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6.) TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light


This album wouldn’t be this high if this were a best-albums list. The sequencing on this album is… strange, to say the least. When TV on the Radio released a short film consisting of a music video for each track on this album, the order of the songs was different than the album order. The weird thing is that that order wasn’t necessarily and improvement. It’s almost as if these songs are interchangeable. And I haven’t figured out an aesthetic reason for that because I’m too busy enjoying the meticulous songcraft present on these rock songs. If TVotR’s previous masterpiece, Dear Science, was ahead of its time then Nine Types of Light is exactly at the time it should be. It isn’t particularly forward-thinking, just damn good.

“Second Song” (which does work quite well in its spot as an album opener) features slangy rock guitars over thick, bassy synths and gentle piano while Tunde Adebimpe goes into an infectious falsetto croon over the chorus and slowly prog keys and trumpet blasts and new guitar lines get added to the song until we’re left with a triumphant array of sounds that all work together in joyous ways. “Will Do” uses a driving bass line to prop up an otherwise melancholic electro-pop song, and of course it wouldn’t be TVotR if there wasn’t an uplifting and well-crafted shift going into the last act of the song, with new tempos and orchestral strings popping up. This band is just so good. I’m hard pressed to think of many rock bands in this country that are better at writing accessible, interesting songs. Or are just better, period. Again, the sequencing is off and the album misses a dark & heavy song such as “Wolf Like Me” or “ DLZ.” But in a down year for albums, a par-for-the-course offering from TV on the Radio is plenty good.