TV on the Radio
Dear Science
The semantic change TV on the Radio make in the first song on Dear Science is crucial. “Halfway Home” opens the Brooklyn band’s third—and arguably best—album with many of the very elements that made them iconoclasts: the aggressive “Wolf Like Me” drums, doo-wop vocals, and an otherworldly remove from its own lyrics. At the beginning and the end of each phrase, vocalist Tunde Adebimpe’s voice softens a little, so it sounds crystal clear in the center but fuzzy on either end, as if he’s walking slowly past you while singing. TV on the Radio have always been thrilling aesthetes with a deft hand for socio-political commentary: The band’s debut album opened with a song about “Magic Nigger” movies—films like The Green Mile and The Legend of Bagger Vance, in which black men show up with magic powers and infinite wisdom to solve white dude’s problems—and managed to turn an intricate and thorny issue into a pretty kick-ass song. But Dear Science is TV on the Radio boldest album yet, a tapestry depicting life in a Bush-addled, pre-election America where no one knows whether to feel hope or dread for the future—and “Halfway Home” has the dubious job of introducing it. The opening lyric, “The lazy way you turned your head into a rest stop for the dead,” sounds like pure Bush-baiting until you look closely at it. It sets up the idea of someone’s mind as a halfway home—a place where criminals and the mentally ill live while trying to ease themselves back into society. Except… that’s a halfway house—and what’s the difference between a house and a home? In the most blatant terms, a house is simply lodging; home is where the heart is. So, TV on the Radio set up for an album exploring desperation, fear, expectation, anticipation, neuroses, nostalgia, and regret—in other words, the perfect 2008 cocktail—but the secret implication is: We like it here.
With major assists from fellow Brooklynites Antibalas, Dear Science is more horn-reliant than previous albums. Oscillating between a brass band free-for-all and the Afro-beat they’re known for, Antibalas work in tandem with programmer/multi-instrumentalist Dave Sitek’s rhythm-busting drum tracks to create the album’s central sound, though the band seems just as comfortable breaking the form they’ve created. “Dancing Choose” commits to some awkward rapping, while “Family Tree”—possibly the best-written track on the album, and one of the songs least reliant on TV on the Radio’s singular aesthetic—is a straight-up ballad. Lead single “Golden Age” promises “There’s a golden age coming round,” as it expands TV on the Radio’s musical palate to include a slinky funk groove and a Prince-referencing falsetto. Later, “DLZ” declares “This is beginning to feel like the long-winded blues of the never” amid aching percussive clatter and a chorus of “la la la la”’s. The two sentiments pin down Dear Science’s point of view precisely—desperately waiting on a miracle they’ve been told to expect but may not live to see. Perhaps that’s why TV on the Radio named the album after a note Sitek posted in the studio: "Dear Science, please start solving problems and curing diseases or shut the fuck up."
-Martin Brown, 2008
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