album of the week: 4.4

TV on The Radio

Nine Types of Light

(2011)

Why you'll love it: Beautiful, dense, and mature soul music

Why you'll hate it: Heavy on the love, some songs might not stick at first

It's a bummer to be doing so many of these reviews lately with an undertone of sadness. The bulk of Japanese releases last month was intentional. Last week, I swapped out Progress (2001) by Rx Bandits at the last minute. They still have a farewell tour to do, and maybe I can save Progress for its 10 year anniversary date… I'm bumping up Nine Types of Light by TV on The Radio to this week, as a result of bassist Gerard Smith's heartbreaking cancer diagnosis and death.

It's at least a little consoling knowing that Gerard was able to complete this record with the band before he left us, and that it is their best release yet. Nearly all of the unnecessary noise and gain of the earlier albums have been scrubbed away; revealing a very smooth and vibrant production. The range of Tunde Adebimpe's voice is wider than ever. While Dear Science (2008) was an interesting first step to a cleaner sound, I found it to be a bit too simple and reliant on hooks and phrases. The songs on this record are more dense and mature.

In the past, TV on The Radio has wow'd me at first with their approach, then fatigue sets in about 5 songs into the albums. The've hit a sweet spot here. The impulsive songs shift and manifest to stay interesting. The slow songs build in way that invite you to get lost in. Only one song, "Killer Crane", did not feel like a must have track on this album. "Keep Your Heart" is of the style that was made redundant by the end of Return To Cookie Mountain (2006); but this time, because of the clean production and solid performance, it feels new and fresh. It's easy to complement Gerard's contributions to this album, thanks to the clean production. The bass on "You" is unquestionably what makes that song.

When the intro, "Second Song", started off, it had me thinking "Is this even a song? What kind of delivery is this?" Then, at about 1:20, the tide begins to change, and the song shifts gears in a big way. It has grown to become my favorite on this album, which is bursting with hits. Hits that are love songs, no less! Normally, I roll my eyes at love songs (even ones written by this band in the past), but these are handled with so much realistic attitude and maturity, that I found myself really going along with them. "Will Do" is fantastic.

Hopefully this will be the last melancholy review I'll do for a while. It's under bittersweet circumstances, but Nine Types of Light will be one of 2011's best, guaranteed.