10/10 (Editor's Choice)
By Connor Hayes
More often than not, great works arise from great loss.
In 2011, TV On The Radio's bassist, Gerard Smith, lost his long-running battle with lung cancer, leaving the band with a question: to fold as a group, or to continue on. Even the band's frontman, Tunde Adebimpe, had doubts, and felt that the band had done well by their late member, and by themselves, with the success enjoyed by their then newly released album, Nine Types of Light. It seemed that the band was going to rest on their laurels after a successful and self-fulfilling run.
However, the Brooklyn natives announced a new album in the summer of 2014, and now this project has arrived. The name of this new work is, appropriately called, Seeds.
The album starts with an incredible return-of-a-track with "Quartz", featuring a bass chant that works in perfect symmetry with the twinkling of steel drums, and Adebimpe's soaring vocals. The track repeatedly asks the question, "How much do I love you?". This is the question the rest of the album attempts to answer.
The following number, "Careful You", further presents a similar lyrical quandary, supplemented by it's dragging, organic underbelly. "Don't know / should we stay, should we go / should we back it up and turn it around. / Take the bad with the good / still believe we can make it somehow."
While a couple tracks seem like a return to past material ("Happy Idiot", "Test Pilot", and "Winter"), there are plenty of new explorations ("Love Stained", "Right Now", and "Lazerray") that make it seem that, perhaps, this is not so much a mixed bag, but rather an intentional framing of the human response to loss: manic emotions, and a searching, in all directions, for answers.
The track that finally answers the questions posed by the rest of the album, comes with a reassurance. "Trouble", with it's slowly building course, exclaims "I know now / everything is gonna be okay / oh, I keep telling myself. / Don't worry be happy / oh, you keep telling yourself."
Seeds could have been centered around pain, anger, or even grief. But instead, Adebimpe and his bandmates have focused on a different path: contemplation, acceptance, solidarity, and most importantly, regrowth. With a sense of finality, the title track states resolutely, "Rain comes down, like it always does/ This time I've got seeds on ground."
Listen to "Careful You" from the album:
By Connor Hayes
More often than not, great works arise from great loss.
In 2011, TV On The Radio's bassist, Gerard Smith, lost his long-running battle with lung cancer, leaving the band with a question: to fold as a group, or to continue on. Even the band's frontman, Tunde Adebimpe, had doubts, and felt that the band had done well by their late member, and by themselves, with the success enjoyed by their then newly released album, Nine Types of Light. It seemed that the band was going to rest on their laurels after a successful and self-fulfilling run.
However, the Brooklyn natives announced a new album in the summer of 2014, and now this project has arrived. The name of this new work is, appropriately called, Seeds.
The album starts with an incredible return-of-a-track with "Quartz", featuring a bass chant that works in perfect symmetry with the twinkling of steel drums, and Adebimpe's soaring vocals. The track repeatedly asks the question, "How much do I love you?". This is the question the rest of the album attempts to answer.
The following number, "Careful You", further presents a similar lyrical quandary, supplemented by it's dragging, organic underbelly. "Don't know / should we stay, should we go / should we back it up and turn it around. / Take the bad with the good / still believe we can make it somehow."
While a couple tracks seem like a return to past material ("Happy Idiot", "Test Pilot", and "Winter"), there are plenty of new explorations ("Love Stained", "Right Now", and "Lazerray") that make it seem that, perhaps, this is not so much a mixed bag, but rather an intentional framing of the human response to loss: manic emotions, and a searching, in all directions, for answers.
The track that finally answers the questions posed by the rest of the album, comes with a reassurance. "Trouble", with it's slowly building course, exclaims "I know now / everything is gonna be okay / oh, I keep telling myself. / Don't worry be happy / oh, you keep telling yourself."
Seeds could have been centered around pain, anger, or even grief. But instead, Adebimpe and his bandmates have focused on a different path: contemplation, acceptance, solidarity, and most importantly, regrowth. With a sense of finality, the title track states resolutely, "Rain comes down, like it always does/ This time I've got seeds on ground."
Listen to "Careful You" from the album: