Reviews
TV On The Radio
Dear Science
My reaction to this record has changed dramatically over the past month since I first heard it at a 'one listen only' sneak preview at Remote Control Records' Sydney office. I was immediately floored by the overall massiveness of everything about it. It sounded fresh, explosive and over-flowing with energetic freedom, literally bursting out of the speakers, grappling me to the ground and then aggressively (yet smoothly) making pin-point perfect love to me.
But over the past few weeks my stance has somewhat shifted. The more I listened, the more the over-the-top pop moments seemed to be lacking the inverse amount of endless substance found in their previous work. A handful of tracks became hurdles which I felt driven to dodge, disrupting the smooth flow of the record.
Don't get me wrong, there is easily enough fantastic moments on this record to make it one of the finest musical offerings of 2008. The explosive opener Halfway Home and the closing tracks Love Dog, Shout Me Out and DLZ are the most enjoyable moments, with the group stumbling onto the perfect balance between their new, cleaner, pop-funk style and their emotion-driven foundation.
The problem is however, as a single body of work this record is a fairly disjointed affair. The 'pop songs' (Golden Age, Dancing Choose and Red Dress) jump out far too much and although each of their previous records have had standout tracks, it has never felt so deliberate. The group's fantastic creatively free nature does kick in and save these songs from being complete 'misses', but they still fail to live up to their previous high standard.
Even the overall balance of the record seems foreign to the group's general aesthetic. The tracklisting seems to have been perfectly weighted for maximum demographic coverage, with just enough of each type of song to please everyone. Although this will surely make the record the group's most successful from a commercial sense, it also chokes the overall creative explosiveness and unpredictable nature that was one of their key strengths.
I think I would have been pretty pissed off if TV On The Radio had attempted to make The Return To The Return To Cookie Mountain. It is undeniably one of the best records released in the last decade (if not FOREVER) and any attempts to try and emulate it would have almost certainly fallen short. The issue at hand, however, is that the band seemed to have headed into an over-polished pop direction in an almost forced nature. While given the group's history it's doubtful that this was a purposeful move, I still can't help but feel cheated by what feels like an unnatural transition.
Words by Jonny.Comments
Jonny Yes Yesha... well.. yes.. i saw that coming Sean
Posted at 09:13 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
gemdilemI agree with Sean... this album rocks... totally up there as one of the best of the year
Posted at 11:15 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
helloplease
Your review nailed it! The three 'pop' tracks you mentioned are definite low points on the album.
Posted at 11:34 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
ivan
you make a very good point but have you heard their first record? it bangs over everything they've EVER done.
crying is an amazing song. andddd the last half of the album is really great but the middle?
i didn't like cookie. im a loser? yyes yes oh yes
Posted at 11:35 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
Jonny Yes Yesfirst record..? ok calculator..? cause that was just demos..
or do you mean bloodthirsty babes.. because i think that is 'almost' as good as cookie mountain.. but not quite.. 'poppy' is a fucking incredible song though..
Posted at 11:40 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
Jonny Yes Yesi also rate the young liars ep pretty high.. especially the title track
Posted at 11:46 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
WayneI think Dear Science is an 8.1 I like it a lot, but overall not quite as good as Cookie Mountain.
I agree with Ivan though. I actually like Bloodthirsty Babes even more. Some truly amazing songs on there.
Posted at 11:49 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
WayneOh, I love Young Liars too. I think Blind is my favourite ever TVOTR song.
Posted at 11:51 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
bolta
'dear science' is their first fully cohesive and focussed album.
bloody thirsty babes was a patchy album overall but you could see their potential.
'young liars' EP was very refreshing for indie-rock world in 2003 (like bloc party's banquet) in comparison to the nu-rock strokes/interpol/darkness madness of that year.
cookie mountain is okay but a little too generic-guitar heavy for my taste.
Posted at 12:11 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
ivan
no no bloodthirsty babez is what i mean. well at least we can all agree they are pretty bangin.
Posted at 13:34 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
Seymour
I'm curious as to how the rating system works, how do you get to 7.6??
I disagree with this one. At least an 8.75, on a good day maybe even an 9.01.
Playhouses is my favourite TVOTR song ever.
Posted at 14:05 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
AaaaronUm, I agree with Seymour, this album is definitely in the high 8's/low 9's. So for 'DLZ' is my fav song.
'New Health Rock' is TVOTR best song ever.
Posted at 16:38 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
bolta
I personally feel the rating system on this website degrades the quality of the writing. I would prefer to see albums categorised into GENRE/STYLE/CITY, opposed to blatantly ripping off pitchfork's style.
Posted at 22:46 on Friday, October 3, 2008.
mike(punch)Take the point about the rating system. Were pretty inconsistent with it. We admit it. But were kinda stuck with it now. Sorry. Feel free to ignore the number. But im pretty sure the rating out of ten system wasn't invented by pitchfork. As far as categorising by genre style, thats pretty much the hardest thing i can think of and even more arbitrary than rating out of 10. What one person calls indie pop, another might call soft rock. I'd prefer an inferior method of rating from BAD to GOOD than a pigeon holing of bands into groups.
Posted at 01:11 on Saturday, October 4, 2008.
Seymour
This review has taught me to ingore the rating system used. TVOTR got a lower rating than Mercy Arms, I never thought it possible. How did the universe not collapse on itself?
I've always personally favoured the star-system....the fact that symbols are used somehow acknowledges the triviality of rating releases.
Posted at 02:33 on Saturday, October 4, 2008.
flukazoidpersonally, I favour the numerical system - but I think it can get a bit weird when you just pull a number out of thin air. I wonder if it would be better if the number were calculated from a range of criteria, like originality, musicianship, lyrics, mixing, production etc etc ... if you were forced to evaluate based on some real criteria rather than "what number do I feel does this album justice?" it may go a little further
not sure, would have to think about it more
I couldn't agree more with Mike on the comment about genres, I was going to say the same myself
Posted at 11:21 on Saturday, October 4, 2008.
ivan
new rating system:
totally bangin bangin not very bangin not bangin at all
Posted at 11:35 on Saturday, October 4, 2008.
Jonny Yes Yesi always thought stars were not precise enough.. they are just a number divided by 2.. and then rounded.. right?
var stars = Math.round(rating/2)
yes? colourful..
i agree that genre classification etc would be a nightmare and create more problems than it would solve
but i don't think i agree that the rating system is an ignorable thing. it gives people a snapshot of what we think of a release. it's just what we think.. it's not law or gospel... just an opinion that has been summarised into a number between 1 and 10. it helps those that can't read and is also useful in burning shitty albums like young modern.. shits on toilet seats can be misinterpreted.. lucky the 0.1 was in the top corner to let youse all know..
i also think it would be useful to rate the album on specific areas like joe suggests.. at the moment we 'kinda' do that.. not wanted to 'give' too much away but it's a fairly crazy algorithm ... pi is in there somewhere i think..
thanks for all the feedback though guys.. we weren't trying to create so much discussion with this review.. but some good ideas have come out which is always a positive..
oh.. and because this is da internetz and it's fun to play argument games.... the mercy arms album rips shit all over dear science
Posted at 12:55 on Saturday, October 4, 2008.
kidkymI'll just jump in to say that I saw the Golden Age clip today. Wtf. Policeman Carebears?
Posted at 13:48 on Saturday, October 4, 2008.
Seymour
A difference of 0.2 between Album-A and Album-B, means Album-A rips shit all over Album-B.
Noted.
You're right this is fun.
Posted at 13:59 on Saturday, October 4, 2008.
SeanI like the numerical rating. It manages to make sense at a glance but still allows for some precision.
Posted at 19:25 on Sunday, October 5, 2008.
quackI like the numerical system too, gives it a more 'immediate' feel. With stars you always get to a point where 5 is unattainable etc...then eventually 4.5 becomes unattainable, then eventually you are Rolling Stone.
Posted at 22:39 on Sunday, October 5, 2008.
kidkymI was reading reviews in Rolling Stone yesterday ... their system is messed up. They were giving 4s with crap reviews?
Posted at 14:10 on Monday, October 6, 2008.
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I shall politely disagree with you, sir.
9.0
Posted at 02:41 on Friday, October 3, 2008.