TV on the Radio – Seeds
Harvest, 2014
In my head, TV on the Radio is way more avant-garde than
they actually are. Somehow I forget that these guys aren’t avant-garde so much
as innovative. As in the most innovative rock band currently going. Is that
hyperbole? Overstatement? I’m listening to Seeds
and wondering how a band so effortlessly brands their music with so much soul,
excitement, cool, and straight-up kickassedness. Seeds isn’t as out there as their much lauded masterwork Return to Cookie Mountain, but even
though it’s a pretty straightforward effort it’s one of the best rock records
of the year. What TV on the Radio do feels effortless in a way that it
overshadows how hard these guys work to make the music sound that way.
Somehow or other I missed the band’s 2011 album Nine Types of Light. Like totally missed
it. Didn’t hear a single. Didn’t see the cover art. I didn’t even know it
existed. I thought Seeds was the
follow up to Dear Science (and
thought “Damn, that’s a long time in between records”). It’s really been ten
years since Desperate Youth, Blood
Thirsty Babes? Ten years since TV on the Radio revealed itself to be on an
entirely different planet than every other rock band. Tunde Adupimbe’s vocals
anchor TVOTR’s art rock tendencies in a prism that can go from soulful
(“Careful You”) to energetic (“Lazerray”) to borderline menacing (“Happy Idiot”)
in damn compelling fashion. Of course it’s not just the vocals, because these
guys are more than adept at churning out some of the tightest compositions
you’re likely to hear anywhere and guitarist/producer Dave Sitek is one of this
era’s producers of note. There’s not a lot of envelope pushing going on here,
and given the quality of the songs this isn’t an issue.
"Careful You"
"Happy Idiot"
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