Search - Richard Lloyd :: Real Time

A Good, Back to Basis Pop-Rock Album

Omer Belsky | Haifa, Israel | 03/15/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Richard Lloyd's 'Real Time', a live album featuring songs from his first two albums and a few others, is a melodic Rock album, filled with neat guitar riffs and lengthy but never excessive solos.Lloyd is well known as the second guitarist of Television, one of the most unique art-rock bands in the world. As a solo Artist, he moves away from the
experimental poetry and mad guitars of Television, towards a 60s influenced guitar based songs. Although hardly ground-breaking, the result is nonetheless immensely listenable.Starting with a rendition of Rocy Erikson's Fire Engine (a song also performed by Television), this CD offers 13 tracks with an astounding sound quality and wonderful performances - some people complain about Lloyd's vocals, but to me they are solid through and through, and show a competent and confident frontman.The songs themselves are almost uniformly Pop-Rock. 'Misty Eyes' is probably the best of the bunch as a far as beautiful melodies go, but 'Spider Walk' 'Alchemy' and 'Black to White' are almost as seductive. 'Soldier Blue' is not quite a Punk song, but hearing Lloyd shouting the title with Hendrix-esque guitar work is quite nice. On 'Losing Anna' Lloyd channels the Stones in a cool Hard Rocker. 'The Only Feeling' is a rewrite of Sweet Jane, and probably the weakest track here.For those who miss the adventurous guitars of Television, 'Fields of Fire' and 'Pleading' have their moments. The former, especially, has an epic sound (although the lyrics are a little silly), and the letter has agression and energy that reminds you, once again, how vital a part of Television Lloyd was."

Can Never Have Too Much Guitar

Mark DiMartino | East Glenville, New York United States | 09/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Although the lyrics are adolescent at times and Lloyd's voice a bit rough, he performs each song with an energy and conviction that matches his exciting, LOUD and adventurous guitar playing. The drumming is solid but somewhat repetitive from track to track but this is a minor flaw.

I first discovered 'Real Time' in the local library 10 years ago on cassette and contemplated telling the librarian that I 'lost' the tape as I was unable to find it anywhere. Finally the CD was released containing 2 additional tracks with of course better sound quality."