“Nine Types Of Light” is an AGCS Album of the Year

OK, so initially we wanted to pick just five records for our AGCS albums of the year but I just couldn’t let this one go unnoticed. Because “Nine Types Of Light” recieved a lukewarm reception this year; people claimed it wasn’t as good as Dear Science (in fact it’s better) and in general it’s been overlooked, barely getting a look-in on album of the year lists. But personally I found this record to be the purest manifestation of TV On The Radio’s sound yet, a brilliant album I’m still not tired of. You can read my initial track by track review below.

“Dear Science” was a good album. You could go further and say it is a very good album. But given the bottomless acclaim bestowed upon TV On The Radio’s last record you’d think it was the third coming in handy compact disc format. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very strong record, but there was lots to stop it becoming the transcendental masterpiece some critics saw it as.

Too often on “Dear Science” the band piled sounds on top of each other until songs became a heavily compressed mess, a process which made opener Halfway Home almost unlistenable, and many other tracks equally claustrophobic. Lyrically, the band spent too long with an “eye on authority”, obsessing over war and government - yet by far the best songs on the record were, at their purest, love songs, with no mentions of “Zion” or shouts of “FUCK YOUR WAR” to be heard.

And guess what? TV On The Radio have only gone and written an album of (mainly) love songs! And they’ve learnt how to give their music breathing space! Basically, Nine Types of Light = Nine Tracks Of Awesome (yes I did just type that), which will be examined in far too much detail below…

1. Second Song - This couldn’t be a more different album opener than Halfway Home, instead of being ushered in on a wall of compressed sound, this record starts with Tunde’s plaintive voice intoning “Confidence and ignorance approve me“ over gentle synth swells. Things don’t stay quiet for long though, with the song exploding around the 1:30 mark, with a chorus calling “every lover on a mission” into the light. It’s all oooh-ooh’s, falsetto, horns, clattering drums. Basically, it’s everything that’s good about TV On The Radio in one amazing opener.

2. Keep Your Heart - A slower song, and again the band are leaving a few more empty spaces in the music, making the final anthemic chorus all the more powerful. Does it sound like a not-very-distant cousin of Dear Science’s Lover’s Day? Yes. But is this a bad thing? Of course it isn’t. Here the balance between the political and personal (which TVOTR have struggled with before) is just right, with Tunde asking “How am I gonna keep your heart, If the world all falls apart”.

3. You - A loping guitar riff and a robotic drumbeat usher in this track before things get all synthy. Lyrically, Tunde is still feeling lovelorn, cooing “you threw your hands up and walked away” before the song takes a slight detour through an awesome slide guitar solo. It’s a cracker this one.

4. No Future Shock - Things take a downward turn here, with a song which falls prey to the two complaints mentioned at the start of the review. There’s no build or release in this song, no let up from the noise - just a grey smudge of headache inducing compression. I said Nine Tracks Of Awesome didn’t I? This is the tenth track, this is the dud.

5. Killer Crane - Fortunately TVOTR make a quick recovery, with the album’s six-minute centrepiece. By the bands standards this is positively stripped back, acoustic guitar and organ forming the backbone of the song, although it’s not long until they’re joined by a string section. Overall though, this is a more subdued, contemplative number, and it’s very welcome.

6. Will Do - That subdued stuff is all well and good, but it’s about time TVOTR got funky. The first single from the album and I’ve had a while to get acquainted with it, and you know what - it’s still as brilliant as when I first heard it. Here Tunde seems to be facing the harsher realities of love, admitting that “it might be impracticable to seek out a new romance” to a prospective lover who “don’t want to waste your life in the middle of a lovesick lullaby”. Oh, and you’ve got to love any song which gets “caldera” into it’s lyrics.

7. New Cannonball Run - We’re getting properly into the groove now, with a relentless gun shot drum beat and heavy bass synth line ushering in another dose of heavenly falsetto. Tunde croons “Hey girls, hey boys, don’t mind the noise”, and when the noise is this much fun I don’t mind it at all. And then the trumpets come in and the song reaches an even higher level of greatness. In short, it’s superb.

8. Repetition - From the start, you can feel this song is building towards something big, and when it comes it’s great, Tunde’s vocals almost spoken, sounding unlike anything else on the record. And then, it’s all distorted guitars and the repeated, shouted hook of “my repetition, my repetition is this”. It’s another great track on what is fast becoming a great album.

9. Forgotten - After an intense trio of tracks things cool down a bit here, and while it’s a lull in terms of energy the quality remains high. It’s a good song, but it’s only in the last minute, when things get a bit louder with foot stamping and yet more awesome horns, that the song becomes properly good.

10 - Caffeinated Consciousness - And to end the album? Something completely different of course. Starting off with horn blasts and a loose guitar riff, it’s not long until it’s all distorted vocals and power chords. It almost sounds like a traditional rock song, that is until the 50 second mark when things take a sudden shift to a chorus of reverb drenched guitar and synth pad. But before you know it, it’s back to the almost glam-rock stomp of the insanely catchy verse. And with that, TV On The Radio not only end the album on a high but with a song that will be stuck in your head for days.

THE FINAL VERDICT: Music that’s clever, catchy, and has got heart. Excellent.

9/10