Illustration from the Audubon Magazine Vol. 1 No. 7, 1887
I want to write about Adventure, the second album by '70s new-wave guitar heroes Television, because I am totally digging it right now, but I'm not really qualified to do so for a couple reasons. First, Television is a much-written-about band, and there's nothing new to say. Second, I think you're not allowed to write about Television until you've heard the band's godlike debut Marquee Moon. And I've never heard Marquee Moon. And there's a very simple explanation to why I haven't heard any Television albums before now - I have a "Ten Song Rule".
It's a stupid thing, and totally arbitrary, but the Ten Song Rule has been with me for a long time and defines some core things about my preferences and listening habits. Here's a summary: if an artist is working in the rock or pop idiom, they should have ten song ideas for any full-length release that they want to charge LP price for. Any less than ten ideas, and the artist doesn't have enough content to justify charging full price. In theory, the song ideas can be strung together into "suites" or something prog-stylee, as long as the ideas are there. Eight ten-minute songs, each one repeating a single musical idea and structure, is (to me) not a full album. In practice, though, I'm much more reductive - I want to see ten tracks (not counting redundant bonus tracks), or I become very reluctant to purchase. Stupid, right? A lot of great artists enjoy the nine-song album format - Prince, for instance. But, overall, I think the Ten Song Rule has kept me focused on artists that deliver the most hooks per dollar spent, and that's not really a bad thing.
Except when it comes to albums like Adventure, which works really well as an eight-song album. Well, it works well for people who are not me - to be able to listen to it, I literally have to convince myself that two of the bonus tracks "count" as part of the album (and one of these bonus tracks is an alternate mix of one of the album's songs). But it was worth any mental gymnastics required to get past my neurosis, because Adventure is a remarkable album. I was struck by how straight-forward and poppy it is - most talk about Television focuses on the abstract beauty of the interlaced guitars, and that's there, but that's hardly the whole package. The vocal melodies and lyrics are solid as well, and these songs are just SO catchy. I've been familiar with "See No Evil" for a long time, so I should have known that these songs would have amazing hooks, but listening to this album has been revelatory.
The two opening songs, "Glory" and "Days", caught me by surprise and are still the album stand-outs for me. The only song I really have any reservations about is the much-loved "Foxhole" - the chorus just seems clunky and stupid to me. But everything else, from the wobbly guitar lines of "The Fire" to the VU-esque single "Ain't That Nothin'", is just about perfect. The organ and piano accents on a lot of the songs are a great counterpoint to the guitarwork, and I even love the bluesy outtake "Adventure" - it shows a side of Tom Verlaine's roots as a guitar player that isn't obvious in most of the band's work. I'm going to limit my observations on the album to that summary for now - I'd better go find a copy of Marquee Moon before I say anything else.
"Days" by Television
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