TV On The Radio - "Return to Cookie Mountain" (Beggars/XL)

BUY THIS CD: Return to Cookie Mountain (with Bonus Tracks)

If you have been looking for a singularly unique listening experience, it just may have arrived from this Brooklyn-based group. I'm not exaggerating when I say that TV ON THE RADIO sound like nothing else out there today.

Already a popular import album - and due to drop in the states in mid-September - Return To Cookie Mountain again mixes all kinds of influences - post-punk, "found" sounds, electronica, etc. - with enormous talent and attitude to burn. The two chief members - DAVID ANDREW SITEK and vocalist TUNDE ADEBIMPE - were both film students at NYU, and it's easy to hear the translation between screen and song on this new album. The tunes are at once dream-like yet startling real, like a DALI painting come to life.

Featuring guest vocals from DAVID BOWIE (who - along with people like ROXY MUSIC and BRIAN ENO - is certainly a major influence on TVOTR), Return To Cookie Mountain is a fine starting point to the uninitiated. Songs like "Province", "Wolf Like Me", "Tonight", and the especially striking lead track "I Was A Lover" all work tremendously in very different ways. Adebimpe is a also phenomonal singer, and his emotional stylings are perfectly suited to this band's eclectic soundtrack.

written by Dan Reed

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