Day 8: Television – Marquee Moon
Album art courtesy of Elektra Records
When I think of Television, the one thing that really springs to mind is “band whose t-shirts hipsters wear.” That, or a band that your ex-boyfriend raves about. And yes, I did date someone who wore Television t-shirts and raved about the band, yet I still never listened to them. Go figure.
I regret to inform you that this time, the hipsters were right. Marque Moon is good. I thought it would be much more mellow and, for lack of a better term, hipster-y, but it’s not. The 10-minute titular track is the only one I was familiar with before starting the album, and while that is clearly the high point of the record, the rest is still great. “Torn Curtain” is another peak for me.
According to guitarist Richard Lloyd, Television had had some poor experiences with Brian Eno, so they wanted to record Marquee Moon without a producer, but the label wouldn’t agree to that. They settled on British producer and sound engineer Andy Johns, who had an impressive resume and a penchant for 1970s rock excess, with the band recording “Prove It” while he was passed out in the control room. It’s not overproduced, and you can feel that the band’s intention was to capture some of the magic from having played the songs live hundreds of times at clubs like CBGB before recording them.
I can see how they say that Marquee Moon laid the groundwork to a variety of genres, from post-punk to alternative to shoegaze. Yet at the same time, if someone had played this to me and said it’s from 2014, I would have easily believed them. There’s something timeless about their sound, but it also suffers a bit from being emulated so much. It broke a lot of ground and created something new, and I can appreciate it for that. However, so many bands have a Television-inspired sound that it doesn’t have the same effect as it probably would have had on me if I’d heard it at the time.
It’s widely regarded as one of the best rock albums of all time, but it’s just not there for me. It’s good, though, and I’ll listen to more Television here and there, but hasn’t made it to the top of my list. I’ll give it an 8.5/10. Please forgive me, music snobs, but it’s just my opinion.