(Image courtesy of Harvest Records)Indie-synth-pop is a widely popular music aesthetic today. Invading the pop stations, the loud synthesized pianos coupled with steady percussive rhythms and flares of guitar with clear, soothing lyrics is near ubiquitous. Taking off especially around 2008 with the massive success of Passion Pit and continuing today with each Vampire Weekend album, this is our reality as listeners.
Read our coverage of Phoenix's own indie-pop, Luna Aura.
These bands saw all of what TV on the Radio, formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, New York, had — the loops, the cerebral and ambient attitude and the necessity for people to be compelled to move while being washed with the sonic bliss. In many ways, TV on the Radio played a huge part in this development. After crafting a host of critically adored albums like “Dear Science,” it’s understood that anything that comes from these guys is worth attention.
The band’s fifth album, “Seeds,” carries on the TV tradition quite nicely. An album primarily compiled of upbeat indie-pop jams, “Seeds” fits within the TV mission.
Opening the album is “Quartz,” a song that introduces the listener to the album with epic feeling, but quickly segues into a sweet pop song reminiscent of a melody any listener would have heard as a child. That’s not to say the song is juvenile by any means. Right out of the gate, TV commits to a style, crafting intricate, interesting indie-pop songs.
Much of the album carries this mood. The following tracks “Careful You” and “Could You” certainly give the free-spirited Coachella impression and the songs effectively conjure up images of smiles, painted cars and friendship. “Could You” is an especially upbeat song, with a synth-y brass section that seems engineered to inspire a determined, optimistic attitude.
The quintessential pop moment is two-thirds of the way through the album with “Right Now.” Although I’m not sure this was the intention of the song, the mere sonic aesthetic of the track inspires feelings of young love, as if it would have served nicely in the soundtrack of a 2008 indie rom-com.
While most of the album follows this mood, songs like “Love Stained” offer a more introspective, slowed down tempo that allows the album to breathe a little bit, rather than being a suffocated pop heavy piece of work. “Stained” focuses more on layering and building with each layer.
Again in “Winter,” TV opts out of the pop routine, crafting an almost late '70s romantic punk attitude. Until this track, the album had been largely underwhelming, but “Winter” reminds the listener of past TV on the Radio epic jams like “Wolf Like Me” on the 2006 masterpiece “Return to Cookie Mountain.”
The first album to come after the death of bassist Gerard Smith, “Seeds” is smooth, sincere and just experimental enough to be a formidable member of the impressive TV on the Radio discography, but it’s unlikely to topple the group’s previous work. But is that really the point?
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