Harsh / Not Mixed Loud Enough! / RE: (TV) Pitchforkmedia reviews Verlaine (mixed)

["Casey, Leo J" <Leo.J.Casey@Volpe.dot.gov>]

Pitchfork
>5. "Dim and winking" ? This person doesn't appreciate Verlaine. 

Dim: 1 a : emitting a limited or insufficient amount of light 
b : DULL, LUSTERLESS c : lacking pronounced, clear-cut, or 
vigorous quality or character.

Yeah, I would agree that's relatively harsh.
But wait until you hear my review in a few weeks :>) 
(and my April Fools stunt with Olivia Newton-John was 
not a joke vis-`-vis "A Parade In Littleton, MA" ).

>And his guitar playing is still stunning, veering from 
>fluttering, >singing lines to noisy squalls that detonate 
>without warning. But, >apart from such expressive guitar work, 

I'm chafing at the bit here--not sure I can hold back until 
April 25 + 7 Days  = May 3rd. So, I'm letting giving a few comments.  

There are few solos and they are so short I'm not sure 
they should even be categorized as solos---except for 
"The Day On You", which has a fairly long one and a song which 
I would rate as good as anything he's ever done in his solo career 
(so gets an A+).

One of my major problems for me, is that on the vast majority of 
the songs the vocals are mixed so that they're way too prominent, 
whereas although I agree with the reviewer about 
>..veering from fluttering, ....still stunning ... to noisy squalls 
>that detonate without warning the guitars are way too buried in the 
mix-->these wonderful little flourishes and trills should be LOUDER.

OTOH, I blew out the tweeter in the right speaker of my 
car's cd-system, because of 'From Her Fingers'!, but on that 
song the guitars aren't nice little fills--they're a 
massive wall of rhythm guitars.

>these songs are dim and winking in comparison to Verlaine's 
>*bygone triumphs*.

Since TV hasn't released a vocal record since The Wonder 16 years ago, 
I don't think the reviewer is just referring to Television's first two 
or Tom's first two albums.  I don't think the new record is up to par 
with Flash Light in 1986 and that's certainly bygone era.

OTOH, I agree wholeheartedly that since 1979, the majority of critics 
always compare Tom's solo albums to the first two Television records.
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