Monday 15 November 2010

television personalities

I don't recall the first time I listened to Television Personalities, that I felt the impact of Dan Treacy's broken and utterly fragmented voice, broken by the years and the abuses; the infantile melodies, the duos with a female voice mocking all that melodic, cheesy pop tradition of boy-girl. What I really remember are the songs.

I found them quite late, with the album My Dark Places from 2004 (a good 20 years after their debut album), but the attraction was instantanious. I don't care that they escape from the lyrical and melodic canons that we are so used to, that he sings really bad, out of tune, unable to reach the highest notes that he attempts, that some melodies have a tacky orchestration, hardly arranged. What really matters is that it abducts you. In the same way that Daniel Johnston does. Television Personalities really drag you to their "Dark Places", we want to see that dark and decadent world they promise us.

This week, fate brought me back to them. To their new album A memory is better than nothing. It is yet too early to have a clear, well-informed opinion of it, but after a couple of listenings, we appretiate a continuation of the previous work. Another straight album shouting in your face. Full of irony and criticism, of personal references ("People think that we're strangers"), cultural mockery ("She's my Yoko"), of hald-distorted guitars, of pop-punk-ish that is not afraid to use machines to create their sounds.

If you haven't yet entered into the world of Television Personalities, the door opened by A memory is better than nothing is really appealing: don't let it close.

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