Album of the Week (2)

Tom Verlaine
Warm and Cool (Thrill Jockey)

One of those guitar players that other guitar players drool over, Tom Verlaine has had a strangely bifurcated career. Two classic albums with his 1970s outfit Television escalated the wiry musician into the punk-era pantheon. His subsequent path as a solo artist has never drawn nearly as much attention. Warm and Cool, recorded in 1992, marks a further departure. The all-instrumental disc collected 14 chilled-out evocations of mid-1960s surf and twang styles, unveiling Verlaine’s inner Dick Dale while maintaining a deliberately nuanced posture. “Depot (1951)” epitomizes the minimalist approach, the guitar all noirish inflection and insinuation over the spare shhhh of brushed cymbals and a simple bass pulse. Fans used to contend that Verlaine was a CBGB’s version of Jerry Garcia, but it wasn’t always easy to hear Americana in Television’s swirling hypno-epics. Here, Verlaine sounds perfectly at home in a continuum that might include Ry Cooder or Bill Frisell. The lines Verlaine plays on the appropriately spacey “Saucer Crash” could almost pass for one of Garcia’s engagingly digressive solos, with its eloquent high notes, before the guitarist slips into his own version of a blues jam. If Warm and Cool was neglected by the faithful awaiting Television’s brief, early ‘90s reunion, this reissue argues for a second listen. Nine bonus tracks extend the original’s range, though Verlaine’s approach is so ethereal that the CD begs to be spun long afterhours. Tracks such as “Please Keep Going,” with its quivering tremelo and slowly picked, poignantly bent blue notes are a reminder of the soul imbedded in Verlaine’s virtuosity. They feel like silent prayers under a Moorish moon.