Album review: Seeds
by TV On The Radio
Distributed by Harvest Records
Brooklyn-born and now L.A.-based band TV On The Radio (TVOTR) has finally followed up 2009’s Nine Types of Light with their latest record, Seeds. The album showcases the leaner, and more urgent sound the band found while taking a hiatus occasioned by the death of bassist and longtime band member Gerard Smith.
The noisy production that marked the band’s early work is gone. Guitarist and inhouse producer David Sitek has replaced the whirring guitars that created the sonic floor of most of TVOTR’s early discography with dense synthesizers that slither their way through most of the tracks on Seeds.
The songwriting and vocals of frontman Tunde Adebimpe are still the most impressive assets the band has to offer. Adebimpe’s soulful singing has never come off as more confident than it does on Seeds. On album opener “Quartz,” Adebimpe explodes into the mix belting out “How much do I love you?/ How hard must we try? / To set into motion a love divine.”
Another highlight is found on “Winter,” where Adebimpe goes toe-to-toe with a gritty guitar riff for most of the track. On Seeds, Adebimpe reasserts himself as the greatest vocal talent in the cohort of early 2000s indie bands TVOTR belongs to (sorry Julian Casablancas).
The lyrics on Seeds often constellate around feelings of loss and the difficulty of moving on. Fitting for a band attempting to move past the death of a dear friend and collaborator.
What makes this record so impressive is that TVOTR doesn’t let the difficulty of moving on create a standstill in their music, like fellow Brooklyn indie rockers The National often do.
Instead Seeds makes the small victories of grieving worthy of celebration. On one song, “Trouble,” Adebimpe reflects on the certainty of death bursts into an anthemic chorus that declares, “everything’s gonna be okay/oh, I keep telling myself.” For TVOTR the smallest progress forward in the face of despair is deserving of commemoration.
Seeds is full of technicolour stadium-rock ambition. The bright choruses that fill most of the tracks rival anything fellow David Bowie collaborators Arcade Fire put on their last album, Reflektor. Seeds is a record that begs for live performance, much like the rest of TVOTR’s discography.
Unlike the riotous live performance the tracks on 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain gestured towards, Seeds promises the opulent, ambitious, and, larger-than-life performances stadium shows offer.
