Perhaps already art-rock’s finest edge, TV on the Radio get sharper yet again. They’ve managed to attach “avant-” to both rock and hip-hop for the last few years, and continue to push boundaries on their latest release, Dear Science.
The Brooklyn five-piece stacks their third album with more obtuse grooves and artsy gospel poems thanks to a jagged array of instruments and producer/member David Sitek’s unique taste in mixology. From Dead Science‘s heavier side of rapid-fire guitars and charging rhythms, dance-insisting tracks emerge like “Crying” and the trip/bounce single, “Golden Age”.
When the album slows down, TV On the Radio channels the rawness into fully-focused missions. The communal liturgy of “Family Tree” is their most poignant effort so far, and “DLZ” is a dark, gripping chugger that unleashes Tunde Adebimpe’s razor-sharp tongue.
Dear Science continues shoving the wheel that 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain set in major motion. While expending the energy of a band twice as big, they strike powerfully sharp beats with one solid vocal after another and out comes a deeply artistic, blood-raising album. Art is alive and well on Science.
