| Words from the Front | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Tom Verlaine | ||||
| Released | June 1982 (1982-06) | |||
| Recorded | 1982 (1982) | |||
| Studio | Blue Rock Studio, New York City | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 36:42 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Producer | Tom Verlaine | |||
| Tom Verlaine chronology | ||||
| ||||
Words from the Front is Tom Verlaine's third solo album, released in 1982. It was issued on compact disc in 2008 by Collectors' Choice Music. Music videos were made for "Words from the Front" and "Clear It Away", directed by Ed Steinberg.
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| American Songwriter | |
| The Austin Chronicle |  |
| Christgau's Record Guide | B+ |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| OndaRock | 6/10 |
| Popmatters |   |
| Rolling Stone | |
| (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 5/10 |
The Globe and Mail wrote that Verlaine's "shadowy, intense vignettes do cast a kind of spell, but there are few new developments here in the territory he has already mastered." The Boston Phoenix said that Words from the Front "is probably Verlaine’s weakest album, but it holds up."
Words from the Front was ranked among the top fifty "Albums of the Year" for 1982 by NME.
Track listing
All songs written by Tom Verlaine
Side one
- "Present Arrived" – 5:17
- "Postcard from Waterloo" – 3:32
- "True Story" – 5:25
- "Clear It Away" – 4:11
Side two
- "Words from the Front" – 6:42
- "Coming Apart" – 2:59
- "Days on the Mountain" – 8:55
Personnel
- Tom Verlaine – guitars, vocals
- Thommy Price – drums
- Jimmy Ripp – guitars
- Joe Vasta - bass
- Additional personnel
- Fred Smith – bass on "Clear It Away"
- Jay Dee Daugherty – drums on "Clear It Away"
- Allan Schwartzberg – drums on "Days on the Mountain"
- Lene Lovich – saxophone on "Days on the Mountain", vocals on "Postcard from Waterloo"
- Technical
- Dave Jerden - mixing
- Michael Ewasko - engineer
- Rich Mahon - illustration
- Howard Rosenberg - photography
References
- ^ Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. 1995. p. 398.
- Words from the Front at AllMusic
- "TOM VERLAINE > Dreamtime & Words from the Front". American Songwriter. 27 October 2008.
- "Dreamtime, and Words From the Front (Collectors' Choice Music)". The Austin Chronicle.
- Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
- "Television". OndaRock (in Italian).
- Christgau, Robert (1990). "Tom Verlaine: Dreamtime". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
- "Tom Verlaine: Dreamtime / Words from the Front". Popmatters. 22 September 2008.
- Rollingstone Rolling Stone review
- Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Tom Verlaine". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 848–49. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- Lacey, Liam (26 June 1982). "Words from the Front Tom Verlaine". The Globe and Mail. p. F6.
- Piccarella, John (6 July 1982). "Season in Hell: Tom Verlaine dreams on". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
- "Albums and Tracks of the Year". NME. 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.