Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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29 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
yours sincerely..., 22 Sep 2008
I am new to TV On The Radio so I have spent the last few weeks sampling their world. For those as green as me TV On The Radio (or TVOTR) are a Brooklyn based five-piece. Their music is hard to categorise taking in as it does soul, electro, shoegaze, funk, doo-wop, free jazz and post-punk influences. I was initially intrigued by one description of them which invoked comparisons to David Bowie and early Prince. So I have been listening to their three albums; Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004), Return To Cookie Mountain (2006) and the recently released Dear Science. I won't go into too much detail about the first two. Desperate Youth is crammed full of ideas and influences which don't quite come together perfectly but are a hell of an introduction to a newbie like me, Cookie Mountain is a giant leap forward production-wise; a huge sonic assault of an album which attacks you from all angles. And Dear Science sees them bring the ideas, influences, production and music making intelligence together into their most cohesive release yet. It's extraordinary.
Just the opening track 'Halfway Home' contains Joy Division guitars, bouncy 'ba ba ba ba ba bum' backing vocals, and hand claps before a balladeering Bowie vocal lifts the song along with ethereal keyboards; but don't let all that beauty hide the fact that the lyrics are filled with dread and damage. What a start. The funky guitars on 'Crying' shouldn't blind you to the anger contained in lyrics like 'Time to take the wheel and the road/From the masters/Take this car, drive it straight into the wall/Build it back up from the floor.' Nor those lyrics spat out against the media on 'Dancing Choose'. In fact this album is filled with frustration, protest and the wish for change; all very apposite at his time of election in America.
The psychedelic 'Golden Age' yearns for a better future described by Kyp Malone's sensual falsetto vocal. And the unashamedly romantic 'Family Tree' with its simple piano accompaniment somehow manages to be so much more with strings, octave separated vocals and some skillful production from Sitek . Let's also talk about the lyrics that hint at something very dark indeed - 'We're hanging in the shadow of your family tree/Your haunted heart and me/Brought down by an old idea whose time has come/And in the shadow of the gallows of your family tree/There's a hundred hearts or three/Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep them young.' Come on Chris Martin, keep up.
How do you recover from that? With the full on funk assault of 'Red Dress' of course, 'F**k your war!' they shout and jangling guitars and a big brass section lead us into a big dance number. 'Love Dog' sounds simple at first but is beautifully textured, the vocals built up in layers, whilst subtle strings and beats reminded me of Bjork. There's even the dramatic collision of guitars and drum and bass on 'Shout Me Out'. But there's real menace in 'DLZ' with it's opening line 'Congratulations on the mess you made of things' and what follows is a barrage of imagery backed up by a religious sounding organ. To round things off there's the filthy 'Lover's Day' which comes on with all the pomp of a marching band and delivers lyrics that would probably make Prince blush.
It's a shameless end to an exhilarating album filled with musical invention, intelligent and politicised lyrics and top-notch production. Sitek seems to have found the right balance with this album; where Cookie Mountain sometimes collapsed under the weight it was carrying Dear Science is like a prize fighter, tipping the scales exactly where it needs to be, bouncing round the ring and landing blow after blow, leaving the listener punch drunk (sorry, enough metaphor, I should leave it to Tunde Adebimpe). That's the best I can do for now. It's very difficult to summarise how you feel when you hear something really exciting, you just want other people to hear it too. This is music chock full of energy, meaning and pure talent. Stop reading, start listening.
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18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weird and Wonderful Science, 22 Sep 2008
I know not whether Mr Jones deserves the pasting delivered by Mr Carter for
his brief but positive review but I will try, not without a little trepidation,
to deliver a Wolf's-eye view of this splendid new offering from TV On The Radio.
Messrs Adebimpe, Malone, Sitek, Bunton and Smith have every reason to
be proud of themselves. From the Beachboys-On-Mars opening 'Halfway Home',
to the martial mayhem of closing track 'Lover's Day' we are clearly
travelling through a very exotic landscape indeed.
The fusion of electronic and accoustic (brass and strings) elements in
these eleven extraordinarily bold compositions is exemplary.
The expressionistic lyrical themes and vocal performances are both
elusive and affecting in equal measure.
From the raucous funk of 'Golden Age' and 'Red Dress' (Mr Bowie hovers,
smiling, in the wings) via the surreal melodic ambience of 'Love Dog' to
the strangely haunting and beautiful 'Family Tree' and 'Stork & Owl'
there is not not an ounce of spare musical gristle or fat anywhere to be
found in this deeply satisfying project.
Uplifting. Smart. Consumately Conceived.
Highly Recommended.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's a golden age!, 24 Sep 2008
TV On the Radio is one of those is rarest and most precious in contemporary music -- they actually possess creativity, talent, and an earthy musical power.
And if their brilliant sophomore album was a dense exploration of a "Cookie Mountain," then their third album is a dance-filled festival of colour and vivacious song. "Dear Science" sounds like TV on the Radio has stepped back from their more intense work, decided to have some fun with their music, and whipped the same sounds into a dancier, warmer album. And it works brilliantly.
They warm up with the thumping, breathless post-rock of "Halfway Home," an ever-building cloud of subtle instrumentation and mellow vocals. It's very reminiscent of the band's prior work, and serves as a bridge to their new sound. And it soon becomes evident that the band is not just trying to get a catchy single on the radio -- they rush through the funk-jazzy warmth of "Crying" and the delightfully wild electro-funk of "Dancing Choose," which sounds like the band got pumped full of caffeine.
Then they try all sorts of other songs -- wild dancy electro-funk, slow wistful jazz-ballads, the string-laden post-rock of, hip-hoppy rock numbers strung with golden keyboard, and even a mellow, soulful jazzy-electro ballad ("Lonely the love dog that/no one knows the ways of"). And it finishes up with a trio of stunningly unpolished dance songs -- the blazing, fast-moving "Shout Me Out," the swirlingly bleak "DLZ" and finally the dense uplifting thicket of "Lover's Day."
The absolute peak of all this the organic beats and funky rhythms of "Golden Age," as Tunde Adebimpe whispers suitably offbeat lyrics in a high-pitched voice. But then the tight electro-funky song blooms into a great sweeping mass of movie-musical-style trumpets and epic strings, still saturated with a funky beat and joyous cries of "Oh it's a miracle... and there's a golden age/coming round, coming round, COMING ROOOOOOUUNNNDDD..."
Few bands are able to take all the elements of their music, mix it up in a blender, and then reconstruct them in a completely different -- but equally brilliant -- way. "Dear Science" would be a brilliant album just taken on its own merits, but the enormity of what TV on the Radio was able to do with their distinctive sound makes it even more mind-blowing.
In a sense, their music is both darker and more entertaining -- we get plenty of solid guitar work, ranging from buzzing postrock riffs to a blazing rock'n'roll drive, as well as a sweeps of movie-style strings, a powerful horn section that blazes out in songs like "Lover's Day," dancy beats, and the unstoppable webs of ever-shifting synth that snare your ear like a spiderweb. Though they're more confident and assured than ever, they still have that rough edge that keeps the poppiest song from sounding, you know, studio-polished.
Tunde Adebimpe has a voice like a cup of strong coffee -- it's powerful, organic, and a little bit bitter around the edges. He raps, he croons, he murmurs, he snarls, he sings over the blazing horns. And the lyrics he sings, while not quite the most focused work they've done, are still brilliantly meaty stuff that spans everything from death to newspaper men, love dogs to forbidden love ("Alone in the ceiling/ours is a feeling/not that they would see/they don't know that we could be/the million cradles in the sea...")
"Dear Science" is brilliant example of just how far TV on the Radio's talents go -- they can change their entire style and yet sound like no one but themselves.
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