TV On The Radio Brings Many Aboard
Collaborators and empowerment shine through on Dear Science
TV on the Radio
Dear Science
Released on Sep 23, 2008
The list of collaborators for Dear Science, TV on the Radio’s brilliant new album, reads like a who’s who for musical diversity: a classical saxophonist and composer (Martin Pena), an electronic funk duo (Celebration), an Afrobeat innovator (Stuart Bogie of Antibalis), dreampop architects (Blonde Redhead) and an art-punk guitarist (Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Oh, and a little David Bowie, thrown in for good measure. If that sounds like a bit of a cluster fuck, you’re right; but it’s perfectly in keeping with everything that makes TV on the Radio unique - they find space for innovation in contradiction.
Dear Science exemplifies the fact; the music itself is more expansive and accessible than anything the band has done before. “Halfway Home” begins with a churning dance beat set to hand claps before shifting to a dreamscape melody for its explosive chorus. It’s a stark contrast from their last album opener, “I Was a Lover,” from 2006’s Return To Cookie Mountain, whose mix of freeform rap and jazz set the tone for a dense set of songs. “Halfway Home,” for all its multiple layers, feels leaner and more energetic. Indeed, about half of Dear Science follows this pattern; “Red Dress” features a jazz saxophone, thundering trumpets and a rollicking conga drum. “Golden Age,” the lead single, offsets a light electronic beat in its verses with a burst of horns and vox in its chorus. It’s the most melodic song on the album, and highlights the band’s ability to make even the most chaotic sounds seem entirely intentional.
The other half of the disc plays more to expectations. “Stork and Owl” couples a mechanized drumbeat to Kyp Malone and Dave Sitek’s falsetto vocals, and then layers the affair with plucked cellos and swooning violins. “Love Dog” pairs kraut rock rhythms to a swirl of strings and reverb. In fact, most of album makes a greater use of strings than anything in TV on the Radio’s previous work, and it gives the set an ethereal quality that offsets the heavy lyrical subject matter. A lot of bands would have difficulty combing these two sounds - the lean energy and the dense string work - into something coherent; but TV on the Radio make it feel like a natural marriage. The band uses the contrasts to craft something unexpectedly engaging.
The best track is probably “Family Tree,” which features little more than a simple piano progression and some backing violins. The stripped down music allows Tunde Adebimpe’s lyrics about marriage and domesticity grab the listener’s attention. “Oh take my hand sweet, complete your release and bury your feet, and married we'll be,” he sings before the strings play the melody out. “Family Tree” is a good example of the band’s lyrical shift on this album. Return To Cookie Mountain was all about spoiled love - relationships framed as prostitution or set in the backdrop of war and crisis. Dear Science retains the scenes of violence and loss, but build them in a way that makes the band sound as if they were finding strength in their anger. If their last album was debilitating, then this one can be considered empowering. Indeed, when Adebimpe wails, “Lord if you got loss, shout me out” on “Shout Me Out,” the band sounds something close to hopeful.
TV on the Radio are more complicated and contradictory than most popular bands, but they repay the dedication and time needed to digest their work with an album as powerful as it is diverse. Do we have a new frontrunner for album of the year?
High Point
"Family Tree" really shows off Adebimpe's song writing skills.
Low Point
A little David Bowie was not enough David Bowie. It's never enough.
Posted by Ryan Peters on Oct 07, 2008 @ 12:00 am
