Cover

COVER was Verlaine's fourth solo LP, and a break in terms of sonics from his prior 3 post-Television efforts. Instead of guitar, Verlaine is relying more heavily on electronic sounds, and while the result is a bit more dated in retrospect, it also makes this record stand out in his catalog. It doesn't regularly reach the heights of his debut or DREAMTIME or FLASH LIGHT for me, but it's close, with strong, beautiful melodies throughout.Wounded Bird has done an excellent job with this reissue. They've restored "Lindi Lu" to the running order, a strong song originally included on the US LP but omitted from the UK LP and subsequent CD reissues. The prior CD reissue truncated the ending of "Five Miles of You", which is faded-out properly here. Finally, we get "Your Finest Hour", a b-side from the period; while no masterpiece (it's a b-side for a reason) it's good to get it included in this package.Whether you are surveying Verlaine's career, or a fan who has already bought an earlier CD reissue of COVER, this is a worthwhile addition to your collection.

"Cover" is Verlaine's Masterpiece. On the CD one of the songs is missing (Lindi-Lu) and the lineup is "the original European track listing." The original US vinyl release is superior in every regard.

This album continues Verlains exploration into subtle guitar work and beat driven musical arrangements. Highly recommended.

It's a great album and I've been waiting for it to be on CD at a good price. I am happy with the purchase.

I mostly listened to Verlaine in Television, but this reissue has me delving into his other work. There are a bunch of solid songs here and the quality of the remastering is amazing.

I love Tom Verlaine and this is one of his best solo albums, but the current CD reissue was carelessly mastered and contains one jarring flaw: the first track, "Five Miles of You" is simply cut off cold. This really irritated me, so I investigated side by side with the LP. It turns out that the CD does not truncate the track - it is actually a second or two longer than the LP. But they somehow missed the fade, so the result is a chopped off track. You may still want the CD at this mid-line price, but this is an unfortunate error.Note that this CD follows the original European track list, which is as follows: 1) Five Miles of You; 2) Let Go The Mansion; 3) Travelling; 4) O Foolish Heart; 5) Dissolve/Reveal; 6) Miss Emily; 7) Rotation; 8) Swim. You can find an extended version of "Five Miles Of You", plus 2 great b-sides from this session ("Lindi-Lu" and Your Finest Hour") on his anthology "The Miller's Tale," which is a fine 2 CD set that includes an exclusive live concert on the second disc.Verlaine's output is exceptionally rewarding and disproportionately rare, so enjoy it wherever you can.

An album that creates a not quite complete new musical language & vibe of itself.For the most part, [erhaps an album full of proggy new wave vibes mixed with post punk elements via an understated beatnik Pink Floyd. The biggest outliers to this, are the two songs, 'Five Miles of You' & "Miss Emily' which are more straight post punk rock n roll type songs, quality place holder album type songs but a bit of a departure from the direction of the rest of the material's make up. The remainder of the album has some real gems, two or three feel totally fully realised stylistically and the remainder with alot of pioneering coolness but stylistically still feel a tad transitory, all be it with great moments.Overall i would say this album is a fine or near match to the great guitar post punk/pop vibe of Dreamtime, what it lacks in that's overall sense of wholeness is made up for in Cover's very pleasent mix of more random sounds & vibes of proggy new wavisms. The album has got abit of a feel being not a fully completed transition, but that has it's own charms too when it is being well done, & this is really well done.Given the album's stylistic vibe along with it's juxtaposition of stuff in arriving not quite in fully submerged 'new wave' waters, it may be my favorite touchstone to listen to for this type of thing/territory; also as excellent & cohesive as Dreamtime is, this is probably my favorite inclination out of the two.I prefer to listen to it in Mono, with near mid lower mids & very low upper highs.Review is for vinyl version.

I was bewildered a few years back to find out that this incredible solo album from Television's Tom Verlaine was not available on CD. Although I could still cue up my original vinyl LP to enjoy Verlaine's superlative songwriting and his majestic guitar work on this album, I took the time to digitize the record and burn my own CD. This is an album that I wanted to be able to enjoy at home or on the road. "Lindi-Lu" and "Five Miles Of You" are two of the best songs that Verlaine has ever recorded, but there's not a bad song on the whole collection! And his vocals have never been stronger. If you like Verlaine, if you like Television--hell, if you like the electric guitar--you should own this album!