TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
(Touch and Go)
In full length form, TV on the Radio sound just as unique as they did on their debut EP, Young Liars. Marrying Peter Gabriel's delivery in progressive-era Genesis to the primal beats of post-punk, the band both taps into the dance punk that is all the rage right now and manage to sound different from all those other bands, to create something that is both trendy and unusual. However, this unique style is the only true merit they can claim; the band's music really is just exultation-style falsetto singing and stomping beats. Guitar and keyboards are there merely for rhythm and agitation/tension; all the melody is in the singing. While the lack of riffs is certainly a drawback, much of the album is a suitably nice sing-along. Songs like "Dreams" and "Staring at the Sun" bring to mind a grittier (but still as pastoral) version of British electronic pop like The Beta Band and A Band of Bees. When riffs do appear, they're from guest instruments, like the saxophone in "The Wrong Way," whichs sways and swings against a backdrop of guttural/grinding bass noise. A repetitive guitar riff drives "Poppy"—sounding very much like lo-fi 90s indie rock—but when the guitar drops out, the band starts echoing the riff doo-wop style. The band even does a full song a cappella. The band's previous a cappella song, "Mr. Grieves" on Young Liars, was a revelation—a demented reinvention of a classic of college rock—but this album's "Ambulance" lacks purpose and seems clicheed—more than anything it's just five mellow minutes to break the album in half. TV on the Radio doesn't have the beats of DFA, the high concept of Liars, or the body count of Out Hud; what they do have is a very unique but very accessible style of singing to base all their music off of. While that is enough to make Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes worth listening to, there's not enough going on around the singing to make the album noteworthy.
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