Marquee Moon

I'm not sure how much I have to add to the Marquee Moon fellatio-fest, for what is my tongue worth really? It's pretty short and non-descript. But the hype is pretty well-founded as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure if it's necessarily one of my all-time favorite albums, which requires more months to decide and is also a more arbitrary selection. I am sure that this is the rare album where every track is really damn good, the rare album where almost nothing rubs the wrong way, where things seem almost flawless. This is indie before indie. Even though I try to make breathless proclamations like that R.E.M.'s Murmur was the first 'indie' album, it was really probably the Velvet Underground or someone like that. But at any rate, Television also falls into that 'indie before indie' vein, especially given their influence on the 107.1 playlist, an influence that seems even more pronounced than VU or REM's.
For those who don't know, Television was a 'post-punk' group who released two albums or so, and broke up, because they were never able to hit it big on radio. At any rate, like the VU's debut album, Marquee Moon, Television's debut, over time picked up a critical audience, picked up indie cred, and by now, you will see nothing below a 5-star review for it.
And unlike some sacred cows, I can't help feeling that it deserves all its praise. What's most often noted is its guitar work, and yeah, it's pretty much the best guitar album I've ever heard, although I'm just throwing praise around emptily. I haven't actually considered what albums I have that would rival it in guitarwork. Anyways, two guitarists, one to play rhythm, one to play lead, both on electric, and every song has riffs that grab you right away, but most impressively, soloes that mean something, that set mood, that build, that just don't wank around. Better yet, the guitar work is complementary, not the main focus. Each song is tightly-written, all with moments of introspective lyrical beauty. The album gets under your skin immediately with three thrilling, fast-paced rockers, but over the second half of the album, the mood becomes more slow and depressed, allowing Television to prove that they could write expert ballads ("Guiding Light," "Torn Curtain") as well as they could handle a jagged up-tempo number ("Friction").
The centerpiece of the album is its title track, which some have labeled one of the 10 or 20 best songs ever written. I don't know if I would go that far in the hype, although we'll see where I rank it whenever I get around to doing a Top 100 songs list again. It starts out in similar fashion to the fast songs, but moves at a much slower pace. Weirdly, this approach doesn't work on me quite as well as any of the other songs, although the melodies and riffs certainly aren't any less lacking. I'm just not as big a fan of the slowed-down rock song that isn't a ballad, but isn't the same thing as a balls-out rock song either. Whatever little criticisms I might have though are indeed wiped away by the solo section of the song. This is the one time where Television lets the solo dominate the song, as indeed, guitarists Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd solo for some five minutes. And yet, it's completely encapsulating. They use distortion at all the right moments, and Verlaine unleashes a solo that never stops building in intensity, as Lloyd and the rhythm section play louder and more frenzied. It hits its culmination with a thunderous riff, and then the band achieves a moment of utter majesty. The guitars fade away, pianos play softly in the background, and some instrument, maybe Verlaine's guitar, plays the most beautiful notes. It's maybe just two notes at a time, but even the sound itself is gorgeous. I guess what I'm saying is that about.com needs to revise their top 100 guitar soloes list and put this on there, and probably pretty damn high. To compare to another long solo, I think it makes "Freebird" look like a joke, and that was like #2 or #3 on about.com's list.
If you want some flaws in this album, there are a few, but you can find a flaw with anything. Each song does pretty much have the same structure, and although they keep things fresh with consistently great songwriting, Television definitely lacks in diversity. I feel like they use the same chord changes to switch to the pre-chorus buildup and to the chorus in just about every song, although it doesn't really bother me. Also, some people have criticized Tom Verlaine's singing voice, as he does sound fairly whiny, but I dig it. Sincerity matters more than skill, and his voice is hardly unlistenable. I will also allow that their choruses are just excuses to get back into riffing again, but sometimes that works really well, like on "See No Evil." All minor flaws, with songs so good, so basically, this is a great album, and highly recommended.

Postscript:
Should I do album ratings again? I'm torn. I don't even know what scale I would use. Definitely not the 15 scale, because I have no idea how to assign 14's and 15's. Marquee Moon is an obvious 5 star album, but that only makes it an obvious 13 on the 15 scale, and I have a terrible time deciding which 5-star albums are better than the others. I almost wouldn't mind a letter grading system. On the other hand, I wouldn't want the rating to dominate the review, but that assumes that I write anything worth reading to begin with.