OK, the album is really growing on me. Starting to fit in that category I outlined earlier where I don't like it at first, but I can't stop listening. Commenter Justin described it like this:
That's how I bought my first Coltrane album, A Love Supreme. I remember standing in the used CD store at the disc player they had up front where shoppers could sample their future purchases.Only it took me a few days. You know it's good when you get touched like that. When I was young, I knew I'd been hit when all my prejudices told me no, but I moved in spite of it, not even really understanding what was happening. I don't mean that "she starts fights at the club but she's really sexy" sort of deal. I mean that, "this isn't who I pictured myself liking" thing, It's great to get hit that way. It's like you've seen something so beautiful that it actually unveils something to you that was always hidden within you.About two minutes in, I thought, 'Wow, this guy has no rhythm. What's the big deal about him?'
About four minutes in, I thought, 'Why am I still listening?'
About ten minutes in, I thought, 'I think I hate this, but I'm buying it.'
I still think "Crying" is the stand-out track. That guitar-riff is funky as hell, and just sets the whole thing off. I was sitting here working when that cut came on, and it hit me so hard that I just randomly yelled out "God Damn." I know awful. Hope I'm not offending my religious contingent.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Finally got a copy of it today. It better be good, considering how much you've hyped it, man.
TNC,
I haven't stopped listening to it since last Tuesday. Its certainly one of the best albums of the year. I think 'Crying' is pretty amazing, but 'Shout Me Out' has become my favortie song on the album, with 'Family Tree' a close second. The crazy thing about 'Family Tree' is the subject matter is not anything I would have guessed the first few times listening to it. 'Stork and Owl,' 'DLZ,' and 'Lover's Day,' are also stellar. 'Lover's Day,' is downright dirty and much more literal than Kyp Malone's usual lyrics. Awesome.
Shani,
You may need to give it some time. It took awhile for me to truly get it. Even last week I was kinda like "I don't know..."
Yeah, I know people that literally HATED their last album when it first came out. There is something inherent about this band's sounds which forces repeat listenings. Its kind of difficult to put a finger on...
Well, I sat on "Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes" for about a year, before I forced myself to give it second chance. Now it's one of my favorite albums.
Listening now, and I gotta say, "Crying" caught me off-guard with the funkiness. I dig it. "Stork and Owl" also stood out.
This album seems less weird than Cookie Mountain.
This is probably, all told, the best TV On The Radio full-length yet (I still say that Young Liars is the best thing they've released so far).
It isn't just Sitek has stripped back the layers of production to reveal their pop hooks and soul sensibility, it is that the songs themselves are better and more melodic. Tunde and Kyp dovetail rather than tug of war on the shared lead vocals, which makes for sharper, tighter harmonies.
I think my favorite song so far is actually "Love Dog", which I haven't seen mentioned in any of the reviews of the album.
Metacritic has it as the album of the year so far, and I think I probably agree.
It's all about 'Dancing Choose' for me. Every way you've described 'Crying' is everything I've experienced in 'Dancing Choose.' It's like we're in parallel universes.
I totally agree that this is an album I didn't really like at first but couldn't stop listening to. In general, I can't really admit to my friends (and couldn't admit to myself for a while) that I like TV on the Radio - they seem like exactly the kind of hipster noise rock bullshit that usually come play my (small, public, out of the way liberal arts) college...except they actually know how to make good music. For anyone drawn to complexity in rock songs, this is a good listen.
TNC,
Sometimes I feel like you should be moonlighting over at pitchforkmedia.com.
-P.S.
It's nice to read about something other than this election every now and then. Keep up the good work.
Cool - glad to see Crying hit someone else, as I haven't seen it getting as much love as Golden Age, Family Tree, and Halfway. Dear Science could've used some trimming and restrained mixing, but it's their most consistent full-length by far, with the EP still the champ.
It took me a while to get used to it too. It felt less "organic" than their earlier stuff, which seems to be a trend. It has really grown on me though.
Same thing happened to me. At first I was put off, but couldnt' stop listening. Now I'm getting more and more into it. Love Dog is a classic.
I don't think they'll ever top the "Young Liars" EP.
TV on the Radio is definitely one of those bands whose albums warrant repeated listening before making a full judgment. I had DYBB on my computer and iPod for ages and maybe gave it half a listen. When RTCM came out my dad picked it up on a recommendation and raved about it to me, so I picked it up. I gave it one listen and liked it ok and so I decided to listen to DYBB again. Boom! The Wrong Hit me like a freight train and I then became obsessed with that album, while only casually listening to RTCM. After a month or two of that, I was in the car and heard "Wolf Like Me" on my college radio station and then began my obsession with RTCM. Dear Science was enjoyable at first listen, but didn't get under my skin right away. I was a little disappointed with how clean and polished it sounded but I knew this time to just give it some repeat listens and BAM, I love it. It doesn't rank above any of their other work for me yet but it will be extremely hard to beat for my personal album of the year.
Highlights for me:
Crying
Dancing Choose
Golden Age
Love Dog
DLZ
Tricky is crazy tighter than TV on the Radio.
I fail to see what Tricky has anything to do with this thread. Can we all just names bands/artists we think are crazy tighter than TV on the Radio?
Ok, The Beatles are crazy tighter than TV on the Radio.
I adore Dancing Choose.
See, it's post like these that just make me smile on the cold, grey days in Mid Wales. This is just an unbelievable record.
TV on the Radio?
Bucket of warm spit.
The whole album is currently playable at:
http://www.myspace.com/tvotr
I like the album alot.
well...
if i hadn't listened to talking heads and lydia lunch and iggy pop and the stooges and kwaftwerk and robert fripp and any number of bands that have been doing stuff these guys have stolen from, it might be fairly interesting.
only listened to about 3 tracks but it suffers from what most music nowadays suffers from: its just derivative as all hell.
as a young kid, in detroit, when i heard iggy stooge scream, i wanna be your dog,
when i heard the mc5 scream to kick out the jams, mutherfucker,
when i saw fela kuti, blowing up the stage with an orchestra that must have been about 30 pieces,
when i saw david byrne and bernie worrell and the rest of the talking heads melding funk and true ny indie rock with their expanded talking heads experiment,
when i saw anthony braxton and dave holland bop out for a couple of songs before they turned jazz on its heads,
when i heard coltrane take an insipid tune like my favorite things and turn it inside out, i knew i was listening to something new and different.
something compelling.
i hate to sound like an old head, but too much of the stuff i hear now just sounds like repackaged material from years past.
i'm still waiting for something new and exciting.
personally, i'd love to hear something that just blew me away with its force and originality. this just doesn't quite make it.
imho.
Just a few tracks into the first listening, and so happy with the record. Every other song sounds like a hymn. Cookie Mountain was some kind of bottomless document of a stoner sitting at his PC designing every digital bit that went into the sound. It was thick, but sometimes it was like TVOTR had been kidnapped by NIN and you were listening to the ransom note. Next to that -- this record is so loose, the musicians are at ease, it's collaborative and only as complicated as it needs to be. And that's a good thing, because Tunde Adepimbe is GOOD. He could carry a show singing by himself in a subway tunnel.
frankie d
From one old fart to another
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38773
Dear Science went right into the mix...its a really good record.
Oh please Stacy. I was drunk and being goofy and listening to Tricky-- who, by the way, is also credited as an intersection of hip white music and hip hop. I didn't realize I pushed so many buttons by saying something along the lines of, "TV on the Radio: not the innovators that they're made out to be."
There is a sliding scale of indebtedness to other music. Let's take Nickelback for example. All of NB's songs sound exactly the same, i.e. shitty Nirvana. Not only are they essentially indebted to a single sound, they are also repeating this sound over and over and over again. This is very different from TV on the Radio who are indebted to a couple of ideas and manage to create many sounds similar to those from who they take the ideas in the first place. My point is merely that they get, in my opinion, undue credit for some sort of imagined discourse between indie rock and hip hop. I don't hear it. I hear soul, funk, disco, post-punk, shoe-gaze etc. But none of these are truly something that they own like MBV owned themselves, or whatever. They don't seem to truly break from ideological perspectives and 'idiosyncrasies' of many post-punkers.
and yeah, the beatles were pretty good.
Brian,
I feel ya. I was just messing around...