TV on the Radio – Dear Science

Made by people who are very ill.

Each song sounds like the artists were dragged from their beds, while they lay there suffering from the flu, and forced to perform their music. They sound like they really aren’t enjoying most of the music that they are performing. This is one of the things that I love about this album. They sound as though they have no energy left and are really struggling to perform and are really suffering for their art.

I don’t really know what the songs are about, but I feel that whatever it is, is important and more people should hear about it.

There’s plenty of different of styles for you to munch on in this, as they rap, jazz, and rock their way through the songs, and there’s a nice mix of slow and upbeat songs that give a nice, full and varied sound. You never get bored and there’s always something new jumping out at you at every turn. Causing you to be slightly shocked, but it all adds to the excitement to the album.

Still, throughout the album, there’s this sense of unease about the whole thing that I just can’t shake off, and I’m not sure if I like it or not. In some songs, it adds a kind of Portishead style anxiousness to the whole thing, and in others, it brings what should be a song of high energy and sucks all the energy out of it, leaving you with a husk, left after the real intention of the album has grown into a butterfly and flown away to enjoy itself.

Overall, I think I like this album. Not in an enjoyment way, but more like watching an arthouse film about people who are dying, but still living their lives to the full and having fun. There’s lots of happiness there, but it’s hidden behind a cobweb of lies and sadness, and if you try to touch it, you get covered in this web.

I find myself nodding along, but then I stop, feeling slightly guilty.

Listen to this album: Carefully.

88%

Extracts from ‘Crying’, ‘Stork and Owl’, ‘Family Tree’ and ‘DLZ’

Golden Age

The Rascals – Rascalize

Blandness in it’s raw form.

It’s been a while since an album has been released that I feel completely indifferent about. This album succeeds at not making me hate it. While it’s another indie by numbers album that has no unique ideas or interesting development anywhere in it and thus should be condemning the band to a firey death and embarking on a quest to remove any trace of this band from the earth, but I couldn’t really care about the band or what they do. I feel absolutely nothing while hearing these songs. It’s as though I’m not listening to anything at all.

Is it worse to have a band that doesn’t even inspire you to hate them? Can they get any percentage mark at all?

Listen to this album: ?

Rating: -

Extracts from ‘The Glorified Collector’, ‘I’d be lying to you’, ‘People Watching’ and ‘How do I end this?’

‘Out Of Dreams’

N.E.R.D – Seeing Sounds

Would be better live.

You can tell by listening to this album that it would be so much better if you were experiencing it live. It has an energy and entertainment potentiality that is mainly lost on the recording.

I really fell like I’m missing out while I’m listening to the album, not to say that it isn’t a really fantastic album, but the feeling that I’m not getting everything I can, from a band that I know is great, leaves me feeling cheated. I don;t remember their previous albums having this same sense of live expectancy, and maybe it’s because they were more complete albums and this has something missing, or what.

I do feel myself wanting to dance while waiting for my train, while I listen to this album. The beats are really good, the lyrics are not the most profound of intellegent, but it’s all filled wiith fun, and you can tell that NERD really wanted to do this, and loved every minute of it.

The bass is heavy, the drums are big and the energy is fantastic. Go see them live and tell me if they are better live.

Listen to this album: While they perform it live.

Rating: 84%

Extracts from ‘Anti-Matter’, ‘Spaz’. ‘Kill Joy’ and ‘You know what’

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‘Everybody Noise’