TV on the Radio: Seeds

Bill Murphy on November 18, 2014

For a band that has been through so much (including the death of bassist and close friend Gerard Smith in 2011), TV on the Radio, particularly lead singer Tunde Adebimpe, sound positively exultant on their fifth studio album. To be sure, the feeling is tempered with hard doses of reality (“I’m gonna bang my head through the wall ‘til I feel like nothing at all,” Adebimpe sings on the pumped-up single “Happy Idiot”) but then songs like “Could You,” with its Motown melody, keep-on-pushing beat and blaring horn section (on synths, naturally) cut right to the heart of the matter: Good music can recalibrate your aching soul. With Dave Sitek’s expertly layered and expansive production adding to the overall punch (especially on the shimmery piano-and-strings intro to “Ride”), Seeds begins to take on the sheen of a future classic. Adebimpe hammers it home on “Lazerray,” his punk dander up: “Now I’m that light that rages, now I’m that lazer ray that blows a hole right through the ages.” And that’s putting it mildly.

Artist: TV on the Radio
Album: Seeds
Label: Harvest