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`TV On The Radio, or TVOTR, is a hard band to pigeonhole.
Since 2001, the NYC-based quintet have been releasing albums that have garnered critical acclaim and have been described as an experimental, avant-garde blend of rock and electronica with soul-tinged, multi-layered vocals, distorted bass, and non-traditional rock elements such as horns and strings.
I have always liked the fact that their music has a sort of dark and brooding tension that never descends into overwrought goth silliness (my apologies to Hot Topic patrons and “cutters”; your pain is special, really, it is) and tends to have that “gets stuck in your head” catchiness that demands multiple listens.
With the release of Dear Science, TVOTR leaves the rock behind and heads to higher, funkier ground.
When I say funky, I mean funky like the polar opposite of Crosby, Stills & Nash.
It kind of sounds like they were listening to a lot of Prince before writing this album, just not the parts with the insane Prince guitar solos.
I am totally digging Dear Science and couldn’t stop moonwalking and cabbage-patching while listening to it and my friends got worried because that is not something I normally do and it was almost Intervention-time like that show on A&E.
This is not to say TVOTR has put out some mindless dance album. The songs are lush and sonically dense with layer upon layer of guitars, drums, horns and electronic chirps and orchestrated noise.
The net effect is an album full of shimmering, aching anthems that straddle the line between melancholy and hopeful.
It is sad and pretty without being sappy and it’s hard not to bob your head along while listening. Love Dog and Family Tree stand out as my personal favorites; swirling and transcendent ballads that rise from sparse, orchestrated softness to triumphant affirmation and edification.
It is heady stuff, and yes, I am in fact, a complete pussy.
Dear Science represents an interesting change in direction from a band who has always defied labels and attempts at categorization.
They have reigned in some of the rock and roll bombast of previous efforts and replaced it with more focused R & B influences while retaining their signature etherealness and wide pallet of musical brushes.
Dear Science is much better than that strained metaphor of mine suggests. They are much better at music than I am at writing about them and I like them a lot, but just as friends.