Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice, but ultimately disappointing, August 1, 2004
I've had this album since the day it was released, and it's taken me this long to come to a conclusion regarding my feelings toward it. At first, I wanted to like it, all of it. The first song showed some hope for the album's reaching my high expectations, which were set in reference to the band's absolutely brilliant EP, "Young Liars." From track 2 onward, however, I was, for the most part, let down. The band showed true potential for greatness in their EP, but the album as a whole essentially falls short. "Wrong Way," "Staring at the Sun" (why did they cut out the vocal intro?!? it's so beautiful!), "Ambulance," and "Poppy" are the album's only truly strong tracks. The rest of the record is nice enough, but this band is capable of so much better. I originally had this rated as 3 stars, but I decided that a band with so much potential for so much better (as proven on "Young Liars") deserved at least 4.
P.S.- I haven't had the opportunity to see them perform these songs live, and I hear they put on a hell of a show. Seeing these songs played live could easily change my impression of the mediocre tracks on the album, and that fact should be taken into account.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh! the album this could've been, February 2, 2007
First off, let me say how much I appreciate the ingenuity in this album. The Wrong Way is almost flawless. An announcing horn section leads you through the intro to this album. It's the only song on the album to which I would give the vaunted five stars. Staring at the Sun is the next song and the first song which displays the problems with this album as I see it. The beats don't go anywhere as adventurous as the introductions. In each song there is such an intriguing introduction. We enter into a new world, such as the one Alice in Wonderland was introduced by the rabbit. When we first enter these songs, the possibilities seem endless. Where will they take us? What horizons are approached by these intriguing artists who have presented us with something so new, so different. Unfortunately, we learn as we progress through the caverns that the highlights are all in the intros. This was all corrected, in my opinion, in The Return to Cookie Mountain. That may be the less flawed album. I listened to this album many times, trying to understand the abundant critical praise. I never understood it. Did these guys show promise...Heck yeah, but they weren't there yet, as Cookie Mountain proved. This isn't the album with which to start your TV on the Radio collection. Many people loathe reviewers like me who will only provide one star or five, but I don't normally feel inspired to write an review for the two to four album or book. This album is the could've been, should've been that Cookie Mountain was. It was upon hearing Cookie Mountain that I thought back on what was missing with this album. Maybe they should've added a more substantial bridge to the heart of the song that took us away from the workings of the song, then brought us back. Maybe this is why, other than the classic single The Wrong Way, I never made it past two to three minutes on any of the other songs. Cookie Mountain is the real deal though, and it has earned the praise the critics gave it, and it has earned repeated plays in all of my music devices.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ive never read the word "hipster" so many times in one place, August 16, 2005
What does "hipster" even mean?? and is the fact that this band is composed of "hipsters" that significant to the album? I will venture a guess and say no. I'm not particularly enamoured of the self-righteous wierdness of musicians who defiantly call themselves "Indie", i don't wear Rivers Cuomo brand square-rim glasses, and I never considered myself a "hipster" but I still love this CD. I just had to get that hipster rant off my chest cuz it seems like a lot of people (everywhere, not just in these reviews) have taken this band as some sort of indie rock experiment, only worth considering it in the context of all those other wierd indy guys.
i was introduced to the band by MTV2 in Italy, which was playing one of their videos at about 3am. As an avid electronic music fan and practitioner, my ears are somewhat attuned to the twisty sounds of synthesizers and unmistakable precision of drum machines, much like hippies are attracted to didgeridoos, bar chords, and Grateful Dead covers. TVOTR initially struck me as another generally enjoyable though not terribly interesting synthpop band, like Zero7 or Air or any of those other unobtrusive sorts of electro-lounge outfits. But I kept waiting for what i figured was the inevitable beat drop into a chorus or something, and the more it didn't happen, the more interested I got, cuz i couldn't quite figure out what the hell they were up to. When the song finally wound down and ended, more of a 4 minute swell than a build to an ultimate climax, i thought "that was interesting" and bought the album shortly thereafter.
This really is some very unique and somewhat unpredictable music. Regardless of what some reviewers claim, it is not anything remotely close to a Massive Attack knock-off. The sound of the band is similar to trip-hop acts, dark, brooding, somewhat lo-fi, but their songs are structured purely in terms of melody. The programming and atmosphere are constructed around surprisingly robust vocals and strong, evolving melodies that sort of drive themselves, without needing to rely so explicitly on the verse-chorus pop template. Any similarity to trip-hop is purely in the background rhythms, which as i said are more support for vocals than anything else.
Admittedly they do seem to run out of ideas towards the end of the album, about halfway through I begin to tire of it. I have to stress however, that "Wrong Way", "Staring at the Sun", "Dreams", and "King Eternal" are consistently enjoyable. As another reviewer said, if TVOTR maintains that quality on a future record it will be quite an album. I can't think of much else to say, this is really unusual stuff. it's quite apparent that these guys have a different musical sensibility than most anything else on the market.
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