TVOTR make the whole exercise of listing genres track by track utterly futile; instead they invite you to pay homage to their superior musicianship, insightful lyricism and wonderful production, until you're overcome by the realisation that you're dealing with what will surely be recounted as a classic in future years.
Dear Science is a structural marvel in the way that its music reflects its tone.
This is shit-hot thrilling music. But it's also brainy and ambivalent, and more engaging for it.
TV on the Radio may still — and always — make capital-A art, but they’ve found something universal, even joyful, in the noise.
On Dear Science, TVOTR finds a more traditional consistency, transmuting that dirty experimentalism into a lush cleanliness that eases—rather than hurls—its songs into the art-making ether.
Dear Science is both an extension and a refinement of TV on the Radio’s previous work, but it may also prove an unlikely successor to Green Day’s American Idiot. Both albums attempt to be all things to all people, and actually succeed. And Dear Science just might prove to define Bush’s second term the way Idiot did his first.
On Dear Science, the band channels its focus into lean, nimble songs with more structure and polish -- and more focus on Tunde Adepimbe's and Kyp Malone's vocals -- than any of TV on the Radio's previous work.
Whether Dear Science stands the test of time like classic records must is impossible to predict right now, but, at this moment in time, it's sounding like one of the albums of the year, and its makers' latest, greatest masterpiece.
Dear Science is another highlight from a band whose career has essentially been an extended one.
Funky, soulful, poppy but not without considerable weight, Dear Science is one of 2008's best.
TV on the Radio may feel the urge to sing about dystopian futures and the romantic apocalypse, but damned if they don’t have a fun time doing it.
Throughout Dear Science, TV on the Radio — which includes the rhythm section of bassist Gerard Smith and drummer Jaleel Bunton — flesh out Adebimpe’s andMalone’s ruminations with relentlessly inventive arrangements that make even familiar sentiments seem fresh.
When they get the balance right between ambition and execution ... they forge sonic vistas of such brooding power that they allow the listener to forgive and forget the group’s more bloated excesses.
Deep Science should enhance TVOTR's reputation as one of the finest, forward-thinking bands around, along with fellow Brooklyn acts Animal Collective and Liars.
Dear Science is all the more satisfying for providing a sense that the next leap will be just as rewarding.
‘Dear Science’ cuts through genres like a laser through a music encyclopaedia, making strange connections, but always with pop clarity as the ultimate aim. As ever, Sitek’s production shines.
The most engaging film characters have likeable qualities that conflict with something that’s inherently hard to stomach. Brooklyn’s TV on the Radio masterfully employ this tension in Dear Science, – apparently their major breakthrough album.
It's certainly an album of the year, no one with a modicum of taste would deny that, but it's not a classic either in the sense of the word that the Beatles' White Album is a classic. That tag seems to be just out of reach of otherwise one of the most exciting art rock band going.
Dear Science, spends its 50 minutes in flux between several worlds, none of them particularly memorable.
They haven’t exactly lost their sense of intrigue, it’s just that on Dear Science it all sounds a lot less intriguing.
Phenomenal record. The production is top notch, and I especially love the way their vocalist layers his falsetto tracks with his more baritone delivery. It gives the already lush instrumentals that much more life. Each song hits so hard, the attention to detail is absolutely nuts when paired with these songs that are well-constructed on their own. This band receives all of my flowers.
Brief Review: Pretty good indie rock album. Thats p much all there is to say about it tbh. Production is p solid, the vocals sound good, and generally the songwriting is pretty compelling. There are a few moments I'm not too fond of, but even still, it ain't all that bad! Worth a listen if you're into this type of stuff.
Best Tracks: Halfway Home, Crying, Stork & Owl, Golden Age, Love Dog, Shout Me Out, DLZ
Worst Track: Red Dress
After the success and beloved Return to Cookie Mountain, TV on the Radio return in 2008 with Dear Science, with a lovely futuristic soundscape and lush uplifting sound whilst offering some of their best lyrics, whilst maintaining a catchy style and taking elements of funk and post-punk for an album which stands out in the 00's indie rocks cene.
Track Review
Halfway Home 9.5/10
Crying 8.5/10.
Dancing Chose 8.5/10.
Stork & Owl 8/10
Golden Age 8.5/10.
Family Tree 8.5/10.
Red Dress ... read more
vinyl reissue
https://store.touchandgorecords.com/products/tv-on-the-radio-dear-science-180-gram-white-vinyl
I like this album considerably more than it's predecessor. This album's production, and especially it's instrumentals, are dramatically more complex and vibrant. This is the TVOTR that I really like, and it's a very nice album, only missing a couple more standout tracks. Halfway Home is a very underrated song, which as the opener to this one signaled a slight departure in TVOTR's sound (a departure that I guess some may not appreciate). If Wolf Like Me was on this album it'd be a 90.
Dear Science finally sees the instrumentals and vocals mixing in a better way even if their unique sound is a bit lost into a more generic indie rock sound. It's good and technically maybe their best produced album, but it's not better because of it.
1 | Halfway Home 5:31 | 83 |
2 | Crying 4:10 | 90 |
3 | Dancing Choose 2:56 | 84 |
4 | Stork & Owl 4:00 | 84 |
5 | Golden Age 4:09 | 84 |
6 | Family Tree 5:33 | 82 |
7 | Red Dress 4:25 | 79 |
8 | Love Dog 5:36 | 83 |
9 | Shout Me Out 4:15 | 84 |
10 | DLZ 3:48 | 92 |
11 | Lover's Day 5:53 | 77 |
#1 | / | A.V. Club |
#1 | / | Consequence of Sound |
#1 | / | Rolling Stone |
#1 | / | Spin |
#2 | / | Beats Per Minute |
#2 | / | musicOMH |
#2 | / | NME |
#3 | / | PopMatters |
#3 | / | Tiny Mix Tapes |
#3 | / | Treble |