Television Personalities - Privilege - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Television Personalities - Painted Word [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/14/2017

Fire Re-issue, this has not been available for many years on CD. The Television Personalities had been brooding for three years since the of Privilege, an album that took us to Salvador Dali's Garden Party, among other muses, and aroused All Music to conclude that things were getting dark. Closer To God closed the curtains and ensured they were blackout standard. Closer To God, as with all TVP albums, is mightily personal. Dan Treacy provides the antidote to the opening of the ill-fated Disneyland Paris and the first McDonald's in China it's a white knuckle ride through his innermost hopes and fears with off stage giggling, half heard dialogue and feedback that sounds like an opera is expiring in an adjoining L-shaped room. Pop culture is well thumbed, a nod to Anthony Burgess, the films of Joseph Losey (The Servant, The Go-Between, The Prowler) but for all the whimsy this is an album of self-analysis, a shopping list of broken promises and dashed daydreams which musically travels through lullaby to rage, from Fab Fourland to jangly Byrds-on-a-budget punk all packed neatly into three minute slices perfect for a hospital radio playlist where sectioned surrealists cast no reflection. Except, of course, for the glorious grandeur and heavy grunge of the title track that sounds like the blueprint for every Peter Doherty song. At over eleven minutes it's an anthemic quasi-religious paean to growing up and learning little by recognized means. They still haven't lost the knack of pulling a good tune from seemingly nowhere or coming up with an idea that will tug at your sleeve for attention. A good time is had by all. NME // AH YES, the TV Personalities. A grotesque parody of media manipulation? The Face1. You Don't Know How Lucky You Are 2. Hard Luck Story Number 39 3. Little Works Of Art 4. Razorblades & Lemonade 5. Coming Home Soon 6. Me And My Big Ideas 7. Honey For The

Television Personalities unreleased album. Recorded in 1990 by Jowe at his flat in Glading Terrace, Stoke Newington (shortly before it was demolished), over a number sessions on a portable 4-track cassette-tape machine. InchOver the course of a few weeks, we had amassed fifteen tracks, some of which ended up being re-recorded with very different arrangements on 'Closer to God'. The intention was to finish and these tracks at some point, and that time has finally arrivedInch Jowe HeadOf the previously unheard songs, InchI Like That in a GirlInch was based on a conversation Daniel Treacy had with Lawrence of the Birmingham band Felt, hence the peculiar accent that Dan uses towards the end! InchLove is a Four-Letter WordInch was a song the band would play regularly live; it eventually evolved into InchLove is Better Than WarInch. I Suppose You Think It's FunnyInch displays Jowe and Daniels double-falsetto skills.InchIf You Fly Too HighInch was based on an encounter with Evan Dando of The Lemonheads in Berlin during a memorable gig with them at the Ecstasy Madhouse in December 1989, when the Berlin Wall was being torn down. The band jammed with Evan on stage that night, playing some tunes by Jonathan Richman and Johnny Thunders. The song also mentions Alan McGee, who was a great fan of the TVPS. Alan openly admits that he emulated Dan's style of music, and influenced his decision to run a mod-psychedelic club, The Living Room, and to start his tag, Creation.1 Hard Luck Story Number 392 Razor Blades and Lemonade3 How Does It Feel To Be Loved 4 Love is a Four-Letter Word5 Beautiful Despair6 If You Fly Too High7 Have a Nice Day8 I Get Frightened Too9 Goodnight Mister Spaceman 10 Honey For The Bears11 I Don't Want to Live This Life12 I Like That In a Girl13 My Very First Nervous Breakdown14 I Suppose You Think It's Funny 15 This Heart's Not Made of Stone