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 Post subject: Year in Review: TV On The Radio-Return To Cookie Mountain(1B
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:43 am 
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Average Metacritic score 88 (37 reviews):

TV On the Radio
Return To Cookie Mountain (Interscope / 4AD)
US release date: 12 September 2006
Rating: 100

reviewer: paul haney

Sometimes it's really hard to write about a record you absolutely adore. There's a certain sadistic glee associated with ripping a personally maligned piece of work into much-deserved shreds, and in these cases, all the bile, misanthropy, and other assorted hatred flows without incident from brain to paper. But trying to come up with a halfway decent lead for a record you've fallen in love with? Near impossible.

I can't really think of how to introduce Return To Cookie Mountain. There's so much I have to say about this record, and I have no concrete clue of where to begin. I suppose I can say that TV On The Radio have really outdone themselves this time, but it's not like I expected the sophomore slump from these guys. The glorious, controlled, pop-tinted cacophony of their live shows, where TVOTR morphed into a full-fledged five-piece, as well as the unheralded artistic break-through of the online-only Hurricane Katrina protest anthem "Dry Drunk Emperor," were all harbingers of greater things to come from these Brooklynites.

Return To Cookie Mountain delivers everything that TVOTR's adherents have been underlining all this time. Anything that may have written the band off as a novelty in the past, whether it be the neo-shoegaze elements, the resurgence of 50 years old doo-wop inspired harmonies, or the disconcerting tension inhibited in their processed beats, are pulled off with so much more confidence and vigor this go-round that any continual attempts to lump the band under any sort-of generic NYC straight-jacket are fatal oversights. Call these guys redundant, and you risk looking very foolish.

With TVOTR becoming more of a band and less a studio project, it's easier to hear the blood that runs through this band's music. The continual cluster-fuck of live drums, sampled horns, ambient debris, and, of course, thunderous typhoons of guitar noise has that sort-of organic/mechanical tension all the hipster critics seem all too often to point out. Only in this case, there's the seamless cohesion that feels resoundingly natural; for all the elements present alien to our reality, they sure sound like they've been hanging around all this time.

"I Was A Lover" opens the record on a brilliant note, pitting some shoe-gazed guitars against a cut-and-past patchwork of horns that recalls the type of hip-hop choppiness perfected by DJ Premier. Elsewhere, we have "Playhouses" and potential single-of-the-year "Wolf Like Me," where the members build up some sense of urgency that thankfully avoids the recent mope-rock/emo trap of falsified intensity. If there's any band who's making outright towering "anthems," TV On The Radio has the victory lap in the bag.

Moving on, we find the percussive a capella pop of album centerpiece "A Method" betters 2004's glorious "Ambulance," and "Let The Devil In" has the right sense of sparseness while simultaneously feeling incredibly full and built-up. And as is with the best albums we come across, I can't really describe in words what makes all of these songs such a joy to listen to. They just exist in their own plateau doing what I'm sure they're set out to do, which is find those lucky enough to come across them and provide continual moments of stereoed bliss.

If I could articulate this more, I'd gladly take up the task, but I just can't. This record is 2006's first real stunner, the sound of a band answering the indie-cynics snooty cries of "now what?" with the hugest arsenal of defense any band could possibly muster. If TV On The Radio weren't already keepers as it were, then it's impossible to deny that these guys are worth the time and adoration after this record. Yes, it's that good, good enough to reach classic status, and if ten years down the line, this isn't mentioned in the same way we think about Loveless or Slanted And Enchanted or at least In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, I'll be very surprised. And maybe then I'll just give up this job, but I implore you to take my word for it. Return To Cookie Mountain is one for the ages.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:51 am 
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i can hear the band growth but prefer the rawer passion of their previous effort. 100? i don't hear perfection, but "wolf like me" is my fav of theirs yet. just like their last album, this one will barely miss my top 21 of the year.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:31 am 
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I dig it. Maybe I don't "get it" though as I throughly enjoy the album, but I don't hear the things people keep ranting about in reviews about how futuristic this album is.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 6:04 am 
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Flying Rabbit Wrote:
I dig it. Maybe I don't "get it" though as I throughly enjoy the album, but I don't hear the things people keep ranting about in reviews about how futuristic this album is.


i odnt think i get it either

its likeable enough, but im not hearing the amazing things others do

i prefer their old one actually, though im really hoping theres still a chance for this to grow on me


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 8:40 am 
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nonsense. i guess i don't "get it", or maybe it just really sucks.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:29 am 
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I like it fine but am not blown away at all.

I'll agree with paladisiac that "Wolf Like Me" is definitely something special. Fucking love that song.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:03 am 
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I really like, but not love, the album, but these songs live pretty much destroy soft tissues until your face has been completely rocked off.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:25 am 
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Also, like but don't love. I actually never bought their first so this is my first exposure. A couple of songs are good, the rest are listenable. My main complaint is that the harmonies get annoying after about the fourth or fifth song. Makes everything sound sort of same-y.

I like Dirtywhirl and Wolf Like Me quite a bit, everything else I could take or leave I think.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:27 am 
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Was a grower for me, but it will probably finish number 3. Helped me "get" TVotR outside "Staring at the Sun".


Last edited by Sketch on Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:31 am 
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Yail Bloor Wrote:
I'll agree with paladisiac that "Wolf Like Me" is definitely something special. Fucking love that song.


I really don't get why people freaked out over this album, or band for that matter, but that single is pretty fucking great. One of the best of the year.

EDIT: Having listened to it again this morning, I stand by my initial impressions. There are a few really interesting songs, particularly in the first half of the album, but on the whole it just doesn't take off for me.

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Last edited by DumpJack on Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:40 am 
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I bought this album because I liked the first so much, and I guess I need to spend more time with it because any time I put it on I just listen to "Wolf Like Me" and "I Was a Lover."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:41 am 
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this one will be towards the bottom of the list for me...

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:25 am 
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Its #1 for me. It was a grower, but I really liked it from the 2nd listen on (when I finally turned the volume up). Been listening it to a bunch the past week or so and it just keeps getting better.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:39 am 
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Well I officially "get" it :wink:

This will be #1 for me. And I soured a bit on TVOTR after they lost me on the second half of DYBTB.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:10 pm 
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GREAT RECORD...will be in my top 10

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:13 pm 
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top 3 for me, Hours is becoming my favorite track.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:42 pm 
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I'm still waiting to see them live. Hoping to be blown away when I finally do.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:12 pm 
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Timis Wrote:
GREAT RECORD...will be in my top 10



Me too. Something about it I keep coming back to. They continued the direction that they started with "Desperate Youths..." and perfected it IMO.

The first time I heard it I didn't really like it. It completely grew on me.

It sounds to me like a group of guys with a singular vision and time to perfect it. I find myself with the off kilter melodies in my head hours after listening to it.

It's a great artistic statement IMO and it rocks at times. ("Wolf..." and "Playhouses")


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:33 pm 
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my #1 for the year by a pretty good margin over m. ward (which i also LOVE).

probably in my top 5 of this decade so far....

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:38 pm 
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my #1 record this year, far & away

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:42 pm 
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I love "I was a Lover," "Wolf Like Me," and a couple others. "I was a Lover" might be my favorite song of 2006 (at least top 5). The rest of the album is decent, but doesn't grab me. overall, probably somewhere in the #7-13 range for me.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:33 pm 
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It'll probably be in my top 10. I wasn't really a big fan of these guys until this album. Now I'll have to go back and listen to the others. I feel like this is their The Bends.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:33 pm 
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I'm guessing this album will be #1 or 2 in this year's Shmoo Poll


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:04 pm 
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shiv charles Wrote:
I feel like this is their The Bends.


I can get with this.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:10 am 
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Matt just played this for me last night, and DAMN is it good!

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