Compiled by bandleader Daniel Treacy, this 22-track retrospective of British new wave heroes the Television Personalities serves as the perfect entry point for casual listeners and is a nearly definitive greatest-hits collection for longtime fans. Focusing on the group's output from 1978 to 1989, Part Time Punks: The Very Best of Television Personalities includes classics like "Painting by Numbers," "Someone to Share My Life With," and "Salvador Dali's Garden Party, " as well as the inf   [ read more ]

CD $18.03

This is their first album in eleven years. It's as sad as it is uplifting, as gentle as it is noisy. Ever since releasing their first DIY-single in 1977, "14th Floor", and the classic follow-up "Part Time Punks" later the same year, The TVPs have always been about Dan Treacy's songwriting; his honest words and unique voice. In the '90s Dan lost the plot. Drugs took over his life. Two summers ago, he turned up while serving a prison sentence on a boat on the shore of Southwest England. Regrets, he's had more   [ read more ]

CD $13.99

Other people also bought:

Tapes 'n Tapes  The Loon, Liars  Drum's Not Dead, Margot and the Nuclear So and So's  The Dust of Retreat

VINYL FORMAT. This is their first album in eleven years. It's as sad as it is uplifting, as gentle as it is noisy. Ever since releasing their first DIY-single in 1977, "14th Floor", and the classic follow-up "Part Time Punks" later the same year, The TVPs have always been about Dan Treacy's songwriting; his honest words and unique voice. In the '90s Dan lost the plot. Drugs took over his life. Two summers ago, he turned up while serving a prison sentence on a boat on the shore of Southwest England. Regrets,   [ read more ]

LP $13.99

Other people also bought:

Belle & Sebastian  Storytelling (Original Soundtrack), Television  Marquee Moon, Autechre  Draft 7.30

This is their first album in eleven years. It's as sad as it is uplifting, as gentle as it is noisy. Ever since releasing their first DIY-single in 1977, "14th Floor", and the classic follow-up "Part Time Punks" later the same year, The TVPs have always been about Dan Treacy's songwriting; his honest words and unique voice. In the '90s Dan lost the plot. Drugs took over his life. Two summers ago, he turned up while serving a prison sentence on a boat on the shore of Southwest England. Regrets, he's had more   [ read more ]

MP3 $9.99

Other people also bought:

Billy Bragg  Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Animal Collective  People EP, Nada Surf  The Weight Is A Gift

Don't Cry Baby It's Only a Movie (1998) is the final Television Personalities album, and it sounds even more disturbing in retrospect than it did when it was recorded: by the time of its November 1998 release, Television Personalities leader Daniel Treacy was legally declared missing. A diagnosed schizophrenic who had gone off his medication, Treacy ended up fulfilling the increasingly bleak sentiments of the Television Personalities' albums, going all the way back to 1989's depressive {^P   [ read more ]

CD $18.03

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"   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

Television Personalities split up in 1982, after five years as D.I.Y. pioneers. It turned out to be a temporary development (although Ed Ball, Dan Treacy's artistic foil, never did return, busying himself by turning his side project, the Times, into a full-time -- sorry -- proposition), but the split was marked by the mysterious compilation They Could Have Been Bigger Than the Beatles. An unannotated collection of re-recorded versions of tracks from their first two albums, early singles, and    [ read more ]

CD $16.13

A more cleanly produced Television Personalities' 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-'80s layoff. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

CD $16.13

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 Trea   [ read more ]

CD $18.04

Proving that not every live tape should be officially released, Camping in France is a virtual aural disaster for the Television Personalities. A certain amount of D.I.Y. sloppiness is a given with the band, but this album has one thinking less of the Byrds, or even the Sex Pistols, and more of the Dead Milkmen, sans the humor. The vocals are so out of tune on the opening "Kings and Country," that even fans may wonder if they're missing the joke. Those still yearning for a glimpse into the   [ read more ]

CD $22.78

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, All Music Guide

CD $25.63

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, All Music Guide

CD $9.48