Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine

THE REVIEW

With Television on hiatus, Tom Verlaine could not do the same with his guitar. The anorexic leader of the band that populated much of New York's underground scene during the latter part of the '70s and summarized the essence of the American new wave released his solo debut in 1979 with the intention of continuing the conversation left off just a year before with "Adventure," the follow-up to the masterpiece "Marquee Moon." 

Fred Smith on bass is the only former bandmate who follows him in the creation of this work, whose trademark is all too easily attributable to that of Television, the voice and guitar united into a single, indivisible entity, the sonic carpet filled with repeated and obsessive riffs and vibrant solos that pop up everywhere.

The first harsh notes of "The Grip of Love" are enough to rediscover all that style that Verlaine increasingly makes his own until it becomes a tattoo on his skin, and realizing that Television has here their natural continuation, because this record does not dismantle anything that had already been said in previous chapters; on the contrary, it underlines it. Tom Verlaine maintains his usual trembling and alienated singing style even where the pieces are less rock and more akin to ballads ("Souvenir from a Dream," "Last Night"), and when he cannot find outlets for his malaise, he relies on the nervous and plaintive sound of the guitar which becomes repetitive until it hypnotizes ("Breakin' in My Heart") and in some cases seems to scream ("Mr. Bingo").

The setting is always metropolitan; Tom Verlaine's world is New York City, which as often happens, becomes the abstraction of every big city and the entirety of modernity, its dark sides, its graffiti, its invisible barriers, its shroud of depression with no way out but the oneiric one; the quirky "Yonki Time" represents, in this regard, a delirious temporary escape. "Kingdom Come" has a stunning effectiveness and will even seduce David Bowie, while "Flash Lightning" is in all likelihood the best track on the album: Verlaine's voice at some points seems to momentarily push back that emotion deficit that characterizes it and lets itself go, carried away by a mystical vision, prays, and alongside it, the guitar prays, they pray together kneeling, perhaps there is salvation.

"Marquee Moon" will, in fact, always remain the symbol of all the good that Tom Verlaine has accomplished in his life, and many believe that it should have remained his sole work. However, the solo career that began here, back in 1979, expands the masterpiece, extends the dialogue without making it boring and takes it along the darkest alleys of New York, where anxieties lurk that find expression, body, and form in his sharp and disturbed solos. His guitar is his soul trying to escape.
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