CD of The Week

"To arrive ahead of its time is the fate of the fish washed up on shore." That line could just as easily describe TV on the Radio. It's the opening lyric of "Repetition," a late track on their new album Nine Types of Light. And yet, with this latest full length, the band proves that they're still not close to running aground. TV on the Radio has always sounded like a band ahead of its time. Maybe its in the way Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone's vocals seamlessly meld together, simultaneously reaching dizzying heights and cavernous lows. Perhaps it's in Dave Sitek's ethereal production, or the way drummer Jaleel Bunton and bassist Gerard Smith contribute driving, persistent rhythms, adding an undeniable urgency to everything from dancefloor-friendly bangers to atmospheric balladry. It's the latter that fills much of Nine Types of Light. Stylistically, it seems to follow up where Dear Science left off, having scrubbed away the murk that helped characterize their classic Return to Cookie Mountain. It was a risky approach, attempting to find accessibility without sacrificing ideas and emotion, but it worked, and it does here as well. Love songs like "Keep Your Heart," "You" are carefully crafted, wringing the maximum pathos out of each declaration of fleeting, ultimately doomed love. "Will Do" sees Tunde crooning about the benefits of throwing oneself into love, damn the consequence. Meanwhile, "Killer Crane" is a statement that there is beauty even after the worst storm. When the band decided to get you moving, though, they really go for it. The album actually starts on that note, with a sort of half-spoken intro to leadoff track "Second Song" before the drums really kick in. "No Future Shock" and "Repetition" mine today's realities while rocking out with the best of them--"Repetition" is especially astute about those in the grip and pursuit of excess: "I've abused my position and it cost my friends/If the world keeps turning, I might do it again." And then there's the pounding "Caffeinated Consciousness," which pays a debt to Bad Brains. Eclectic yet focused, TV on the Radio has yet to deliver anything resembling a dud, and they haven't started here. Nine Types of Light is yet another masterpiece from a band that doesn't seem to know how to do any less.