Customer Reviews

Best of Television & Tom Verlaine

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This compilation collects 15 tracks from Television's ground-breaking albums MARQUEE MOON and ADVENTURE, along with Tom Verlaine's self-titled debut and DREAMTIME. Contrary to popular belief, there are no rarities here - no alternate mixes, different edits, new remastering, etc. That being said, it's a surprisingly enjoyable and well-thought out collection that includes all but 2 tracks from MARQUEE MOON, half of ADVENTURE, 3 songs from TOM VERLAINE, and 2 from DREAMTIME (including "Without a Word", a rewrite of Television's unreleased "Hard On Love"). While it would have been nice to get a rarity or two (say, "Little Johnny Jewel" or perhaps the superior single mix of "Ain't That Nothin'"), the CD is thoroughly enjoyable and works nicely as an overview for the prospective or casual Television/Tom Verlaine fan...

Chopping up a legendary album like MARQUEE MOON is a really bad idea. Best of Television? how about one of the best albums ever? Here's a better idea: Get MARQUEE MOON; if you like it try some solo Verlaine. Also, it's definitely worth getting the MM version with their first single "Little Johnny Jewel" added on. Television's second record ADVENTURE is nowhere near as good as MARQUEE MOON. I'd much sooner get THE BLOW UP even though it consists of bootleg recordings.

First of all, no greatest hits or "best of" collection is ever going to capture any particular reviewers' personal best perfectly. That said, this one comes pretty close for me. If you are new to Television, either get their best effort, Marquee Moon, or get this best of CD and you'll end up with a lot of Marquee Moon anyway, a sampling of other Television stand outs, plus some choice solo Tom Verlaine (which fits in nicely here). However, if you are not new to Television, this mix of songs is probably too familiar already to be very enticing (unless you need to update your old LP or cassette collection.) By the way, if you haven't heard Television in a long time, you might be surprised (as I was) at how fresh those guitar licks still sound!