Originally posted by thirsty moore:
I want these guys to release more.. and more... and more. I am becoming fanatical about this album
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glad we're on the same page there, thirsty. I think the EP is just about the best thing I heard all 2003. can't wait for the record! Pitchfork just posed a little something about the upcoming single...
TV on the Radio: "Poppy"
Ever heard of garage doo-wop? You have now. "Poppy" pulls together the most disparate strains of TV on the Radio's music, combining old-fashioned finger-snaps and barbershop basslines with machine-press drums and industrial-grade guitars that soar upon grit-streaked wings. Instrumentalist/producer David Andrew Sitek has traded the Massive Attack-like druggy clarity of the band's Young Liars EP for a new adventure in lo-fi-- granted, it's territory he's well familiar with, having got his start producing Yeah Yeah Yeahs EPs.
Young Liars was gorgeous and bulletproof, and most of Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes is consciously coarse and vulnerable. Further playing against their aces, Tunde Adebimpe's vocal presence has been reduced as he shares the mic with Kyp Malone, whose voice isn't half as authoritative, but for better or worse that's the point: a sort of daring frailty is intrinsic to the record. Does it work? On "Poppy", absolutely. An easy confidence carries the song as the guitar and drums establish themselves, disappear shy of the halfway point in a shift that hits like a time-warp, then usher in the song's climax by rejoining the mix piece-by-piece. The stroke of grace, though, is still Adebimpe's voice, both in his emotive crooning and his effortlessly catchy vocal bassline. When I walk through the industrial district, the tension wires hum it. [Chris Leslie-Hynan; January 15th, 2004]
****1/2