Return to Cookie Mountain [IMPORT]

TV on the Radio

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 8, 2006)
• Original Release Date: July 3, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: 4ad Records UK
• ASIN: B000FG82KO
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #154,025 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Was a Lover

2. Hours

3. Province

4. Playhouses

5. Wolf Like Me

6. Method

7. Let the Devil In

8. Dirtywhirl

9. Blues from Down Here

10. Tonight

11. Wash the Day

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Their second album and first for Interscope is almost wholly brilliant. Like Mogwai, Sigur Ros and a dozen others, TVOTR excels at making slowly-evolving tunes with vaguely anthemic choruses and lots of loud-soft dynamics. Unlike virtually any of those other bands, TV on the Radio mix a genuine and actual songwriting ability with their knack for finding sounds that appear to be "new." This record is crisper-sounding and incorporates more dance-based elements, but it's essentially a pop album. While the lack of the free web-released "Dry Drunk Emperor, a tribute to President Bush, is initially a bummer, the album percolates with enough pre-apocalyptic tension to satisfy anyone. In a Prince-pitched falsetto, the group sings "I was a lover/ Before this war," While throughout, the combination of melody and invention is always pitch-perfect (well, except on "Province" and "Let the Devil In," those songs sort of suck.) People of Earth: please make this band into total superstars and buy several copies of their album: one for the car, another for the office, etc. What we really need in our popular music is more weirdness, and more truth. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description

2006 sophomore release from this electronic, arty and atmospheric Post Punk-influenced band from Brooklyn. Features guest appearances from David Bowie and labelmates Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead) and Katrina Ford (Celebration). This is their first release for the highly influential 4AD label, which should increase their profile considerably. 11 tracks including 'I Was A Lover', 'Hours', 'Wolf Like Me' and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Return to TV on the Radio, August 4, 2006

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

TV on the Radio gave some serious reinvention to indie rock, with their debut "Desperate Youth Blood Thirsty Babes." Then they sort of dropped off for awhile, apparently to tinker with their future sound.

Well, "Return to Cookie Mountain" is an evolution of what they've done before -- the art-rock sound, the grimy electro, and the rough edges that don't need polishing.This isn't quite "there" enough to be their masterpiece, but TV on the Radio is definitely sounding wonderfully mature.

It starts off with the year's best intro -- drum beats, clashes, and an offbeat horn symphony that cuts itself off, before repeating again. As the jagged electronic beats come on, Tunde Adepimbe begins to croon, "I was a lover/before this war... I'm locked in my bedroom/so send back the clowns..." It's a bittersweet song with a warm, rich feeling.

The closest thing they have to typical rock is the heart-pounding "Wolf Like Me," with its howled bridges and eerie feeling, and the expansive, tinkling, explosive "Playhouses." There's also the rustling, stomping art-rock of "Let the Devil In," the swirling electro-rock, the soul-rock, and the epic bass-rock of the finale "Wash the Day Away."

Don't expect TV on the Radio to really rock out in "Return to Cookie Mountain," since they got recognition for their equally dense debut. The songs that follow are too grandiose, too looped, and too dense to be toe-tappers. The only real flaw is their tendency to sometimes neglect music in place of atmosphere -- although even their failures are fascinating.

And that atmosphere is of a dangerous, beautiful place -- campfires, tribal dances, wild animals and flying over mountains. The repetitive drums, bass and more typical instruments are loaded down with flutes, samples, electronic beats, mellotron, cymbals. It's all tangled into a series of loosely-strung, hypnotic melodies that seem to swirl around on themselves.

But the most hypnotic instrument is the vocals. Adepimbe can be deep and soulful, desperate howls, or higher and soaring; either way, he hasn't got the typical disinterested rock voice. And the jumbled, colourful lyrics are hard to make out at times, and eventually they simple become another repetitive pattern in the music.

TV on the Radio have one-upped themselves with "Return to Cookie Mountain," and yet there's a feeling of unfulfilled promise, hinting that they'll get even better as time goes on.

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most brilliant albums of 2006, July 18, 2006

By	Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I was not a huge fan of TV on the Radio's previous album, DESPERATE YOUTH, BLOOD THIRSTY BABES. It was filled with interesting sounds and ideas, but they simply didn't coalesce for me into anything especially compelling or exciting. I'm not sure what happened between that album and RETURN TO COOKIE ALBUM, but whatever it was this is easily one of the most stunning albums I have listened to in a long time.

Not everything on this CD is gold, but all of it is at least very interesting, and at least two cuts stand out as among the best cuts of 2006, and "Playhouses" just might be my favorite song of the year so far. The individual moments are just as interesting and fascinating as on the earlier album, but this time the songs are definitely both exciting and compelling. The other album in the end failed to be truly musical, but this one is exhilaratingly so.

I'm not quite sure who to compare this album to. At times they definitely remind me of Pere Ubu, but not consistently so. Tunde Adepimbe's vocals are truly unique and really don't call to mind any other singer. The band also stands out as arguably the best mainly black rock band since Bad Brains.

I have only three complaints with the disc, complaints that do not outweigh the tremendous delight that I experience listening to the album. First, there are times when I respect it more than like it. Although "Playhouses" and "Dirtywhirl" are sounds that thrill and delight on nearly every level, there are other songs that are interesting only insofar as they are complex and challenging. Second, not all the material is up to the level of the very best songs; this is mitigated by the fact that there are a bevy of really fine songs. Finally, while I love the timbre of Tunde Adepimbe's voice, the band's technique of multi-layering his vocals sometimes obscures the lyrics. Although I have perfect pitch and have always been musical, I also have a sharp high-range hearing loss (the result of a jerk throwing a fire cracker at my head when I was twelve--instant traumatic hearing loss). The main way this effects my enjoyment of music is that I sometimes struggle to make out lyrics (I can easily hear vowels, but consonants on CD sometimes fall into the range of my hearing loss). There are entire songs on this album where I cannot make out more than two or three lines. It definitely impedes the enjoyment of the songs.

Still, this is simply a wonderful album. I simply can't get enough of "Playhouses," but love "Dirtywhirl" very nearly as much. Other highlights include "Hours," "A Method," "Let the Devil In," "I Was a Lover," and "Tonight."

I want to close by saying that while TV on the Radio is often described as an art-rock band--a description that for me, with my preference for garage and punk rock, is usually a dirty word--I didn't find them off putting and pretentious in the least, as I often do with such acts. This is just great music and should excite anyone who loves great music whatever its genre.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars love it., December 13, 2006

By	resident_out_of_touch (Schenectady, New York United States) - See all my reviews

TVOTR have won the prize: they followed up a classic with something better. Cookie Mountain finds them with a wider sonic palatte and more open, raw-sounding mix (new engineer perhaps..?). This is also due in great part to the prevalence of live drums on this album as opposed to the plentiful clickery of drum machines on Desparate Youth. Their songwriting, the leftfield wierdness of which attracted me to them in the first place, is as complex as ever, although this album has the illusion of being more conventional in its structure and arrangement. The first couple times through, I thought that they had simply moved more towards standard verse-chorus layouts for some reason. Upon closer inspection though, I think the difference is that they have simply created a greater sense of drama and energy between parts. On Desparate Youth, the tracks tended to build with a strangely hypnotic monotony (once again, driven very much by the synthesized beats). On Cookie Mountain, they are weaving together these incredible mixes of much more distinct harmonies and hooks. Their characteristic many-faceted vocal parts are out in force, and the effectiveness of the cascading vocals over the freewheeling, experimental instrumentation is much more intense.

I don't have a great deal else to say, this album is chock-full of ear candy and mind-boggling vocals. Their production aesthetic has become much more experimental as well, making the overall sound from song-to-song much more diverse, while retaining the characteric tribal rhythms and fuzzed out guitar. Off the top of my hand a couple standouts are "Province", featuring David Bowie, and the manic "Wolf Like Me"

Highly recommended!