True originality in rock music is a rarity.
Artists who do strike upon a unique sound often sacrifice melody and song craft in favor of experimentation, trading accessibility for innovation. Some of rock's greatest albums have come when an artist can accomplish both.
With Return to Cookie Mountain, TV on the Radio strikes this elusive balance. It's beautifully produced, giving lots of surface pleasures, but the intricate arrangements reward repeated listening. The band has its own identity, but the music isn't alienating. It's perhaps the most progressive major-label rock album since Radiohead's OK Computer.
TV on the Radio has picked up members with each release, with new members adding distinct expansions in their sound. Debut EP Young Liars highlighted lead singer Tunde Adebimpe's vocals through contrast with David Sitek's repetitive, electronic backing beats. Full-length Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes brought the addition of another vocalist, Kyp Malone, and fleshed out the arrangements. The New Health Rock single hinted at the next development. It was up-tempo, danceable and catchy.
With Return to Cookie Mountain, the biggest development is deceptively simple: TV on the Radio sounds like an actual band now -- not a collective, not a project for a group of musicians, but a live band. The robotic beats have given way to live drumming and vocal harmonies pop up everywhere. Songs change, build up and climax.
Opener "I Was A Lover" starts with a heavy-programmed beat, but soon choppy samples of horns and dissonant noise come in. Adebimpe's soulful vocals carry lyrics that mix sharp descriptions of a past relationship --"We don't make eye contact when we have run-ins in town/Just a barely polite nod, and nervous stares toward the ground"-- with abstract --"We're busy tempting, like fate's on the nod/Running on empty, bourbon and God."
Then a bridge with piano and falsetto vocals comes in before the song ends in a wash of guitar static. Dozens of listens wouldn't give enough time to listen to every nuance of the production. And that's just the first song. Equal amounts could be written on each track.
"Let the Devil In" is driven by a thundering, almost tribal percussion track, paired to the band's best bassline. It builds to an actual choir singing a wordless "whoa-oa-oa-oa" ending. This leads right into "Dirtywhirl," a song in an up-tempo waltz time that is maybe the first TV on the Radio song that could be considered a good sing-along.
The real highlight lies with "Wolf Like Me." It is the most propulsive song the band has ever done. With each new verse, another layer of distorted guitars piles up.
It also shows TV on the Radio's ability to take a strange concept (this one seems to be pushing some sort of werewolf sex metaphor) and turn it into an exhilarating listen. Lines like "My mind has changed/My body's frame but God I like it" and "When the moon is round and full/Gonna teach you tricks that'll blow your mongrel line" become sing-alongs in one of the year's finest singles.
Perhaps most impressive is how this album crams so much diversity and yet doesn't sound scattered. The album touches upon a multitude of styles -- the soul and doo-wop influences in vocal phrasings, the thick guitar tones reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, and dashes of everything from electronica to indie rock. But this isn't a tour-de-force of genres like Beck's Odelay or the Beatles' White Album. Instead, the band molds these elements into a coherent sound that can only be called its own.
Return to Cookie Mountain is TV on the Radio's most consistent album yet, finally delivering upon the band member's promise in full. The only reason I hesitate to call it their classic is that every new release furthers their sound in some way. The greatest compliment I can give the band is that it makes me excited about music again by pushing rock into new directions. And it has plenty of time to get even better. Grade: A
