TV on the Radio -- Return to Cookie Mountain

10/10

One of the first dates I took my wife on was a TV on the Radio show. I was a horrible date--I don't think I even paid for her ticket--but the show was incredible. The band tore the Spanish Moon down, and by the end, everyone on and off the stage was drenched in sweat, and yet, completely refreshed and energized. It was some kind of weird, healing, cleansing experience. The band took most of the songs from that set and recorded them live in the studio for their second full-length album, Return to Cookie Mountain.
Unfortunately, when they released that album and I purchased it later that year, I was in the middle of possibly the worst time of my life--the first month of my marriage. I won't go into the specifics of how rough that month was, but it was at least survivable, as my wife and I are still alive and together now, and I even buy her concert tickets for her. I had a very negative connection to this album, though, in that I thought it sounded too dark and depressing. My mental health struggles were at an all-time peak during that period too, and time that I would drive in my car and process things, likely while listening to Return to Cookie Mountain, were non-existent, as our new apartment was so close to my work, I could only get through one song between pulling out of my apartment parking spot, and into my work one. This was not the recipe for my happiness, so I revisited Cookie Mountain very little, even after getting some distance away from that time. Now that it's been 14 years, though, I'm coming back to Cookie Mountain baggage free--and I love it.
Return to Cookie Mountain is a natural progression of TV on the Radio's sound. The experimental rock music here gets bigger and more eloquent than it was on the band's debut. The instrumentation is far more diverse, as the band add a bassist/pianist in Gerard Smith, and a full-time drummer in Jaleel Bunton. Their sound opens up accordingly, as the layers of guitars, samples, horns, and vocals are now put to the service of what sounds like a full band. There's plenty of fuzz and energy, a diversity of moods and rhythms, as the band again presents an album that feels very much alive. It's also, if you can't tell from the generic language I am using, extremely hard to classify. Here's a raucous live performance of the band nailing the album's lead single, "Wolf Like Me," on Letterman.

Cookie Mountain's got more fun, energetic songs like "Wolf Like Me." However it also features more downbeat, desperate tracks, lighter, airier ones, and others that, much like the band's live show, feel like pure catharsis. I love how the album starts off in kind of a dark place--Tunde Adebimpe sings "I was a lover/before this war" in the opener "I Was a Lover," and "Hold these hearts courageously/As we walk into this dark place/Stand steadfast beside me and see/That love is the province of the brave" on third track, "Province." The album builds in energy, then releases that energy in the marvelous catharsis of "Wolf Like Me." Cookie Mountain then goes through a fun, sort of upbeat, rhythmically diverse chill period, before letting the darkness back in on the frightening "Blues From Down Here." This track really showcases the unique way horns are used throughout the entirety of the album--they're like shadowy figures calling from a balcony as you wander, lost, down a dark, vaguely lit city street. Indeed, the album, for me at least, gives a picture of a dark and uncertain post-9/11 New York.

Cookie Mountain then purges that darkness in two lengthy and cathartic, cleansing closers. All the while, the band stick to a cohesive sound, maybe not going to some of the weirdest corners of their first album (there's no sudden acapella sections, or silly lyrics like "cover your balls/cuz we swing kung fu), but still bringing out some surprises, like a sudden percussion breakdown, or David Bowie. Overall, though, this album creates an incredibly fully realized musical world. As I've listened to Return to Cookie Mountain a dozen times over the last few weeks, I realize that it is a kin (not akin) to Gorillaz Demon Days, released the year before in 2005. Both albums start off in a murky place before bringing in a sort of clarity halfway through, then getting more meditative, bringing in more darkness, then cleansing things in the cathartic final minutes. I think if I hadn't been so caught up in my own personal life like it was a worldwide apocalypse and not just something that was happening in one small apartment between two people out of six billion, I would have been able to appreciate what TV on the Radio did more back in 2006. I'm glad I can at least appreciate it now.
I can see that Return to Cookie Mountain is a career best album for TV on the Radio, and perhaps a work of musical perfection. I'm glad I came back to it. I also got Beck's The Information at the same time (technically, my wife gave them both to me that Christmas), and I re-evaluated that one for this review series too. I am very appreciative that I've been able to write this series for the last 9.5 years, and have the chance to re-evaluate and have some change of heart moments. I'm looking forward to getting through the "U-Z"'s. What a great time those will be. But first, I need to finish off TV on the Radio (+ one other "T" album).

2006 Interscope
1. I Was a Lover 4:21
2. Hours 3:55
3. Province 4:37
4. Playhouses 5:11
5. Wolf Like Me 4:39
6. A Method 4:25
7. Let the Devil In 4:27
8. Dirtywhirl 4:15
9. Blues from Down Here 5:17
10. Tonight 6:53
11. Wash the Day 8:08