Top Five Albums of 2008: Number One

This was certainly a good year in music. While not as ridiculously strong as 2007, 2008 had more than its fair share of fantastic releases. Over the course of the next week ScooterDMan, Evan Mix and myself will list our picks for the best albums of the year. Underneath our own reactions to each record will be takes of the other members of this little musical triumvirate.

TV on the Radio - Dear Science

When I first heard this band years ago in a sparsely populated, dimly lit Cleveland club - touring in support of their first full-length album Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes - I knew I was listening to a band that was slightly different than everyone else around them. It was difficult to put my finger on it, but something in the richness of their sound and the soulful voice of lead singer Tunde Adebimpe convinced me that this was a band to follow. Their 2006 release, Return to Cookie Mountain, was one of the best of the year and garnered so many repeat listens from me that this year's TV on the Radio release was a complete shock to me as I was convinced that Cookie Mountain had actually come out last year.

Amazingly with this, the band's third full-length release, the New York five-piece has raised the bar even higher.

Opening track "Halfway Home" immediately displays the larger, wide-open sound the band employs on this record. Beginning with a synth line, booming drums and an almost surf-like backing vocal, the track - which Bob Bollen of NPR's All Songs Considered described as "absolutely killer" - slows down about halfway through to allow extra layers of sound to catch up with it before exploding again in the final fourth. "Crying" follows up with a nimble-ness that belies it's rich, multi-faceted thickness while "Dancing Choose" shows off an almost Michael Stipe-esque verbal and rhythmic flow. Following these, the melancholic balladeering in "Stork and Owl" reveals rolling soundscapes powered by Kyp Malone's falsetto, rising and falling to the tune of the universe.

Unusually, and impossibly, the album actually gets better in its second half as it rounds the corner with one of my absolute favorite songs of the year in "Family Tree". The harmonies utilized up till this point fade in the light of the smooth, operatic tones employed on this track. Adebimpe's deep, silky vocal and Malone's higher pitches play perfectly together, weaving seamlessly in and out of the foreground to the tune of airy violins and delicate pianos. Heavy bass drums are the song's exclamation point providing an ecstatic climax before giving way once again to simpler keying and picking.

The sparse pianos over clacking drumsticks that open "Love Dog" foreshadow the subdued melodies that provide the backdrop for Adebimpe's mournful, soft wail, followed by the sometimes subdued yet often dynamic tempo changes of "Shout Me Out". The breathless vocal delivery in the verses of "DLZ" play well against the song's dark, sinister atmosphere whereas the horns, marching drumroll, and anthemic aesthetic of "Lover's Day" finish the record in jubilant, triumphant fashion.

Dear Science is a seemless record, and peerless in 2008. It's robust and deeply textured; both technically precise and extremely emotionally evocative. TV on the Radio already proudly owns two fantastic albums, and with their latest promise that the best is - staggeringly - yet to come.

Check out the rest of our picks for the five best records of the year.

© Eric Atienza 2008 for Listen In. Some rights reserved.

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