TV on the Radio's second album pushes their sound outward without losing the edge that made them worth watching. The Brooklyn group layers distorted guitars over programmed beats, lets doo-wop harmonies collide with feedback, and somehow makes it cohere. Tunde Adebimpe's voice moves from a croon to a shout within the same song, and the production, handled largely by guitarist Dave Sitek, keeps everything just unstable enough that you never settle in completely.
"Wolf Like Me" is the obvious entry point, built on a riff that could have come from a garage rock band if garage rock bands used this many effects pedals. But the album works better as a whole than as a collection of singles. "Province" drifts on strings and electronics before snapping into focus. "Let the Devil In" uses horns and a lopsided groove that shouldn't work but does. The mood shifts from track to track, sometimes within a track, but the restlessness feels intentional rather than scattered.
This is for people who want rock music that doesn't stay in one place, who can handle a record that's more interested in texture than verse-chorus-verse. It came out of a specific moment in mid-2000s New York but doesn't sound stuck there.
