TV On the Radio- Dear Science

[sureshot]

So, this has leaked. Um...album of the year, anyone?

[benjamin]

I've listened to it 2x. I dig it. My first thought is that it's where Beck SHOULD be. I like all the horns and strings on the later tracks. Sounds great?... yeah. But not so much album of the year. That honor for me is still the Plants and Animals album.

[Moe_Syzlak]

Yeah I'm just getting started with it. My first impressions are that it is much more accessible than Cookie Mountain. I'm not sure that is a good thing or a bad thing ... or just a thing. But what I loved about Cookie Mountain was the unexpectedness of it all. Either way, Dear Science, is a great album, but I'll need more time before I could put it at the top of my list above Cloud Cult, Man Man, Raconteurs, Malkmus, Beck Black Keys, Dr. Dog, Sigur Ros, Plants and Animals, etc.

[solace]

So, this has leaked. Um...album of the year, anyone?

 

not quite, but top 5 for me after only a week, no doubt about that

[uwmryan]

It's good, not great for me so far. It hasn't hooked me the way cookie mountain did when it came out. Still some very bright spots on it though

[sureshot]

personally, i thought RTCM was wildly overrated. It wasnt bad, but it was really unfocused, and i didnt like the production. To me Dear Science is a quantum leap above RTCM. It is more 'accessible", but I dont think thats necessarily a bad thing...its not like we're in Lite FM territory. the mix has been improved so that you can actually hear individual instruments and place where they're coming from. I dunno, to my ears it sounds absolutely brilliant. It took me 2-3 listens to really grasp. Right now Love Dog and DLZ are blowing my mind, but I dont think theres a single weak chain in the entire work.

[mechanical_bird]

I'm gonna listen to it tonight and im excited

[myboyblue]

I've never really gotten into them heavy so I'm a bit late to the party. I've listened through a couple of times and like what I hear. A bit of what Prince should sound like today.

[solace]

Cookie Mountain was light years musically ahead of the first EP and LP, and this only furthers their sound even more. the EP and first album showed a ton of promise, but musically i found both lacking and the borderline acapella grew tiring after a bit.

 

i can certainly see it ending up in my top 3 at the end of the year, but there's still a handful of potentially great albums to be released (Doves possibly for one)

 

Lover's Day is stunning

[sureshot]

but there's still a handful of potentially great albums to be released (Doves possibly for one)

 

yea, the new Mogwai is really wowing me right not too.

[benjamin]

yea, the new Mogwai is really wowing me right not too.

 

and the new Jenny Lewis is pretty damn amazing

[solace]

and the new Jenny Lewis is pretty damn amazing

 

while i really love Acid Tongue, i don't think it's even as good as Rabbit Fur Coat

[Synthesizer Patel]

while i really love Acid Tongue, i don't think it's even as good as Rabbit Fur Coat

 

i've not heard that yet. i heard it leaked, and i sought it out, but never found it. i'm going hunting again now, i think. edit: found it!

 

as for dear science, i'm loving it at the moment. i had high hopes for this, and it's living up to it at the moment. now, as long as animal collective put out an album this year and it equals what i'm expecting it to sound like, this year won't have been a total wash out for my tastes.

[wilceaux]

while i really love Acid Tongue, i don't think it's even as good as Rabbit Fur Coat

 

 

I agree. She just seems to be trying to extend her vocals a little more than she ought to.

Rabbit Fur Coat has a certain sweetness to it that I really like. It's a very underrated record, IMO.

 

Oh, and Dear Science kicks ass.

[Calexico]

TVOTR...top album. The new one really grabbed me first listen. So much great new music released this year.

[intodeep]

This is a very very good album. I just got it yesterday and have only listened to it about 2.5 times but I am hooked and can't see myself listening to anything else for a while!

[LouisvilleGreg]

I haven't gotten this yet, sounds like it should be high on my priority list after reading your comments and several great reviews. Here's one from our "good" pals at Pitchfork:

 

 

TV on the Radio:

Dear Science

[interscope; 2008]

Rating: 9.2

 

Dear Science, TV on the Radio's follow-up to 2006's Return to Cookie Mountain-- a dense and textural album with an optimistic core-- is catchier, but thornier than its predecessor. Musically, it's an instant grabber: Handclaps crack like fireworks. TVOTR's horns, courtesy of the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, sound punchier and brighter than ever before. Vocalists Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist/singer Kyp Malone thrive as dual frontmen: They're sexy when they're angry, and even sexier when they're not. And David Sitek's production is shiny and urgent, while his harsher synths and doo-dads hang back like a commentary track.

 

But making popular music sits uneasily with this art-rock crew, and so although this is TV on the Radio's slickest, catchiest, and potentially most popular LP, it nevertheless reeks with dread. Lyrics about the dead, death, and dying litter the album from its second line onward. Songs with sentimental titles carry the most dire lyrics-- like "Family Tree", a gorgeous ballad about forbidden love whose titular plant becomes a gallows. And the lyrics to "Red Dress" are almost childishly pouty. Assuming the role of industry-bred stars, TVOTR complain that instead of waving collective fists in the air, listeners are merely getting down to their Prince-like guitars and brash brass: "They got you tamed, and they got me tamed." But the self-hatred makes it engaging: "I'm living a life not worth dying for."

 

The promise of dancing away all your troubles hangs over every sweaty note, until TVOTR happily yank it away. On "Dancing Choose", the big chorus and synth power-chords interrupt the funk and double-time vocals to remind us this is a rock band, prone to making big statements. See also "DLZ", a half-rap, half-primal scream from Adebimpe that sounds like it's aimed at every figure of power in the world. But how do they follow that? With a big brash song about fucking. Anthemic horns and parade drums treat the whole thing like a football pep rally, "I'm gonna take you, I'm gonna shake you, I'm gonna make you cum." That could be their most transparent lyric yet.

 

"Shout Me Out" is the only cut that reveals any unselfconscious joy. With a chorus that borrows well from Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", it comes the closest to the raw sound of their past works: Repetitive guitar and a chiming synth loop introduce Adebimpe singing a gentle verse, as the song builds to a fantastic, frenetic release and the electric guitar crackles and rails along. This is familiar territory for them-- and they get out fast.

 

Yes, this is shit-hot thrilling music. But it's also brainy and ambivalent, and more engaging for it. TV on the Radio remain a true Event Band, and the sign o' the times they capture here isn't audacious hope, or fierce revolution: it's confusion. They're the house band for a country that has no idea what'll hit it next, and Dear Science is a jagged landscape of self-doubt, Bush-hate, and future-fear. And once in a while, you still get some of their optimism. Take the first single and the album's fulcrum, "Golden Age", which ice skates to heaven on billowing horns, sweet swirling strings, a video that stars harmless dancing cops, and Malone's falsetto. Malone has said it's about "utopia." And he sings like he still believes in it. But he has nothing to back him up but the beat.

[Kalle]

I dug Cookie Mountain a fair amount but I have been really getting into this one, really good stuff.

[Moe_Syzlak]

There is nothing on this album I love as much as Province, I Was a Lover, Wolf Like Me or Blues From Down Here, but the overall effect and consistency of this one is much stronger than Cookie Mountain, IMO. It has climbed to third place in my best of the year list, but I still think Cloud Cult and Man Man are stronger.

[bigideas]

i'm gonna pick this up.

 

nothing i'd heard from them in the past peaked my ears at all, but i streamed the whole record with bonus tracks at fm whatever and i dug it.

[sureshot]

Highest rated album of the year so far on Metacritic:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/tv...dio/dearscience

[Moe_Syzlak]

I am generally not a fan of these lists (except my own), but "Dear Science," is the #1 album of 2008 according to Rolling Stone and Spin and #2 according NME.

[Littlebear]

Everybody keeps mentionning this album everywhere, but I've listened to some tracks on myspace and don't get what the buzz is about.

[bigideas]

Everybody keeps mentionning this album everywhere, but I've listened to some tracks on myspace and don't get what the buzz is about.

 

I was actually thinking it seems to be the highest ranked least buzzed album.

 

Then again, I only subscribe to Paste (because of last year's $1 subscription) and they didn't rate it too highly.

[mikeyk52]

Everybody keeps mentionning this album everywhere, but I've listened to some tracks on myspace and don't get what the buzz is about.

 

It took me a few listens to get into it, but now I really like it. Do yourself a favor and listen to the album the whole way through. It won't be a waste of your time.