TV on the Radio: "Dear Science"
By Ashley Norton Brooklyn’s TV on the Radio has been the darling of the experimental rock scene since the release of their last album "Return to Return of Cookie Mountain" in 2006. Their latest album, “Dear Science,” out Sept. 23, had a lot to live up to: both Rolling Stone and Spin put “Return to Cookie Mountain” on their top 5 albums of 2006 lists. “Return to Cookie Mountain” is a beautifully constructed and complex album that puts forth a big, unique sound for its listeners. “Dear Science,” does not disappoint fans of the 2006 album. In the simplest terms, “Dear Science” uses the same big sound as a backdrop. However, on this album it is made to sound more accessible and less distant by bringing up lead singer Tunde Adebimpe’s vocals, and speeding up the tempo to something danceable. Where “Return to Cookie Mountain” conjured up images of a chorus of ghosts on a dark street late at night, “Dear Science” sounds more like the tail end of a party in a Williamsburg loft. The first track shows that change in style immediately. It starts out with the anticipated big sound—fuzzy distorted guitar with a faster beat—but there’s still the familiar hand clapping added to the overall texture. The background vocals start in, singing "ba ba ba ba ba bum, ba ba ba ba bum,” like a classic surf-pop hit from the early ‘60s. The track continues to open up from there, with up-front vocals and a sound that just fills your head. The second track, “Crying,” surprises the “Return to Cookie Mountain” fan even more with a straight-up pop-dance beat and clean, straightforward and nearly Prince-like vocals from Adebimpe, decrying the stresses of everyday life in this complex modern world. There’s still that hazy, distortion in the background, something reminiscent of their earlier work. “Dancing Choose” will remind fans of the track “Blood Thirsty Babes,” off the 2004 album “Desperate Youth.” The song has fast, rap-like and somewhat angry vocals paired with a spared-down beat. “Shout Me Out” does a good job of changing their sound. The band starts out with a pared-down beat, bass and straightforward vocals. Slowly, in the background, they add in a bigger sound until it all just bursts in the bridge, with Adebimpe saying “Lord, if you got lungs; come on, shout me out!” Then, in the background, what’s heard is a chorus of people doing exactly that. It’s a song that feels like a crowded concert, rather than the lonely dark roads of “Return to Cookie Mountain.” The album is not without its slower and more beautiful moments. “Family Tree” is a sort of ballad à la Coldplay—or something equally piano-filled, spacious and innocuous—with the TV on the Radio trademark of vocals doubling in octave. It’s a bit unusual for this band to play with soaring strings and echoing piano lines, but they pull it off gracefully. It’s hard to criticize them for playing with these elements, though they may be entirely different from their musical background. The most infectious track on the album is “Golden Age.” The song has a bouncy funk guitar line, a perfectly placed hand clapping rhythm, with the familiar bass being put to an entirely new use. It is an integral part of the beat, rather than a wall of sound. The vocals put Adebimpe’s cleaned up falsetto to good use, and the lyrics are so optimistic about the near future that you can’t help but obey them when they tell you to clap and dance along. Overall, this album takes TV on the Radio onto a more accessible, more danceable plain. Nevertheless, they choose to dance and sing and rejoice about both their troubles and joy, whereas “Return to Cookie Mountain” neglected the dancing in favor of a darker sound. Though different from the critically acclaimed “Return to Cookie Mountain,” it is in no way less complex and wonderfully constructed. It does not entirely abandon the sounds that defined their earlier albums. If you thought TV on the Radio had a distant, vaguely creepy and dark sound in the past, give this album a listen and you may be able to appreciate the level of musicality that critics everywhere have been raving about since 2006. |
