Alright. I’ve had this album since March, but I still love it, and If you don’t know of it, TV on the Radio‘s Dear Science is and Indie Pop masterpiece. From the early hits of “Halfway Home” to the final notes of “Lover’s Day,” this album fails to disappoint. Note the double negative. Relish it. And also? I can’t tell which is Kyp and which is Tunde all of the time, but I do my best. I won’t take my earlier mentions out, but I won’t try anymore. If anyone knows, feel free to tell me.
“Halfway Home” opens the album with a guitar wall and an immeasurable amount of tension. Kyp starts off with a slow, subdued verse, followed by Tunde singing the chorus in falsetto. Rinse, and repeat. This is one of those songs that isn’t really catchy, but you can’t stop listening to it because you feel like you relate. You just relate to the feel of the song. It seems mildly angry, like you just want to punch something if you don’t get your way. Good thing you don’t know what your way is because it’s just a fricken song. Like I said. Tension.
“Crying” is much more upbeat than you’d expect from such a title. Tunde leads on this one, and you can’t help but dance as he whines his way through a song about how life just kinda sucks sometimes.
“Dancing Choose” is proof that a song don’t gotta be long to say a lot. Tunde attacks on this one, the only song that seems like rap on the whole album, although it develops a melody eventually. Now this? This is a crazy ape-shit song that just makes me spazz out every time I hear it, and in the midst of craziness, Kyp shines through with a dream analysis before you get swept up again in the flow of lyrics. It’s one of those songs you wish was longer so you could bask in it’s awesomeness for a longer period of time. And the horns at the end? Fuckin’ Awesome!
“Stork and Owl” starts off like it’s going to be something off of Daft Punk’s Homework, but then the strings come in, and so do those familiar whiny vocals. I think this might be one of the few times where whiny vocals are appreciated. The chorus of this song has you feeling sympathetic for whatever troubles this poor dude seems to be going through.
Be prepared for this next track. Especially after the low-key slowness of “Stork and Owl,” “Golden Age” is a jolt to the system. You already know this song is good in the first 10 seconds, as the kickass bass line comes in. I mean, holy shit! It’s two notes! How is it that cool? And the vocals hold all kinds of excitement, that have you bouncing your shoulders and grinning like a fool. “Age of miracles, age of sound. There’s a golden age comin’ round, comin’ round, comin’ round.” Those horns! Whay are horns so cool? And whoever decided hand claps were exciting was also a genius. This song is happyful. It truely does hail a golden age.
“Family Tree” is kinda boring, kinda creepy, but still beautiful in it’s own slow way. However, “Red Dress” kinda screams at you. It’s like this song is saying “Don’t be stupid! Come party, ya hoe!” Another very powerful and exciting track. “Love Dog” come in with another slow background/really fast beat combo, the signs of a not-boring ballad. The ever-faithful “ooh’s” come in, and prominently. Then the verse comes in, and you furrow your brow, again, in understanding. This song swells towards the 2:15 mark, and you just sway with it. Yeah. Just sway with it. And embrace that nopise that sounds like frogs croaking towards the end.
“Shout Me Out” begins quietly, but in a way that says it’s obviously going to explode at some point. It has a catchy melody, and an interesting use of really high notes in the instrumantation. The best songs always build, and this one’s no exception. “Lord, if you got lungs, c’mon, shout me out.” When it does explode, it’s the kind of things that makes you dance really fasty even though it doesn’t really fit the song when you think about it. Also, shouting “Hey!” shouldn’t be as good as it is, but Arcade Fire does it all the time and I love it when they do too.
“DLZ” is probably, no not probably, far and away the scariest song on the album. It starts with plain anger at someone who seems to have royally fucked up, and escalates to a feeling of suffocation, of hopelessness, and then screaming a big “Fuck You” to the world. “This is beginning to feel like the dawn of the luz of forever.” I looked it up, and apparently the luz is a bone in your spine. Muslims and Jews believe that this is the bone that the body will be regrown from at the time of ressurection.
“Lover’s Day” ends the album on a MUCH happier note. A note of non-stop sex. An entire day devoted to it, in fact. This song is truely a masterpiece of sound that deserves to have the whole world listen to it. It might be one of the most uplifting songs I’ve ever heard; it makes you chest swell with pride, like you just won a decisive victory over all the evil in the world or something. It has one of the best uses of horns I’ve heard in years.
“Held naked in the light,
Held gently,
Held tight,
So soft!
Get off!
Get off!
Ball so hard,
We’ll smash the walls,
Break the bed, And crash the floors,
Don’t Stop! Laugh and scream!
And have the neighbors call the cops!
’till all the eyes that they’ve seen our fire play!
Can’t forget,
Mark it down,
Call it Lover’s Day!
Yes here of course there are miracles.
Under your sighs and moans.
I’m gonna take you, I’m gonna take you,
I’m gonna take you home.
I’m gonna take you home.
I’m gonna take you home.
I’m gonna take you home…”
