there's no doubt that marquee moon is the essential television record, but that self-titled album has plenty of great songs on it. it's probably one of the best "comeback" records by anyone.
i actually like adventure , too. tom verlaine's first few solo albums have lots of good moments as well.
i could go on and on about the brilliance of television and verlaine/lloyd, but it basically comes down to this: they were a classic rock band in the 1975-1978 milieu of NYC punk. you can hear as much dylan/allmans influence as the velvets in their music. when everybody else was writing terse, urgent anthems, television were writing epic songs with unique melodies and arrangements.
