TV on the Radio Albums
Tv On the Radio are one of the bands that defined the sound of the 21st century. They used current technology to explore new applications of older instruments, through distorted guitars, multi-layered vocals, and thousands of kinds of rhythmic pulses for percussive effects. The blend of vocals by lead singers Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone are alone a sound to behold- they push the boundaries of what is possible in rock music using a capella harmonies, soul music, and off key demented sounds. As vocal leaders of the group, Adebimpe has the pop and melodic heart but Malone is the true experimental man
using current technology and a variety of styles. In the background, David Sitek handles the production and the bands quite monolith waves of sound and noises. Through the first decade of the 2000’s, they had no equals.
Band Members:
Tunde Adebimpe – Vocals, sequencer
Kyp Malone - Vocals, Guitar
David Andrew Sitek - Guitar, Keyboards, Sound Manipulator
Jaleel Bunton – Drums, percussion
Gerard Smith – Bass (2005 – 2011)
Jahphet Landis – Bass (2011 – current)
(a revolving cast of other musicians and that I'm not sure are official members yet, including: Katrina Ford, and Chris Taylor)
Best Album:
Return to Cookie Mountain
Biggest Influences:
Earth Wind and Fire, Brian Eno, Pere Ubu, Prince, Parliament, Pixies, Ween, Royal Trux, Bad Brains
Albums Chronologically:
2003 – 100% - Young Liars EP
2004 - 91% - Desperate youth, Bloodthirsty Babes
2006 - 99% - Return to Cookie Mountain
2008 - 84% - Dear Science
2011 - 59% - Nine Types of Light
2014 - 68% - Seeds
2004
Desperate Youths, Bloodthirsty Babes - 91%
This debut album is more than the sum of its parts, as certain songs may stick out more than others, but it leaves a large impression on the listener. Tv on the Radio have a truly original sound, taking "Staring at the Sun" off of the Young Liars EP shows the band under the inspiration of one of their largest influences, Pixies (they also did something similar with Come on Pilgrim and "Vamous"). To say this band has many influences might seem obvious, but the way they blend them on tunes like the mix of shoegaze guitars and doo-wop vocals on opener "Wrong Way" and the Earth, Wind and Fire homage "Bomb Yourself" show a truly unique band using ideas that are now fully fleshed out and updated for their times (the song ends a flurry of distorted guitars a la Red Red Meat). Each song establishes a mood, then plays with traditional rock song formulas, at times improvising another song entirely. The drumming by Jaleel Bunton stands out because it also mixes elements of electronic sounds in. Lead Singer Tunde Adebimpe stands out as one of rock’s great singers, his vocal range alone is worth a listen but they we he emotes in these songs manages to move the soul like very few people before him.
There is an astonishing heartfelt quality to this album, and the best songs lie in the middle of the record: "Dreams" is a mix of noise rock and African soul style chanting, in a way that has NEVER been done before; "King Eternal" is the albums best song, and is an ever evolving masterwork with a steady beat and a life altering middle section crescendo ("we will be, we will be, we will beeeee", repeated over a cascading symphony of guitar); "Ambulance" is an a capella track (amazing innovation) that shows an old standard of singing that is far from outdated; "Poppy" blends noise rock with their take on vocal harmonization. These four songs alone are so good that the rest of the album struggles some in comparison, toward the end both “Don’t Love You” and “Wear You Out” and are almost too traditional ballads that get left behind ( although the yelling of “You don’t know the half giiirl” later is pretty effective) Yet, no other rock band has ever truly sounded like TV on the Radio and this great debut shows a band with so much potential it nearly bursts out of the record. The band pushes rock music to new types of sounds and it does not overstay its welcome with a perfect length.
Best Songs: King Eternal, Ambulance, Dreams, Poppy
2006
Return to Cookie Mountain - 99%
The album cover is the abyss of a bird’s nest and I cannot think of a more fitting way to get into the mindset of listening to Return to Cookie Mountain. Even the playful title says it - the album is half cozy and half scary. TV on the Radio return in top form here, fulfilling the promise of their debut album and then some! The album is a perfect mix of The Platters meets My Bloody Valentine, and it takes you for a visionary ride. Hardly any tune is ever straight up verse-chorus-verse, the only straight forward song is "A Method", a song mocking song structures that sounds like a doo-wop band's remorse after ending a career. When Adebimpe says "this is hardly the method you know", he's not kidding at all (and then the end breaks into some insane arpeggiated passage). How did it build off of the previous albums? Well, the mid-altering "Playhouses" recalls "King Eternal" but in a very strange way, like everyone had a mental breakdown. Opener "I Was a Lover" recalls both "The Wrong Way" and "Wear You Out", but improves on any template. That's about all the old comparisons I can to, the rest is completely original and luckily accepted by the critical status quo of the time as the masterpiece it is. I’m not sure people still hold it in as high regard as when it came out in 2006, but they should, as it has aged astonishingly well. Sitek’s production alone is one for the ages, the way he fine tunes every single sound.
We have to talk about a candidate for best rock n roll song of all time: "Wolf Like Me" totally revamps the shoegazing genre on its own, it makes more modern bands look like amateurs. That one song is not only one of the best singles in a long time, but exemplifies the diversity on this record: it is the only song that sounds anything like a ‘chugging indie rock song’, of course it mixes in a vocal style harking back to the Delta Bluesmen in there too. It stands as the best song of the first decade of rock music, and honestly it’s an easy choice with a bridge that slows things down brilliantly before blasting out of the cannon with an echoing closer and defining mantra, “We are howling forever/ oo oh”. "Dirtywhirl" isn’t far behind that one in its originality and intricacy - a song about a wind storm that actually has a waltzing and whirling quality to it. "Province" is yet another ballad from the far ends of the universe, that features David Bowie as a guest singer, but it's actually hard to tell him from Adebimpe as the vocalists all blur together; "Hours" has unbelievable vocal harmonies but maybe the catchiest part of the album, but just when you think you understand it the song stops in the middle for a sort of vocal chiming effect.
The more demented, Kyp Malone presence is felt on "Blues from Down Here" (a mix of Nick Cave and H. R. from Bad Brains) which feels like it came barreling in from an old spiritual hymnal. This song reaches deeper into the soul than almost any other song I have heard before, and each verse shuffles around a killer melodic line. "Playhouses" is a madding scream from the depths of hell, so multi-layered that it is impossible to get a grasp on them in one listen, similar to the album as a whole. The words are a kaleidoscope of different phrases, “I can taste the ocean on your tongue.” Before just letting out a primal scream to the heavens. “Let the Devil In” is total tribal music primacy, harking back to the roots of the human race itself and sounding like some sort of human sacrifice or ritual. At the end of the record, "Tonight" casts a Brian Eno light on everything and the influence of Royal Trux shines out in the dual vocal approach- closer "Wash the Day" on its own is a lost track of Twin Infinitives, the difference is its soulful chorus chanted over a never-ending array sounds improves on everything that came before. Few albums could pull off one epic closer, let alone two! And neither of them outstay their welcome.
You have to sort of prepare yourself for Return to Cookie Mountain, as it takes several listens to completely absorb and seems longer than it is at an hour in length, but honestly not a minute is really wasted. It is one of the densest albums ever made, there are layers and layers of complexity to each track and it is perfectly sequenced. Disciples of the stranger more experimental sides of rock music, TV on the Radio push music beyond the pop realms and display experimental music at its best. I have NEVER heard an album quite like this and while I was expecting something good while, it blew me away after repeated listens. One of the greatest albums I've ever heard.
Best Songs: Wolf Like Me, Dirtywhirl, Playhouses, Blues from Down There, Hours
2008
Dear Science - 84%
The band’s 3rd album has them perfecting their sound even more, with more money to play with in the studio and yet another classic album. First off, “Halfway Home” is a steadily paced rocker that explodes a la “Wolf Like Me” towards the ending, asking “Am I just wondering for your touch/ the words you spoke/ not so much.” Tv on the Radio are still capable of moving the soul, a new type of ballad is invented on “Family Tree” and even more like a cyborg opera on “Stork and Owl” that is oddly moving; “Love Dog” is even sweet and tender and it totally works. The highly groovable “DLZ” is an all time classic, at once soothing us with amazing lullabies and then blasting us out of water with a powerful crescendo; “Dancing Choose” is almost even a disco anthem, but in a good way adding some of Adebimpe’s classy rapping at last the band’s vast genre hoping. The best songs on here still rank up with the band’s classic cannon, and that is a feat no easy to achieve.
While Tunde Adebimpe keeps everything growing and evolving, Kyp Malone seemed to discover his Prince-influence falsetto heart, songs like “Golden Age” straddle the line of Prince/ Bowie obsession. While these songs can be entertaining, it is not exactly the direction I love this band to go in; they simply are capable of more than this and it normalizes their sound to some degree even if the music is very entertaining. Then there are couple of tracks that go nowhere toward the second half of the record (“Red Dress”- too political over musical, “Shout Me Out” is maybe a little better of an attempt at least it builds into something powerful, and “Lovers” Day” is the first unimpressive finale for the band) as opposed to the nearly flawless first half. Still, songs such as the 70’s soul homage “Crying” show that the band still has the unique ability to fester up odd emotions in its listeners.
On Dear Science the band shows they are still capable of crafting great songs regardless of past styles. The sheen given to the production is fitting for the more accessible style present and it is probably the groups most popular album. While the overall atmosphere is not as harsh as Return to Cookie Mountain or Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes, it’s a nice cooldown after the overhaul of those two records.
Best Songs: DLZ, Halfway Home, Stork and Owl, Dancing Choose
2011
Nine Types of Light – 59%
For the most part this album reminds me of a group of musicians that has run out of ideas. Tv on the Radio seemed unstoppable in the 2000’s first decade, and I was much looking forward to their return, but the chill and ambient sort of atmosphere does not mix well with the singing on this album- it seems labored and uninspired for the most part. See “Keep your Heart”, “Forgotten”, “Repetition” and “No Future Shock” for examples of this. Some things still ring true – the beautiful harmonies in “You”, the balladry of “Will Do”, the catchy opener “Second Song” – but its not enough for a full album, and ending on the super charged “caffeinated Consciousness” kind of points out what is lacking on the remainder of the songs (and why are these song titles so bad?? I usually don’t care about stuff like that, but they’re very noticeably bad!) The amount of side projects the main members of the group are in (Sitek’s Maximum Balloon, Malone’s Iran) seems to have taken its toll, resulting in a lazy album with no verve or energy.
Best Songs: Second Song, Will Do, Caffeinated Consciousness
2014
Seeds - 68%
Seeds had a large task, revitalizing the TV on the Radio brand after the death of bassist Gerard Butler and the slump of an album that was Nine Types of Light. It does a good job at least of recalling what made the band so important in their earlier days. Interesting harmonies with doses of a cappella singing (“Quartz”, the epic and energetic “Ride”) stunning hard rock shoegaze inspired noise (the best song they have done in years “Lazerray”, the oddly produced horn laden “Could You”) and creating a psychedelic back ground to interesting effects (“Careful You”, “Right Now”)
Still, there are probably too many songs on here, and it lacks the verve of their early works. It kind of boggles my mind why the band thought they could pull off almost an hour long album again, that has rarely worked for them and so many songs could have easily been excluded- “Test Pilot”, the trying to hard to be relevant “Winter”, “Love Stained”, and “Trouble” jump to mind. Also, lead single “Happy Idiot” sounds a bit labored and lyrically vacant compared to the genius of their old work. I constantly ask myself, what happened to the band that made Return to Cookie Mt and Desperate Youth? Trying to give them benefit of the doubt, there are more decent and good tracks compared to Nine Types of Light, and so far this album has been their swan song, so they managed to go out with some style and grace.
Best Songs: Lazerray, Quartz, Ride
Compilations
2003
Young Liars EP - 100%
It’s hard to imagine someone's first reaction to this, one of the greatest debut EP’s of all time. Four out of this world songs and an a capella Pixies cover? Though many people will not acknowledge this TVOTR EP first, those that do will find it is as flawless as flawless can be. "Satellite" is everything you could ask for in an opener, as it defines the band's blend of doo wop and electronics form the get go and has an unbelievable chorus. "Staring at the Sun" has a same chilling effect, like a group of people caught in the middle of a solar eclipse and describing how beautiful it can be before they go….. the next track- "Blind" which is seven minutes of the singing style of Talking Heads meets Eels, the kind of dirge that has the power to change your life and stir your emotions, constantly chanting, “It’s been so long since last December/ If you save yourself I’ll save you all the time.” (this is probably my pick for best song the band ever did, save “Wolf Like Me”). It sets the template of the band’s entire career.
"Young Liars" is the most accessible song on here and makes a perfect closer of the original songs, it acts as a sort of call to arms for their generation with a powerful emotional climax. The thing the band exceeds on is the mix of psychedelic atmosphere meeting a mastery of harmonizing vocals. "Mr. Grives" is an a capella version of the Pixies song, with lead singer Tunde Adebimpe singing all of the multiple parts! One of the most creative covers and tributes to an influence ever, and they did it their own way. After a mixtape in 2002 called Ok Computer which is best described as a series of inside-jokes, their true first work of art is this EP and it stands out in 2003 announcing a new kind of rock n roll. When comparing to Pixies debut EP, this debut EP blows the pants off of Come On Pilgrim; that's for damn sure and that is saying a lot. It is the rare EP that sounds like a complete statement of power, even though it is shorter than any album at only 25 minutes.
Best Songs: all of them