Throughout Television's two albums, there was high drama and a mesmerizing lyricism, most of it contributed by lead guitarist-song-writer-singer Tom Verlame. What Television rarely displayed was any sense of playfulness. Indeed, playfulness seemed beside or beyond the band's point, which was to make intricate commonplaces take on the intensity of heroic gestures.

Thus the most surprising aspect of the solo debut LPs by Verlaine and guitarist Richard Lloyd is how amusing they both are, how eager to please. On Tom Verlaine, the artist confronts his major instrumental influences since Television's breakup: the funk guitar styles elaborated by Funkadelic's Mike Hampton and, closer to Verlaine's home turf, James "Blood" Ulmer. In devising his own sly, chunky-funky guitar style in songs like "The Grip of Love," "Mr. Bingo" and the hilarious "Yonki Time," Verlaine liberates himself into new areas of lyricism. Where he once used to sail off into uncharted solos, he now plays around by taking little detours that run parallel to the melodic main drag.

With minimal accompaniment – often just bassist Fred Smith and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty–Verlaine travels quickly: his flat, hiccuppy voice gargles quixotic images in great gulps while he casts out flashing guitar lines with an inveigling lure on the end of each. The prettiest is the intentionally bumptious blues riff in "Yonki Time." In that tune, Verlaine not only bleats and vells but also blows his nose, coughs and breaks glass before asking in desolate bewilderment: "Uh. uh. what time did you say it was?"

If the charm of Tom Verlaine is in its discursiveness. Richard Lloyd's Alchemy is engrossing because of its very terseness. Lloyd's ten compositions are all built around a few concise musical and verbal phrases. Everything is kept catchy and functional – many of the tunes use their titles as hooks. Lloyd doesn't have much to say beyond expressing his jaundiced views about how romance functions among arty, immature types, but his post-power-pop chords deliver these observations with intelligent modesty and punctual efficiency. (RS 311)

KEN TUCKER