Television was determined to make the most of their role change. What Adventure lacked in technical complexity it more than made up for with sheer charm, massaging the listener's mind with concise, soothing soundscapes that had been thoroughly dowsed in catchy hooks. Instead of intertwining in extended, combative solos, the trademark twin guitars reach a mutual coexistence that provides a solid backdrop for Verlaine's evocative chorus lines. As opposed to the constantly clashing dynamics of Television's prior CD, which stressed the many facets and multiple areas of expertise within the group's sound, Adventure features all elements of the band in perfect harmony formulating the perfect pop unit. Adventure is pop simplicity at its best, immediately drawing the listener in with irresistible guitar licks and memorable choruses only to later reveal even more intriguing underpinning as a reward for the patient listener. This important album, which was an obvious touchstone for groups like The Bears or XTC, marked a point in punk music that finally made it ok to meld the old with the new, creating a chain of events in the independent music community that can still be felt today. Whether Marquee Moon or Adventure is the single greatest achievement from the genius pop conduit of Television is solely a matter of personal opinion, but while Marquee Moon is already recognized as a monumentally important album of the 70s punk upheaval, Adventure should certainly at least be regarded as being of equal significance and as being an overall equally enjoyable album.