TV on the Radio

Young Liars EP (2003) B–

Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004) B

Return to Cookie Mountain (2007) A–

1. I Was a Lover
2. Wolf Like Me
3. Mr. Grieves

Bloody eclectic indie band from Brooklyn formed by Nigerian-born singer-actor-animator Tunde Adebimpe and ex-Baltimorian guitarist-painter-photographer David Andrew Sitek. While their genre-mashing has often been generic, Adebimpe's voice, whether basso cantante or falsetto etereo, is certainly distinctive. Accompanied only by a string bass, he sings all the parts on their a cappella cover of the Pixies' "Mr. Grieves", the bonus track on Young Liars; this was the last time the band displayed a sense of humour. Desperate Youth was overrated for its nothing-new tech, though it was impressive for the sheer range of its displayed competencies. The leap forward of Return to Cookie Mountain was primarily enabled by more pungent sample-doctoring by Sitek, starting with the horn chart on the intro of "I Was a Lover". That opener has particularly strong, dread-filled lyrics ("My clone wears a brown shirt and I seduce him when there's no one around"). Even more surprisingly, "Wolf Like Me" showed they could rock.