Debate rages among Verlaine fans about which is his best solo album but a significant camp opts for Dreamtime, his 1981 sophomore release, with its dense, ringing instrumental interplay. Highlight tracks include �There�s a Reason,� �Penetration� and �Always.� The all-star band featured Verlaine on guitars and vocals; Fred Smith (Television), bass; Bruce Brody (Patti Smith Group, Pretenders), keyboards; Jay Dee Daughtery (Patti Smith Group, The Church), drums; Rich Teeter (The Dictators, Twisted Sister), drums; Ritchie Flieger, guitar; and Donnie Nossov (John Waite, Pat Benatar, Lita Ford), bass. In the liner notes� oral history by the band members, bassist Smith recalls, �Recording with Tom was much the same as recording with Television. The only difference was for Television�s Marquee Moon, we played that stuff for years live. [On this album] there was stuff that developed in the studio.� Daughtery added, �There�s an improvisation and intensity to his music with dynamics and tension that builds and subsides.� And Nossov summed it up: �I thought artistically, it was a very successful record. I�m sorry that more people didn�t get to hear it. But maybe that will change.�

For his follow-up to Dreamtime, Verlaine decided to challenge himself, and instead of falling back on familiar producers and band members, wiped the boards clean by enlisting all new personnel. As annotator Gross states, �It wasn�t just a far cry from Television but even from his previous record. As such, Words From the Front has the distinction of being Verlaine�s most underappreciated album, which makes this reissue a great excuse to re-evaluate it.� Musicians included Jimmy Rip, guitar (who had never previously heard Verlaine�s work, but with whom he�s now played for 25 years); plus Mink DeVille members Joe Vasta, bass; and drummer Tommy Price. Highlights are �Present Arrives,� �Postcard from Waterloo,� �Coming Apart� and �Days.� The album does contain one Dreamtime out-take, �Clear It Away� (which featured Verlaine�s former rhythm section, Jay Dee Daughtery and Fred Smith), noted for what Gross describes as its �dark atmosphere, ghostly guitars . . . and voice [that] trails off wildly.� The liner notes conclude: �Sad to say, the pop world wasn�t ready for an ambitious record like this, not while it was in the throes of MTV, Thriller, Survivor, Men at Work and Human League . . . Restless spirit that he is, Verlaine just kept going his own way regardless as he always has � a model of single mindedness and an amazingly idiosyncratic combo of singer/songwriter and guitar that�s not often seen.�

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