One of the best aspects of a review is the prep work. Especially for TV on the Radio, the idea of devoting a few hours to listening to Return to Cookie Mountain and Dear Science is enough to inspire giddiness. Both albums were described as outstanding across the board, with Dear Science sweeping Album of the Year 2008 from Rolling Stone, Spin, The Guardian, and Pitchfork Media’s listener poll.
Listening to Dear Science, however, was not the way to go. Hearing it again emphasized the overt energy that is absent in Nine Types of Light.
Nine Types of Light is TV on the Radio’s newest release and fourth studio album. The album’s first track “Second Song” seems to pick up right where “Lover’s Day” left us, introducing the album with “Confidence and ignorance approve me, define my day today / I’ve tried so hard to shut it down, lock it up / gently walk away.” The song follows the formula Dear Science set up: slow intro, catchy hook, Big Band ending.
But the album changes after that. The synths and horns make it hazy and Tunde Adebimpe’s signature croon is there, but the electricity of Dear Science has been mellowed. Nine Types of Light is more of an understated expression of love than their previous records, which is a hard transition to make as a listener and fan. The album seems to follow along the lines of a lyric in “Second Song”: “When there’s music all around me / and I haven’t got a single word to say.”
After such an explosive reception to both Return to Cookie Mountain and Dear Science, Nine Types of Light fits with the discography in the same way the first 46 seconds of “Killer Crane” trick my mind into thinking it’s “Shout Me Out.” The two songs, like the two albums, seem like polar opposites in every respect, but you can tell innately that both records contain the same soul.
For most, this will seem like a disappointment. I like to see it as a shift, rather than a drop off the edge. Instead of being obviously experimental, TV on the Radio seems to have found a groove that works for them in Nine types of Light, honing their sound and experimenting within those parameters.
While the haziness of the body tracks made me fall asleep at first listen, “You” and “Will Do” are heartbreaking and groovy all at once, and the beat on “No Future Shock” is infectious to the point where you can’t not drop everything and just be consumed by the song.
“New Cannonball Run” wakes the mind a little without disturbing the flow of the record, but then there’s the eighth track “Repetition.” It comes off as an admission to the monotony in the body tracks, but it also continues in the vein of not knowing where to go after reaching the top of the world.
After the explosion of “My repetition – my repetition is this,” “Forgotten” lulls the listener back to sleep before “Caffeinated Consciousness” forces you back to earth. While the song isn’t that impressive on its own, it works well as a bookend alongside “Second Song” and stands out as one of the most unique on the record.
Like most recent records, Nine Types of Light is not just an album. It’s also a movie, which the band put up on YouTube on April 12th along with the record release. The film runs at 59 minutes and 49 seconds, and includes music videos for all the songs directed by a myriad of the band’s friends and admired filmmakers.
In a broader sense, the album is crucial to 2011 as a whole, in that many artists that are globally loved and have been dearly missed are releasing this year. For more on this, stay tuned for the next issue of the Quad’s “Love Letter to 2011.”
The best advice I can give is don’t write this album off. Nine Types of Light is solid, and worth a listen. Or several.
TV on the Radio will hold an autograph signing on April 15th at Newbury Comics at 3pm. The band will appear at the Newbury St. location in honor of Record Store Day. TV on the Radio will also play that night at House of Blues Boston with opener Lissy Trullie.
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