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Avg: 4.0 (117 ratings)
- Date Released: July 3, 2006
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Label: 4AD
Brooklynites second album is a cross-cultural record that’s way more than the sum of its parts.
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We Say...
It’s all too rare that a record comes along and simply shatters all expectations. 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain, the second full-length for this Brooklyn-based combo, is one such work of near genius. An intoxicating blend of hip-hop rhythms and intricate, artful arrangements, of Prince-like vocal whelps, Outkast-style exuberance, and even a guest appearance from David Bowie (whose inspiration is obvious), it’s that impossibly elusive thing: a cross-cultural record that’s way more than the sum of its parts. Urban, urbane, and avant-garde in its literal sense, Cookie Mountain embodies (and embraces) confusion on every level — its mashed-up attitude towards genres, its extraordinary voices (think a streetwise Beach Boys), and its sophisticated use of the studio. Take “I Was a Lover,” the album’s extraordinary, disorientating opener. A fractured hip-hop rhythm is chopped up with giant slabs of FX-laden guitar. But that’s merely the framework on which much else hangs: a repeated sinister-sounding horn sample, a graceful piano part, a distressed sitar and the thrilling stretched vocals of Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe. When they harmonise, “We don’t make eye contract when we have run-ins in town,” their words encapsulate both the alienation and the brazen single-mindedness that infuses every note of this extraordinary, ceaselessly engaging record.
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They Say...
As passionate as ever, but now with a little more polish, TV on the Radio's second album (and Interscope debut), Return to Cookie Mountain, is their most satisfying work since they exploded onto the scene with Young Liars. More than some of their indie rock peers, TV on the Radio seems comfortable on a major label. They've always been a band with a big, unapologetically ambitious sound, and on Return to Cookie Mountain, they give that sound room to breathe with a lush, expansive production. The sonic depth throughout the album is a sharp contrast with the density of their first full-length, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, which was so jam-packed with sounds and ideas that it was nearly suffocated by them. However, Return to Cookie Mountain is hardly slick or dumbed-down for mass consumption. In fact, the opening track, "I Was a Lover," is one of the band's most challenging songs yet, mixing a stuttering hip-hop beat with guitars of Loveless proportions and juxtaposing inviting vocal harmonies and horns with glitches and trippy sitars. "Playhouses" is only slightly less radical, with its wildly syncopated drumming and Tunde Adepimbe's layered, impassioned singing. At times, Return to Cookie Mountain threatens to become more impressive than likeable -- a complaint that could also arguably be leveled against Desperate Youth as well -- but fortunately, TV on the Radio reconnects with, and builds on, the intimacy and purity that made Young Liars so striking. David Bowie's backing vocals on "Province" are only one part of the song's enveloping warmth, rather than its focal point, while the album's centerpiece, "A Method," is another beautiful example of the band's haunting update on doo wop. Meanwhile, the mention of "the needle/the dirty spoon" on "Tonight" cements it as a gorgeous but unsettling urban elegy. As with all their other work, on Return to Cookie Mountain TV on the Radio deals with the fallout of living in a post-9/11 world; politics and morality are still touchstones for the band, particularly on the anguished "Blues from Down Here" and "Hours," on which Adepimbe urges, "Now listen to the truth." Notably, though, the album builds on the hopeful, or at least living for the moment, vibe that emerged at the end of Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. The sexy, funky "Wolf Like Me," which is the closest the album gets to rock in any conventional sense of the term, and "Dirtywhirl," which spins together images of girls and hurricanes, offer erotic escapes. And by the time the epic final track, "Wash the Day," revisits the sitars that opened the album with a serene, hypnotic groove, Return to Cookie Mountain gives the most complete representation of the hopes, joys, and fears within TV on the Radio's music.
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| 01. |  |
I Was A Lover |
4:20 |
|
| 02. | |
Hours |
3:55 |
|
| 03. | |
Province |
4:37 |
|
| 04. | |
Playhouses |
5:11 |
|
| 05. | |
Wolf Like Me |
4:37 |
|
| 06. | |
A Method |
4:28 |
|
| 07. | |
Let The Devil In |
4:27 |
|
| 08. | |
Dirty Whirl |
4:15 |
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| 09. | |
Blues From Down Here |
5:17 |
|
| 10. | |
Tonight |
6:53 |
|
| 11. | |
Wash The Day Away |
8:09 |
|
11 Total Tracks, 56:09 Total Length
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Credits
- David Bowie - Vocals // Gerard Smith - Organ // Gerard Smith - Bass // Gerard Smith - Guitar // Gerard Smith - Piano // Gerard Smith - Choir, Chorus // Gerard Smith - Sitar (Electric) // Chris Taylor - Clarinet // Chris Taylor - Horn // Chris Taylor - Horn Arrangements // Chris Bigg - Assistant // Vaughan Oliver - Art Direction // Vaughan Oliver - Design // Steve Fallone - Mastering // Kazu Makino - Vocals // Marco Atkins - Images // Stuart Bogie - Horn // Jeremy Wilms - Cello // Katrina Ford - Vocals // David Andrew Sitek - Producer // David Andrew Sitek - Photography // Tunde Adebimpe - Percussion // Tunde Adebimpe - Vocals // Tunde Adebimpe - Choir, Chorus // Tunde Adebimpe - Art Direction // Tunde Adebimpe - Illustrations // Kyp Malone - Bass // Kyp Malone - Guitar // Kyp Malone - Vocals // Chris Coady - Engineer // Chris Coady - Mixing // Jaleel Bunton - Guitar // Jaleel Bunton - Percussion // Jaleel Bunton - Piano // Jaleel Bunton - Drums // Jaleel Bunton - Choir, Chorus // Jaleel Bunton - Fender Rhodes // Martin Perna - Horn // Chris Moore - Engineer // Chris Moore - Mixing // Brooke Gillespie - Intern
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