Post by chrisquartly on Sept 25, 2008 16:08:33 GMT
A wondrous event has happened bi-annually since 2004, TV On the Radio release an album. There's a split emotion of excitement and dread when one of my favourite bands release a new record, you simply cannot wait to hear it, and yet, there's almost a worry that it will be a disappointment. Thankfully, TV On the Radio have produced the goods yet again with their 3rd full-length release.
Debut album Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes had a claustrophobic, almost chilling atmosphere which was followed up with Return to Cookie Mountain's more organic, almost bombastic flavour, Dear Science has a much cleaner, brighter sound. While many bands tend to concentrate on either melody, rhythm, or simply how they sound or even look, I find TV On the Radio's music about creation, the vibe, the songs are alive and whether or not a song is upbeat, morose, or anything in between, everything sounds like a celebration of a creative process, with three distinct albums, pieces or art, even, under their belts I'm more convinced than ever when I say they're the best band of the 21st century. An accolade I have championed them with for a few years now.
Opening track Halfway Home gets the album off to an intriguing start, musically sounding a bit like a Tubeway Army track. Tunde Adepimbe's distinctive vocals, delivered almost lullaby-like over the tom led drum beats and background clapping.
The Kyp Malone-led Crying is a bright, funky tune and while Malone's lyrics are bleak the delivery comes across as an upbeat tune, particularly towards the end of the song when the horns, keyboards and drums come together.
Dancing Choose sounds like it could become another anthem for the band, with its rapping verse and uplifting chorus seems to deal with the over-commercialisation of the modern world. As usual there is a myriad of styles and sounds on the album, Stork and Owl slows things down and provides us with the bands most emotional vocal performance to date while Family Tree is drenched in an Eno-esque swirl of sound, the closest thing the band have come so far to a ballad, essential to the TVOTR sound is the dynamic between Tunde and Kyp’s vocals, perfectly shown here once again. Love Dog is probably the one song that would have sounded quite at home on Return to Cookie Mountain. Shout Me Out is one of the few songs on the record where the band go a little crazy with the guitars (more of a feature on previous records).
The Prince-like first single Golden Age starts with a funky combination of drums and guitar building up to fuzzy synths, hand claps and horn sections resulting in an oral orgasmic eruption.
See the music video for Golden Age here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCcEg0tok8o
Lyrically the band still deal with politics and the fact that not all is well with the world, Red Dress features the lyric "Fuck your war, ‘cause I’m fat and in love and the bombs are fallin’ on me for sure, but I’m scared to death that I’m living a life not worth dying for” over wirey guitar tones and funk rhythms.
Penultimate track DLZ jumped out at me straight away, the most ominous sounding track on the album with it's hypnotic drum pattern and eerie vocals backed by haunting synths and organs, when the song finishes it leaves you with the odd feeling of sonic exhaustion whilst yearning for more.
The albums ends with Lovers Day, the band once again turning to Katrina Ford of Celebration to play her part in a vocal duet (Sitek produced Celebration’s first album and Ford has featured on previous TVOTR records) as the album slinks off with a triumphant finale.
Tracklist:
Halfway Home
Crying
Dancing Choose
Stork & Owl
Golden Age
Family Tree
Red Dress
Love Dog
Shout Me Out
DLZ
Lover's Day
9/10
The band are touring extensively for the rest of the year, frustratingly I've always missed them in the last few years but will have the pleasure of seeing them in London on the 19th of November. Catch them if you can.
www.tvontheradio.com
www.myspace.com/tvotr