First off, incredible blog - a friend turned me onto it recently, and I've been enjoying it immensely since.
Second, agreed on TVOTR - the entire album is absurdly good, and continues to amaze. My favorite songs are 'Crying', 'Family Tree', 'Love Dog', and 'DLZ'. Though these change every time I listen to the album...
"DLZ" and "Halfway Home" are the best tracks on the record, by far I think (even though the whole thing is solid).
"DLZ" in particular is perfect for the whole doom and gloom and crash and despair thing the world has going right now. It's like Tunde & Co. are reporting live.
New reader here and long time TVOTR fan. I just heard the first track on Saturday at my bandmate's house and I'm really anxious to check out the rest of the album. I hate to admit this but I was a little disappointed by the last album, don't get me wrong it was good (really), but the first track from the latest this one sounds like gold. They'll never top Dry Drunk Emperor though.
Hmm...This album sounds very bad on first listen. Halfway Home I do like though. How long did it take for you guys to get into this album? Then again, it took me forever to get into Sunset Rubdown's "Random Spirit Lover" which is GREAT.
This album grows on you like crazy. Initially I was a bit skeptical because it seemed like a fairly large departure from Cookie Mountain (which is still one of my all time favorites; Desperate Youth would be higher up if it didn't drag so much at the end), but recently I just haven't been able to stop listening to it. For now I think I've settled on agreeing with DaveHuge that DLZ and Halfway Home are the best tracks. The only one I'm still on the fence about is Red Dress, although I also think its a little weird that the last minute or two of Lover's Day is basically a Sufjan Stevens song.
Did you hear the news about Doseone, Tunde and Mike Patton working on some sort of collaboration? I'm really interested in what will come out of that, and glad that Tunde is fulfilling his contractual obligation as a musician to do some kind of work with Mike Patton at some point in his career. Mike Patton is the Kevin Bacon of music.
Gotta agree with TNC that 'Crying' is the best song on the album. Really love DLZ, Shout Me Out, and Family Tree as well. Played 'Crying' at the bar on Friday. Multiple people inquired about its origins. They were intrigued...
I like TVOR, but I got the album because of Ta-Nehisi. Loving "Crying," "Family Tree," "Love Dog," "DLZ," and Lover's Day." However, the whole album is good. Part indie.alt, part funky, part orchestral magnificence.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
First off, incredible blog - a friend turned me onto it recently, and I've been enjoying it immensely since.
Second, agreed on TVOTR - the entire album is absurdly good, and continues to amaze. My favorite songs are 'Crying', 'Family Tree', 'Love Dog', and 'DLZ'. Though these change every time I listen to the album...
"DLZ" and "Halfway Home" are the best tracks on the record, by far I think (even though the whole thing is solid).
"DLZ" in particular is perfect for the whole doom and gloom and crash and despair thing the world has going right now. It's like Tunde & Co. are reporting live.
What took you so long to get that post up? My favorite line and eerily relevant to the current predicament we find ourselves in...
"It's beginning to feel like the bolts busted loose from the levers"
Reminiscent of Dylan's "The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handle."
"Never you mind, death professor."
I don't why, but those words sound so good in that order...
New reader here and long time TVOTR fan. I just heard the first track on Saturday at my bandmate's house and I'm really anxious to check out the rest of the album. I hate to admit this but I was a little disappointed by the last album, don't get me wrong it was good (really), but the first track from the latest this one sounds like gold. They'll never top Dry Drunk Emperor though.
Hmm...This album sounds very bad on first listen. Halfway Home I do like though. How long did it take for you guys to get into this album? Then again, it took me forever to get into Sunset Rubdown's "Random Spirit Lover" which is GREAT.
This album grows on you like crazy. Initially I was a bit skeptical because it seemed like a fairly large departure from Cookie Mountain (which is still one of my all time favorites; Desperate Youth would be higher up if it didn't drag so much at the end), but recently I just haven't been able to stop listening to it. For now I think I've settled on agreeing with DaveHuge that DLZ and Halfway Home are the best tracks. The only one I'm still on the fence about is Red Dress, although I also think its a little weird that the last minute or two of Lover's Day is basically a Sufjan Stevens song.
Did you hear the news about Doseone, Tunde and Mike Patton working on some sort of collaboration? I'm really interested in what will come out of that, and glad that Tunde is fulfilling his contractual obligation as a musician to do some kind of work with Mike Patton at some point in his career. Mike Patton is the Kevin Bacon of music.
Gotta agree with TNC that 'Crying' is the best song on the album. Really love DLZ, Shout Me Out, and Family Tree as well. Played 'Crying' at the bar on Friday. Multiple people inquired about its origins. They were intrigued...
don't make promises you can't keep, dude..
Somewhat impressionistic review here:
http://www.theflyingchange.com/2008/09/29/dear-science/
Handclaps on 'Halfway Home' are mildly life-changing.
Album of the year.
I like TVOR, but I got the album because of Ta-Nehisi. Loving "Crying," "Family Tree," "Love Dog," "DLZ," and Lover's Day." However, the whole album is good. Part indie.alt, part funky, part orchestral magnificence.