All Music Guide Reviews
by Jason Ankeny, from the All Music Guide

And Don't the Kids Just Love It (4.5)
AMG REVIEW: The cover of ...And Don't the Kids Just Love It -- a collage bringing together supermodel Twiggy and The Avengers' John Steed -- is a strong indication of where the Television Personalities are coming from: their debut is a loving ode to sixties-era pop and pop culture, referencing movies ("Look Back in Anger"), Kinks-like class commentary ("Geoffrey Ingram") and psychedelic casualties ("I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives"). -- Jason Ankeny

Mummy You're Not Watching Me (4)
AMG REVIEW: Where the TVPs merely tested the waters of psychedelia on their debut releases, they take the full plunge on the lo-fi Mummy You're Not Watching Me, which replaces the pop-culture references of the debut ...And Don't the Kids Just Love It for the high culture of acid-pop excursions including "Lichtenstein Painting," "David Hockney's Diaries" and "Painting by Numbers." -- Jason Ankeny

They Could Have Been Bigger Than the Beatles (3)

The Painted Word (3)
AMG REVIEW: A more cleanly produced TVPs record than most of their previous efforts, The Painted Word is also a more serious album, less whimsical but no less charming; favoring a subtle, droning pop sound, tracks like the politically charged "Back to Vietnam" and the lovely "Someone to Share My Life With" are heartfelt and resonant, foreshadowing the more dramatic twists taken by Dan Treacy's songwriting following the band's long late-1980s layoff. -- Jason Ankeny

Privilege (4.5)
AMG REVIEW: Given that the crisp Privilege is the Television Personalities' first studio LP in four years, Dan Treacy has every right to be in a less-than-sunny mood -- songs like "All My Dreams Are Dead," "This Time There's No Happy Ending" and "Sad Mona Lisa" are to be expected when a fertile songwriting talent finds himself without means of recording and releasing new material. The end result is one of the group's most personal and dark records, although the wonderful "Salvador Dali's Art Party" -- which runs down all of the luminaries on the guest list -- is a return to the psychedelic name-dropping of the group's formative years. -- Jason Ankeny

Closer to God (4)
AMG REVIEW: The TVPs' most musically accessible album to date, Closer to God is also their most gloomy (although it's a ray of sunshine when compared to its follow-up, I Was a Mod Before You Was a Mod). Embellished by bright arrangements, strings and horns, tracks like "This Heart's Not Made of Stone" and "Coming Home Soon" are white lies, upbeat productions masking downbeat songs; more honest are "My First Nervous Breakdown" and "Very Dark Today," which make no bones about the depths of Dan Treacy's despair. -- Jason Ankeny

I Was a Mod Before You Was a Mod (3)
AMG REVIEW: Virtually a Dan Treacy solo record, I Was a Mod Before You Was a Mod strips away all remaining vestiges of the buoyancy long associated with the Television Personalities, leaving behind a harrowing portrait of alienation, desperation and self-loathing; "A Stranger to Myself," "Haunted," "Evan Doesn't Ring Me Anymore," "A Long Time Gone" and "I Can See My Whole World Crashing Down" are frighteningly bleak and painfully affecting. -- Jason Ankeny

Yes Darling, But is It Art? (Early Singles & Rarities) (4.5)
AMG REVIEW: A superb, generous introduction to the Television Personalites' early years, Yes Darling, But Is It Art? assembles rarities and obscurities from singles, EPs and various-artists collections dating back to the group's debut "14th Floor" and including their lone hit, "Part-Time Punks." -- Jason Ankeny

Ratings:  1 = poor  2 = OK  3 = good  4 = better  5 = best

All the material is (c) the author and / or the publisher.