In 2006, over a foundation of eardrum-piercing ringing guitars, drums bold enough to cause arrhythmia, and a distorted and disorienting layer of static, TV on the Radio painfully exclaimed, “My heart’s aflame, my body’s strained — but God I like it.”
When Stephen Colbert was interviewing the band to promote its 2009 paragon Dear Science, guitarist David Sitek remarked that the title of the album was the result of a satirical letter he had written, requesting that Science “fix everything it’d been talking about, or just shut up already.”
But the band that by all evidence seems to ache from its level of introspection expressed a severely different, noticeably less stinging attitude regarding its own confusion in the first moments of its newest LP, Nine Types of Light, released yesterday.
As “Second Song” ironically begins the album, vocalist Tunde Adebimpe can be heard peacefully reflecting: “Confidence and ignorance approved me. Define my day today. I’ve tried so hard to shut it down like an oath, gently walk away.”
In the eyes of New York City’s most exhilarating experimental band since Talking Heads, Nine Types of Light might just be the vehicle to showcase its new level of content.
This newly displayed satisfaction is much to the benefit of the listener, for on the musical side, TV on the Radio’s attempt to revel in its own uncertainty has not yielded anything close to “content.” On that scale, the band members produced something not far from bliss.
The tracks that line the album reflect the band’s triumph over the unreliability of life and display the band’s multi-faceted approach to finding beauty in the imperfect.
“No Future Shock” sees the band suggesting that those that can commiserate instead just dance the future away and celebrate the conceivably impending apocalypse.
“Keep Your Heart” is the love ballad that the tech-heads of TV on the Radio caliber have been waiting for in the digital age.
The only clearly discernable disheartenment can be heard during “Forgotten,” but the band has explored its emotions to such an extensive degree that even these few dark moments are some of the most intensely beautiful.
And for those counting, “Will Do,” “New Cannonball Blues,” and “Repetition” rank among the best songs the band has ever written.
Considering the material this band continued to so eloquently provide us with, the notion that it actually might not be “howling forever” is quite comforting.
—Andy Collier is a senior studying audio production. If you like trying to watch TV on your radio, email him at ac165406@ohiou.edu.
@ThePostCulture
