Flashlight

"Flashlight" is probably on a par with the debut album "Tom Verlaine",backed by Jimmy Ripp,Guitar,Andy Newmark,Drums and the dapper Fred Smith on Bass,this is one of Verlaine's strongest albums!He hasn't lost any of his sarcasm on the opening "Cry mercy,Judge" and "A town called Walker"which is a town where nothing ever happens!"Scientist" shows Verlaine in romantic mood,with a lovely spoken word track,which finishes with a beautiful guitar solo. "Bomb" as you can tell by the title is pretty sinister,with words like"Bomb, Bomb,We can't work it out""4AM","Funniest things" and "Annie's telling me"find Verlaine in a more upbeat,playful mood,with some fine playing by Jimmy Ripp and Verlaine and the final track is "Sundown"where once again Verlaine is the romantic poet!This album never has a dull moment and the pairing of Verlaine and Ripp is a good moveMost of Verlaine's work is powerful,so check out "Flashlight" and don't be kept in the dark!!!!

I would rate this alongside his first album and the great "Miller's tale"Right from kick off it's the classic Verlaine guitar on "Cry mercy,Judge". His songwriting is as good as ever,with great lyrics on "Town called Walker",he writes about the small town mentality "Janey's goin' back to Walker,says folks there are happy bees,I said i remember Walker,you lookin'for some misery ?"most of the album is upbeat,but the darkest song here,is "Bomb""I don't know how to talk,no,I don't know how to think,I just lay there,Bomb Bomb Bomb"this could be anywhere in the world !!!Verlaine's lyrics are poetry in motion,listen to the spoken word on "The scientist writes a letter",beautiful lyrics with a really fine guitar solo to end with.Tom's work can be patchy,but when on form few can touch him !His band on this album are Fred Smith,Jimmy Ripp and A. Schwartzberg. Last guitar hero ? Indeedy !Buy now !

All Tom Verlaine's solo albums are worth hearing ~ get a load of The Wonder, or Words From the Front ~ but this is one of the best. He lets you know what you're in for on the opening track, the typically gnomically titled Cry Mercy, Judge, an urgent speedy number with the usual stuttery Verlaine vocal allied to a spare rock backing.Say a Prayer is another vintage TV song, as is the soundswept A Town Called Walker. {Mr Verlaine has a fine way with a song title if nothing else.}The rest of this superb record is as good as what went before. He's always been one of the most original voices on the scene, whether playing his unique guitar figures or singing offbeat songs like these.If you liked Television, or if you like TV ~ get this! In its own way, it's beautiful.Startling.

This is an excellent record. With true Verlaine style you have the twisted style of 'Bomb' where the traditional pop-sensibility of 'we can work it out' gets inverted into a desperate bleak acknowledgement of a final breakdown, the warning of 'A Town Called Walker' for anyone trying to return to their roots and the barely hidden regret of a man finding a reason to make contact with an ex-partner in 'The Scientist Writes a Letter'.The album is loaded with great melodies and unexpected twists. Verlaines guitar work has never been tighter and his writing sharper. I like Television but I think his solo work is criminallly under-valued. If you like your music to be soaked in razor edged pyschedelia and come out taughter than cheese wire you should buy this record.

I have been trying to get this album on CD for years but never thought to try amazon - DOH! I first saw Verlaine on the Tube doing Bomb, had a hangover and felt worse because of the guitar graffiti that came out of Verlaine. I re-watched the recording I'd made and was amazed. This album has to be one of the greatest unsung "legendary" albums ever. If you want something original and completely amazing - BUY THIS NOW!

An absolute gem. I bought this on vinyl when it was first issued and it hasn't lost anything in 27 years. Tracks such as "scientist writes a letter" are so far ahead, lyrically and conceptually of all the younger acts out at the time. There's such great description. I saw him live a few years later, after the release of "the wonder" and enjoyed it, but i already felt he'd buried most of this album, even then. (I may be wrong about this). It sounds like his most personal album to me. In a word, A masterpiece.

Che dire, a mio parere con "Cover" l'album più bello di Tom Verlaine.Disquisire sulle canzoni è inutile. Un album che ha distanza di anni non perde nulla, anzi. Difficili da reperire entrambi, Flash Light e Cover, ma da avere assolutamente!!!

８０年代に、このアルバム発売後の来日公演でみせた演奏がいまでも鮮烈な印象として残っています...。テレビジョン時代の曲も演奏されましたが、（１）のスピード感ある曲に新鮮な驚きを覚えたものです。（３）はシングルカットされ、プロモーション・ビデオもつくられました。とてもトムらしさがでているいい曲だと思います。全体的に無駄ののない、聴きやすい良いアルバムです。

Tom Verlaine is justly celebrated and regarded as one of rock's best and most innovative guitarists who has a gift for improvised guitar solos and interplay with other like-minded guitarists, best demonstrated by his work in the seminal NYC band Television with Richard Lloyd. His solo albums and songs are much less consistent, but also show his talents in spots. At the same time, Verlaine's songs are often idiosyncratic, whimsical, inscrutable, and almost determinedly anti-commercial, much like his interviews and persona, severely limiting his audience and sales of his recordings and concert tickets and have restricted Verlaine to fringe/cult artist status. "Flash Light", first released in 1987, represented a significant change in his songcraft and album production. Almost all of its songs were melodic and energetic with some actual hooks and beats and relatively effervescent; the abstract quotient was also markedly reduced, although not eliminated, and over half of the tracks would not have been out of place on pop-rock radio. Some songs, notably "The Scientist Writes A Letter", "A Town Called Walker", "Song", and "At 4 A.M.", have lyrics that communicate directly to the listener with intelligence and emotional resonance. Verlaine's renowned electric guitar playing fortunately did not suffer, and all of the songs on "Flash Light" featured innovative, intelligent, energetic guitar work that compares favorably to his playing on Television's seminal albums and his solo recordings. The guitar playing is not superficial flash or shredding, though, like the playing of many better-known guitar virtuosos, but services the songs well. The emphasis on good songcraft combined with Verlaine's uniquely excellent guitar work resulted in an album of music that's both aurally attractive and intelligently rewarding to listen to. Its listenability does not detract from its intelligence and innovation, and the album is both immediately enticing like top-40 pop songs and intelligently innovative, and rewards repeated listens. However, for reasons unclear to me and despite being issued by I.R.S. Records, a relatively artist-friendly label that was also effective at record and artist promotion, "Flash Light" continued the Verlaine pattern of minimal sales and notice, and soon went out of print, with I.R.S. dropping Verlaine.[Media profiles of Verlaine and interviews with bandmates, ex-managers, record company executives, and others who have worked with Verlaine indicate he has varying degrees of being difficult to work with and a lackadaisical, even self-destructive attitude towards his recording and concert career, which may have contributed to the commercial failure of "Flash Light" and perhaps I.R.S. electing to drop Verlaine after only 1 album instead of trying to develop him over 2-3 albums.]I stumbled on a used I.R.S. cassette of "Flash Light" in late 1993 and, despite its low-fidelity and worn tape, it immediately engaged me and I played it incessantly in my car. I searched hard but fruitlessly for a used or new CD copy; I even began to doubt the CD actually existed despite media evidence to the contrary. I was happy to find a near-mint vinyl copy of "Flash Light" in 1994 (along with a pristine copy of the Records' debut album [featuring "Starry Eyes"] that featured the 4-track 45-rpm EP of covers) in a San Antonio record store and promptly made a high-quality cassette recording of it that I played repeatedly in both my car and at home. In 1998, I found a Fontana CD import of "Flash Light" that I purchased despite its $20 price. Although not directly useful to me, I am elated that Collectors' Choice Music (CCM) reissued "Flash Light" on CD in 2006, along with Verlaine's eponymously-titled solo debut, which is almost as good as "Flash Light"; I only wish they had reissued it before I bought the import CD, as the list price is very reasonable at $12-13. I bought it anyway as a magazine suggested Verlaine wrote liner notes for the CCM reissue, and was mildly disappointed that the CCM reissue featured no liner notes or additional recording information. For such a momentous reissue, I believe CCM should have featured thoughtful liner notes from Verlaine or a Television bandmate (Richard Lloyd would have been ideal) and bonus tracks from the "Flash Light" recording sessions (the "Cry Mercy Judge" single featured non-album b-sides and I suspect other "Flash Light" tracks exist, including alternate versions of its songs). However, even this bare-bones reissue should be purchased by anyone who likes intelligent, innovative, guitar-driven pop-rock.

It was a shock for me when this album disappeared, unheralded. The writing is great, with an informal jokiness you never found in that decade. The guitar is simply fantastic - original, with great whammy-bar shimmers and beautiful solos. And the lyrics are deep and touching. The snare drum is typical '80s (sounds like small arms fire) but overall this album had soul in a very chilly era, sonically speaking. This is also a perfect example of an album that has great variety without sounding like a mish mash. A countrified tune, a U2-ish song, a dance-y track, man this one has it all. If you like intelligent writing you'll love this album, and for once the musicianship is there too! Run - don't walk! - to get this disc.

Rate it 10 stars! I missed this one in 1987, and finding it now is truly a gift. Tom Verlaine has never been stronger vocally, lyrically or instrumentally, with superb backup by Fred Smith, Jimmy Ripp and Allen Schwartzberg. On first playing, the songs synched right into the grooves worn into my brain by repeated listening to TV's Marquee Moon when it first came out, and pushed me right over the edge into euphoria. Listen to any one of the cuts, and see if it doesn't send you there, too. Try "Cry Mercy, Judge," and if that doesn't quite do it for you, move on to "ATown Called Walker," "At 4 A.M.,' or "Annie's Tellin' Me." Dancing on the edge of perfection...guess the friends who worry about me when I tell them Tom's lyrics make perfect sense to me can start worrying again! Don't miss this album--one hearing and you'll be "falling in love again...can't help it."