TV On The Radio - Dear Science

so good!

"family tree" is pretty stunning, dunno about the rest

listening now

• maybe a lil more airy?

really? it's the weakest track for me (early stage though)
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i thought i wouldnt like the more funk less rock thing but i was happily wrong.

i dont have a computer of my own so ive been listening randomly off hype machine and i can't really get past "family tree". i dont really even know what the lyrics mean but they kill me anyhow. easily the most beautiful song they've written, esp when the drums come in.

bear in mind side 2 is better

i thought i wouldnt like the more funk less rock thing but i was happily wrong.

I dunno I could use more MBV white noize like their other rekkids and less talking headsy wicky wicky funk guitar

but it sounds ok, I'll spin it a few more times. last one took a while to grow on me too.

yeah, as Cookie Mountain was, this one is also a grower.and i miss the heavy drums from Cookie.
it's,in a way, going back to the Young Liars and Desparte Youth, though better than Desparate.

DLZ is the absolute best track, with the closer coming in 2nd

I've only heard two songs, but I approve of non-dance bands turning into dance bands.

the production is awesome, almost glamorous and glistening like the hercules & love affair album

only for a few tracks though
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btw,the beginning of family tree reminds me of Underworld's Born Slippy.

I hated Cookie Mtn, but this is a pleasant surprise. I've only heard it once, but I made it all the way through and want to hear it again. I did not expect it to appeal to me in the least.

"family tree" is pretty stunning

"Family Tree" sounds like "Viva La Vida."

ehhhhhhhhh idk if i buy that ("viva la vida" seemed pretty canned to me + it doesn't even begin to build the tension that "family tree" does) but in any event im cool with tv on the radio making weeping coldplay ballads good again

"Viva la Vida" is pretty stunning! Best Coldplay song since at least "Clocks"

they even attempt the now trendy paul simon/talking heads-afro-bits- thing on "red dress" to great results.

"DLZ is the absolute best track, with the closer opener coming in 2nd."

though, really, there are lots of highlights in here.

Yes, I'm mighty impressed so far.

Definitely their best record yet. Not nearly as patchy as either of the other ones.

beats the pants of the last one which was kind of a muddled, overlong, melody-free mess to me. not sure it's better than the first album but it's great.

Red Dress kind of sounds like how I wish that Byrne/Eno album sounded.

I'm enjoying this as a whole far more than Return to Cookie Mountain. While RtCM possibly has the band's two best songs (I Was A Lover, and Wolf Like Me), Dear Science seems to be all of a piece, and I don't feel the need to start listening to something else halfway through.

Halfway Home, Dancing Choose, Family Tree and DLZ are the standouts right now, but the whole thing is damn good. I heartily approve of the addition of dancebeats and funky bass riffs.

Family Tree = best Little Red Corvette crib evar

not getting the uncertainty re: cookie mountain people... "Province" is one of the greatest love songs of all time... and "Wolf Like Me" is one of the greatest sex songs of all time. So.

• bump 4 the awesomeness of "love dog"

also "crying"

"Province" is one of the greatest love songs of all time... and "Wolf Like Me" is one of the greatest sex songs of all time.

jesus cries 4 u

"lover's day" people. come on.

"Not nearly as patchy as either of the other ones."

you have a point here:

Am i the only one who thinks Young Liars and Desparte Youth were 20x better than this and cookie ???? miss the soul+noise stuff :(

Those lines from "Golden Age" – "Fuck your war, 'cause i'm fat and in love and the bombs are falling on me for sure / but i'm scared to death that i'm living a life not worth dying for" – pack real reasonance.

that's actually from "Red Dress," but yeah, that's a great intro.

i've only heard "golden age" and i'm not sure about it. miss the soul+noise stuff ... yeh, that sort of sums it up. then again: there's a lot of interesting shit going on in that song alone, and this band have surprised me in so many pleasant ways for several years now, so fuck it: i'll definitely get this.

i like the sound of "family tree", certainly.

actually, i'm listening to "golden age" again as i type and it's WAY better than i remembered.

Considering how ambivalent you guys were about RtCM I'm getting kind of psyched by this thread.

Is that Kyp on lead vocals on "Stork And Owl"? He sounds great.

It's hard to write anything too soon about them because it takes so many listens for the layers, details and surprises to reveal themselves. My third listen on headphones on a train ride is what put it over the top for me. After finishing it I was wobbly with vertigo. It felt like the songs corresponded with the neighborhoods that whizzed by, each packed with years of memories and emotions. It's like traveling in an unfamiliar country with a lover, having an intense conversation, getting drunk, arguing, and ending the night at 3 a.m. exhausted from intense make-up sex.

i'm not falling for this again (but i probably will)

^possible country song

Halfway Home is my fave so far

at first I thought Lover's Day was just a weaker rewrite of Wear You Out, but it's growin on me

golden age sounds like robbie williams (millenium??).

Can you say "Pazz and Jop"?

I heard the single a few weeks ago and it was pretty awful so I'm not really interested in this but I guess I'll check it out later... they haven't topped "Sattelite" off of YL and the 1st album (especially "Staring At The Sun" and "Ambulance")IMO...

I heard the single a few weeks ago and it was pretty awful

so rong

so, is it
"Dear Science is a jagged landscape of self-doubt, Bush-hate, and future-fear. And once in a while, you still get some of their optimism" (pitchfrork,9.2)

or
"That comma at the title's end seems naggingly open-ended at first, but it's actually a perfect fit for Dear Science,'s openness to possibilities and positivity. " (allmusic,4.5)
?

Haven't heared it yet (and i'm he last one, so far i can see). I hope they don't exactly do what they did on the previous ones.

A colleague very kindly YSIed the whole album to me but I haven't had time to listen to it yet. But on the basis of their previous work and the first single off this I'm still suspicious that they're this decade's Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, if you know what I mean.

i tried listening to this on youtube. i feel like if i like any current indie band i should like these guys (beats, funk guitar, horns), but it just doesn't work for me. the production has always sounded really murky to me.

YouTube is not the way to go.

is it going to sound totally different if i download it or buy the cd?

"Province" was very good, aye, by saying "even" I acknowledge that maybe it was the closest forebear to some of the songs on Dear Science, although these ones have been fleshed out with strings n horns n glitz n glamour and lost much of the magic that informed "Province".

gotcha.

this feels really front-loaded to me. too many Coldplay moments in the second half.

last two tracks are the two best on the album imo!

well two of the best

If there are any "DLZ"s in Coldplay's catalogue, let me know.

not into this record for some reason. i really dug cookie mountain, but this album feels thrown together. im willing to give it another try, but it just feels overproduced and the vocals which never bothered me before really grate on me with this one.

I like this better than Cookie Mountain, but the first EP/album in succession was likely the best thing they'll ever do.

very overrated album. would make a good EP though.

it actually gets into tvotr's version of snow patrol/keane/coldplay/etc towards the end.
― titchyschneiderMk2, Thursday, October 2, 2008 8:55 AM (2 months ago)

If Snow Patrol/Keane/Coldplay have songs that are as devastatingly amazing as "DLZ," I need to listen to a hell of a lot more Snow Patrol/Keane/Coldplay!
― Savannah Smiles, Thursday, October 2, 2008 10:15 AM (2 months ago)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

this feels really front-loaded to me. too many Coldplay moments in the second half.
― Timezilla vs Mechadistance (blueski), Friday, December 19, 2008 3:48 PM

If there are any "DLZ"s in Coldplay's catalogue, let me know.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, December 19, 2008 3:51 PM

heh

very overrated album. would make a good EP though.

― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2),
That's the story of this band. Their "best of" is gonna be a monster truck.

I like some of the detail, lots of nice sounds, but I'm not really into the overall sound when it's all pulled together. The songs seem a bit weak as songs and the other stuff doesn't make up for it. Also, I'm not into the vocals even though they are probably better than typical indie vocals. I don't think it's going to grow on me, since I don't think I'm going to listen to it any more.

Am I the only one who likes "Golden Age" the least of any song on the album?

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golden age sounds like robbie williams (millenium??).

― titchyschneiderMk2, Saturday, September 20, 2008 2:07 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark

I was thinking along these lines, too - George Michael, "Freedom"

this wd have made a better album cover:
http://www.okayplayer.com/images/stories/promos/tvotr-384-feature.jpg

To be fair, anything would have made a better album cover.

http://sparky.thehold.net/pix/dobber.jpg
TV ON THE RADIO
DERE SCIENCE,

... no, I disagree.

considering tunde used do to do visual arts, they do generally have quite bad cover art (first ep, album and providence aside). i vote for this as a back cover:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2008/dec/12/tv-on-the-radio-critics-album

or this, rather:
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2008/12/12/tvotrparis460x276.jpg

Has this not been polled yet?

id probably vote 'reckoner'

solid but totally overrated album.

I absolutely love Halfway Home and the run from Red Dress until the end. There's a dip in quality in between, Golden Age and Family Tree being my least favourites - for all the praise it's garnered, FT sounds a bit like Coldplay to me.

I would actually have a hard job choosing between Halfway Home and Shout Me Down. The rest can hang be appreciated by others :)

I'm not gonna lie...I really do like TVOTR but I didn't really see the big whoop about this album. Tunde always sounds so bored...and the music is generally the same throughout the album. It's still listenable though...I just don't fully understand all the hype.

Right there with you - I'm puzzled when I see this on the various top of 2008 lists - it's kinda blah and I think that they're capable of a much more consistent, interesting rekkid.

Like their first EP and full length!

I've said it before, but the Afrobeaten up numbers on this album are the only TOVTR (other than "Wolf Like Me", which I'll admit rocks out fairly well) that I can find it in myself to give a shit about. If you'd rather listen to something as awkward as "I Was a Lover" than something as fiercely grooving as "Red Dress", I don't understand you at all.

whats awkward about i was a lover

fiercely grooving as "Red Dress"

i tried to edit this the other night to spin out the jam sess at the end

If you'd rather listen to something as awkward as "I Was a Lover" than something as fiercely grooving as "Red Dress", I don't understand you at all.

OTMFM!

http://www.trmichels.com/MoonPhaseDeerSightings.jpg

"awkward"="can't dance to"

saw rachel getting married and was shocked that a) "Family Tree" wasn't the film's love theme and b) that Tunde can actually sing engagingly when he's not yelling or doing duelling shitty falsettos with Kyp.

'Dear Science', 'the best album of 2008', will not stand the test of time.

will that title be given to merriweather post pavilion as well?

fiercely grooving? red dress sounds pretty messy to me. the whole album is a bit lightweight really.

to be fair, "best album of 2008" will not stand the test of time

did my annual "listen once to the critics fave for old times sake" thing w/this album. meh. tho i dig the irony of black guys updating early 80s skinny-british-guy funk.

u guys are all wrong this is a sick album.

This is beginning to feel like the dog's lost a bone.

What does that even mean?

Don't own the album?

Yeah, is that lyric I'm forgetting about right now?

I wish I was more offended by their shitmouth clutter, didn't find it on average engaging and pretty, cuz "So?" would be a pretty great one-word review.

ok i gotta stop using the word engaging

ha!

It's not Long Fin Killie, is it?

I love this album and it's because:

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If you'd rather listen to something as awkward as "I Was a Lover" than something as fiercely grooving as "Red Dress", I don't understand you at all.
OTMFM!

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, April 29, 2009 6:57 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://pitchfork.com/news/35979-premiere-rain-machine-tv-on-the-radios-kyp-malone-give-blood/

sounds better than most of the 'trying too hard to be great' of dear science but that voice is a bit much.

Sorry but can anyone explain this to me...they can't write a tune...that dear science really pisses me off...

I was watching this Gucci runway today and I realized the song that comes up at 2:20 is some sort of interpolation of TVotR's Crying. Really wicked song, this one. Anyone has any ideas who it might be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7dFYm1KxkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xhaJuKpxxk