As with ANY solo artist originally associated with a popular band, an expectation of similarity to the original band is always there. Not that it SHOULD be, but we’re fickle beasts. We want more of what we already like. I won’t be ashamed to say that I had a similar expectation with the new album by Television alumnus, Richard Lloyd. However, what began with Lloyd’s debut solo set, Alchemy (1979) is done just as well on Richard Lloyd’s eighth solo offering, Countdown.
Countdown has ten new songs. The best way to relay what you can expect on this new album is simply that it STILL has the underlying explorative and fresh Rock n Roll soul that Lloyd brought to Television, and to all of his previous solo efforts.
Countdown begins with a riotous crunch of guitar on “Wind In The Rain”. With this song, you are in territory that feels good giving a vibe that carries through the entire album. By the time you’ve heard “So Sad”, you’re transported to a previous time of excellence, the kind that Television helped to create with their two Elektra classics.
If I have favorites from Countdown, it’s “I Can Tell”, “Just My Heart”, and the extraordinary “Something Remains”, a simple yet intense song that may not have been meant as anything other than a song from LLoyd, good enough to make the album cut, but not good enough to fit in the upper portion of sequencing. I don’t know, it’s good enough to have been placed appropriately. “Countdown” ends the album with an amazing Television-like track, well worth your time.
Countdown is a brilliant new album from one of Rock’s revered names, even if only to those that loved the NYC display of talent that arose in the late ’70s for an all too brief period, a period that could be called its own period of creativity (not just the ’70s, or ’80s…or even the late ’70s).
“Yeah…we’ll see ya later!
…Goodbye!”