on 2011-12-14 SolitaryMan Said:

Mentioning that anything was picked by anyone as being the best of anything is never a good idea in attempting to reinforce your own personal opinion on the thing in question. Regardless, this album really did little for me back when it came out, and I never really connected with whatever it was a lot of other people were when it came to this band. Eye (ear) of the beholder, and all that jazz.
Not Rated

on 2011-12-13 CharlesMartel Said:

Wouldn't it be dull if all shared the same opinion :)
Rating: 4/10

on 2011-12-13 iamparadox Said:

Yet once again I couldn't disagree with Charles more. This was my first introduction to TVOTR, was picked by Spin as album of the year, and still remains of my my favorite records. It's original, innovative, and timeless. This should be the standard of what most indie records strive to be.
Rating: 9/10

Review:

on 2011-12-13 CharlesMartel Said:

The appearance of David Bowie on this album raised a high degree of expectation. After all, "Return to Cookie Mountain" was a much anticipated third album and surely if someone the calibre of Bowie was putting in a guest appearance then it had to be something special. Right? Wrong! In truth, these days Bowie is well past his prime and there is nothing on "Return to Cookie Mountain" which even hints at the possibility of a resurrected career.

I don't know how to approach this album. There is so much about it, on so many different levels that is just wrong. This sounds like people wanting to be a synth band, but not really knowing how to go about it. Then there is the problem with the guitarist. Now I am not of the my-three-year-old-could-do-that school of music criticism but seriously, a three year old could. The guitars dont actually do anything except wallow in the simplest of chord progressions. The guitarist is either very lazy or very incompetent.

As for the rest of the band, it is kind of difficult to figure out what some of them actually do. One is a programmer which, in this case, I presume means he is the guy who sets all the machines up to make the sounds humans could do (but in this case don't). So what do the rest of them do? OK, I'll grant you, the vocalist is pretty good, but the harmonies sometimes fly well wide of the mark and the lyrics are definitely nothing special. And the tracks, well "Wolf Like Me" and "Dirtywhirl" stand out. The rest are just a barrage of sound effects over some pretty uninspiring songs.

If I had to sum up my reaction to this album in one word it would be Bored. There isn't anything that I would say was bad about it, just that I feel utterly unfazed by it. After all the hype which surrounded the album, listening to it is actually a huge let-down. In days gone by I would have thought there was something wrong with me, that I didn't get it or something. But I have long passed the days when I liked things because I felt I ought to. And I am not going to start now. There is little on here which gives me the feeling that I ought to listen to the album again and I don't care how praised the album is.
Rating: 4/10

on 2008-03-11 dscanland Said:

Thanks. Yeah, I can still throw this one on and get completely wrapped up in it. Do check out Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. It's equally as amazing. I just hope there will be a new TV On The Radio album surface this year.
Rating: 9/10

Review:

on 2008-03-11 kev_stev Said:

I bought this album on a whim a few years ago and I liked what I heard in bits, but it never totally clicked for me. Over the summer, though, I was listening to "Wolf Like Me" and I had a crazy musical epiphany: I heard the nuanced walls of sound, I felt the intensity of the music, and I was hooked. The more I looked into the album, the more I loved; the volatile lyrics, the unique and seamless genre-blending...I can go on for awhile. This is definitely one for the ages and represents today's music pretty well. D, you were right on the ball with this one; way to not let the hipster over-hype overshadow a great album.
Rating: 9/10