Music Review: TV On The Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Geeky CD Review: “Return to Cookie Mountain” by TV on the Radio
If it’s truly as singer Tunde Adebimpe croons and “love is a province of the brave,” then Return to Cookie Mountain is proof of that claim. TV on the Radio have created a masterpiece both ambient and rocking, beautiful and ugly, passionate and hollow. This record, unfortunately, didn’t get the tout it deserved in my Top 10 albums of the year, but it does take a certain amount of bravery to love it. Return to Cookie Mountain is jam packed with discordant layered sounds, avoiding melodic instrument phrasings at all costs, with drums constantly grooving hard beneath the calculated mess.
Beginning track “I Was a Lover” is a great snapshot of the 11 track deluge, with its sitar drones, reverse synth pads, and hard hitting drum machines, the focus is clearly on TV on the Radio’s octave vocal swells that permeate the album. Even guest vocalists Katrina Ford and David Bowie seem to chameleon themselves into the singing mesh on their respective cameo tracks.
Clear standouts in the fray here are Bowie spotlighted “Province”, punk-influenced single “Wolf Like Me”, voodoo-like reggae romp “Let the Devil In”, and brutally earnest “Blues From Down Here.” All of these songs carry the constant ambience and rhythmic attack, but never do they sacrifice the believability and accessibility of the vocal current.
With lyrical topics ranging from heroin binges to animalistic pleasure seeking, the dirty rock and African drum influences help to carry the messages and feeling of the songs they drive. The urban wasteland environment fashioned in their tunes make you feel at once in the gutter and at a penthouse champagne party. I’ll leave you with some lyrics from 2006’s most disturbingly enjoyable album:
“There's a purple pain strangling yesterday/ there’s a purple stain spattered on interstates/ it’s an awkward stage grasping at anything/ ‘cause it's lost the page/ can’t find a word to say/ there is hardly a method you know…”
What say you?!