TVOTR inject a shot of R&B into the arty pop of Arcade Fire, shake it all up and wait for the bang. And the whole thing explodes like Prince slamming into the Talking Heads. Let’s party like it’s 2999.
The Prince comparison sums up best what ‘Dear Science’ sounds like. Think intricate, clever little vocal, guitar and string bits grafted on top of booty shaking R&B. Other possible comparisons would be the Talking Heads or, at a stretch, Cypress Hill. But only Prince exhibited the same baroque excess. ‘Dear Science’ is a loads-of-things-happening-at-once album: Busy and often teetering on the brink of bombast.
Take a song like ‘Golden Age’, which flits effortlessly between Pop vocals, R&B beats and strings from a cafe house orchestra. Or ‘Stork & Owl’, which is just pure Prince, really. But TVOTR can go beyond the 80’s pop and produce the edgy ‘Dancing Choose’ and almost alternative sounding ballads like ‘Family Tree’ and ‘Shout Me Out’.
Watch TVOTR Play ‘Golden Age’ On YouTube
If this is all a bit too busy for you, check out ‘Crying’ and ‘Red Dress’, two fairly straightforward Funk tracks with that early 80’s Talking Heads feel.
‘Dear Science’ is the New York band’s most poppy, danceable album to date. Lead guitarist Kyp Malone namechecked Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure and New York cult act The Swans among his musical influences. I can definitely hear the first two at work here in the poppy overtones to the songs. The Swans, pioneers of towering slow motion hard rock, influenced the way TVOTR builds layers upon layers of sounds. Busy, big music.
If you like the more experimental side of R&B, say the work of Andre 3000 from Outkast, then this album is for you. If you’ve been a fan of Prince, the Bunnymen or mid- to late period The Cure, then this is a strong recommendation.
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Readers from the UK and Ireland can download ‘Dear Science’ from iTunes UK.
