Marquee Moon

1	See No Evil 3:58
2	Venus 3:54
3	Friction 4:45
4	Marquee Moon 10:47
5	Elevation 5:10
6	Guiding Light 5:37
7	Prove It 5:05
8	Torn Curtain 7:01

Barnes & Noble

It's hard to imagine Television emerging from the same CBGBs scene as the Ramones. Television's meticulous guitar-oriented sound and precise songs seem like the antithesis of the punk aesthetic, but the hallowed, hardscrabble dive is where Tom Verlaine assembled and nurtured this four-man crew in the mid '70s. Marquee Moon is unlike every guitar-hero recording that preceded it, and few since have captured its discipline and charm. Introverts alike, Verlaine and fellow axman Richard Lloyd dispense long, clean lines that seem more appropriate to a SoHo art gallery than a Bowery dive and, unlike so many guitar gods, play extremely well within the context of the song. Adding to the mystique are Verlaine's lyrics, oblique and urbane, which draw on the tradition of another New York downtown band, the Velvet Underground. Despite their lasting influence, the band recorded only one more album, Adventure, before breaking up, only to reunite for a brief tour in 1992. More than 20 years later, the glory of Marquee Moon remains undiminished, and is a must for guitar aficionados and New York rock fans alike. Martin Johnson

All Music Guide

Marquee Moon is a revolutionary album, but it's a subtle, understated revolution. Without question, it is a guitar rock album -- it's astonishing to hear the interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd -- but it is a guitar rock album unlike any other. Where their predecessors in the New York punk scene, most notably the Velvet Underground, had fused blues structures with avant-garde flourishes, Television completely strip away any sense of swing or groove, even when they are playing standard three-chord changes. Marquee Moon is comprised entirely of tense garage rockers that spiral into heady intellectual territory, which is achieved through the group's long, interweaving instrumental sections, not through Verlaine's words. That alone made Marquee Moon a trailblazing album -- it's impossible to imagine post-punk soundscapes without it. Of course, it wouldn't have had such an impact if Verlaine hadn't written an excellent set of songs that conveyed a fractured urban mythology unlike any of his contemporaries. From the nervy opener, "See No Evil," to the majestic title track, there is simply not a bad song on the entire record. And what has kept Marquee Moon fresh over the years is how Television flesh out Verlaine's poetry into sweeping sonic epics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Entertainment Weekly

One of the era's masterworks. (A) Marc Weingarten