The passing of TV On The Radio bassist Gerard Smith nine days after the release of the Brooklyn band’s fourth studio album was a tragic loss to the music world, and one that reasserts the preciousness of their latest masterpiece, Nine Types Of Light.
In the current musical climate of limited attention spans and trend-driven tastes, TV On The Radio are a vital reminder that great music can be as commanding as it is innovative. Across their last three studio albums – Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004), Return To Cookie Mountain (2006) and Dear Science (2008) – and their self-released demo album, OK Calculator (2002), TV On The Radio have proven to be one of the most creative, inspiring and constantly thrilling bands of our time.
Even on the more accessible Nine Types Of Light, TV On The Radio’s hypnotic fusion of post-punk/art-rock, trip-hop, cosmic-funk, soul, r’n’b, free-form jazz and psychedelia is merely lusher with spacier melodies.
Frontman Tunde Adebimpe has stated that Nine Types Of Light may sound ‘simpler’ but it’s more likely they’re getting better at what they do. It’s a telling statement: Nine Types Of Light is not as experimental, complex or brooding as their previous masterpiece, Dear Science , but it’s no less impressive. Thematically, Dear Science‘s overcoat of fear (for the future and our planet) was striking, while its fury towards the Bush administration, ourselves and ‘industry’ types implied a potent vision. Musically, it was simultaneously brutal and intoxicating; claustrophobic and glorious. As the band have been eager to express, Nine Types Of Light is, in many ways, an exploration of love and longing in its continuum of varying degrees, perceptions and realms.
In the masterful hands of TV On The Radio, this makes for a thrilling emotional/sonic/spiritual journey.
When Adebimpe’s pensive turn-of-phrase in Second Song leads into Kyp Malone’s falsetto chorus cry of “every lover on a mission shifted your known position into the light”, it’s utterly sublime. From the slow-burning, horns-laden anthemic opener, TV On The Radio unleash into the shimmering grooves of Keep Your Heart and the slinky funk of You – both of which revolve around the idea of “pleasing” lies, insinuated by the lines of “These words are not a bit profound / If it’s just another cheap line flung” and “You’re the only one I ever loved / Though the feelings were half where we lied”.
No Future Shock ‘s vigorous post-punk/hip-hop provides the album’s most breathless vocal commentary while slow-burning hymnal ballad Killer Crane distinguishes itself from the rest of the album, and masters the art of subtle enthrallment. Will Do‘s gorgeous ode to unrequited love shines with its witty assertions (“But you don’t want to waste your life / In the middle of a lovesick lullaby”), warm soul grooves and tantalising funk beats.
Meanwhile, New Cannonball Blues – alongside No Future Shock – is a visceral assault of agitated zest and snarling intensity. Marked by multiple shifts in tone and styling, Repetition is an intoxicating textural trip and a hypnotic amalgamation of bumbling r’n’b, twitchy electronica, ruthless punk-rap and searing psych-rock. Forgotten‘s pensive, melancholy atmospherics are perfectly attuned to devilish lyrical gems, namely: “Beverly Hills / Nuclear winter / What should we wear and who’s for dinner?”
An invigorating fervour proliferates from hearing the triumphant intensity of Caffeinated Consciousness. It’s a simpler song but the kind that allows one to assume confidence and audacity for three and a half minutes. Alongside the memorable holler of “In severed light, our souls are damaged / And with that caged, to the cause of light”, the contrasting images of “a greener highway” and “all hell ashake” provide the quintessential footnote. Indeed, Nine Types Of Light is up there with Radiohead’s The King Of Limbs as the greatest musical accomplishment of 2011.
Best Track: No Future Shock
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Dear Science TV ON THE RADIO, Purple Rain PRINCE, Rain Machine RAIN MACHINE, In Rainbows RADIOHEAD.
In A Word: Transcendental
(Interscope/Universal)
