TV on the Radio are quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. Now, this shouldn't be anything shocking, as they've put out four brilliant records in the span of five some years.
But still, there was always some reservation on my part that they may, to some extent, be a product of their producer (Dave Sitek, who made Scarlett Johansson's album good.) So when I saw them live a few months ago, I was a little worried about how things would translate - especially any material off of Return to Cookie Mountain, which seems especially reliant on studio work.
What I should have done instead is listened to Ambulance. It can be an easy track to overlook, coming right at the end of side A of Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes(And let's face it, any song would have a hard time living up to the opening trifecta of The Wrong Way, Staring at the Sun, and Dreams), but its pretty much perfect - without any weighty production, just voices. It's the song that led me to half-jokingly refer to them as "so post-barbershop" for all these years (I guess post-doowop might be more appropriate, but oh well). And even though the a capella is more of an exception than the rule, its quickly becoming the song by which I define the band. (There's a joke in here about Boyz II Men singing silent night on fresh prince of bel-air, but I'm not going to touch it, even as Christmas approaches.)
TV on the Radio - Ambulance
(From: Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes)
Photograph by: Joseph Rotindo
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