TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain

I confess, it wasn’t until this year that I first ‘got into’ (read: ‘heard of’) TV on the Radio. It was the coincidence of one of my friends in Brighton being a huge fan and them also being the favourite band of one of my house mates. I returned from a trip to see the friend, where lots of TV on the Radio had been played, and slipped my house mate a memory stick with the instructions “you know what to do”. He didn’t, and I had to explain in more clarity that I wanted him to mp3 me with TV on the Radio goodness.

Return to Cookie Mountain is TV on the Radio’s second album, following Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. I just want to recommend a purchase of Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes as it’s a collection of music unlike anything else you will have heard and has two of my favourite tracks of the (personal) year: Staring at the Sun and Ambulance. For a few weeks now I have been giving the mp3 of Staring at the Sun to people unfamiliar with the group and, without exception, they have purchased the album within days.

The band offer an intoxicating mix of genres. In places they are Jazzy, at times hip-hoppy, even touching on doo-wop in tracks such as Ambulance (an entirely vocal song). Their style is difficult to do justice to in description but it has a relaxing and rhythmic feel to it that I’ve found listenable in pretty much any mood. Return to Cookie Mountain maintains the precedent set in TV on the Radio’s first album of decent length tracks (only one track over the two albums is less that 4 minutes) that keep a distinct theme going but frequently insert interesting drum beats and instrumentals as the song progresses.

I’m failing to convey what TV on the Radio are about and completely neglecting an analysis of Return to Cookie Mountain in isolation from Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes but, in many ways, that’s what TV on the Radio are all about: each piece of music is distinct, the albums don’t seem to have a theme but the tracks on them certainly do. TV on the Radio are a group that don’t think in albums, but in pieces of music and performances, Return to Cookie Mountain is a continuation of the distribution of their amazing music and a beautiful collection.

TV on the Radio – Province MP3 Expired
TV on the Radio – Tonight MP3 Expired

Buy Return to Cookie Mountain at amazon.co.uk

: 09 Dec 2006 08:30 |  Tags: TV On The Radio |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem