Dear Science (Import)

VINYL FORMAT. IMPORT VERSION. Insound Staff Pick - 2008! Produced by the group's multi-instrumentalist Dave Sitek, Dear Science finds Brooklyn group TV on the Radio fine-tuning what they did best on 2006's Return to Cookie Mountain: tweaking and looping and distorting a grand arsenal of aggressive percussion, new wave synths, epic guitar noise and various kitchen-sink devices, then layering them all into a big, beautiful art-rock symphony.

Thematically, Dear Science addresses similar themes to Cookie Mountain - namely, that these might feel like End Times, but love can get you through them. And the bands' Brooklyn friends help drive that message home: members of the Afro-funk group Antibalas lend some golden horn rave-ups to "Red Dress" and Katrina Ford of Celebration delivers lovely harmonies on the orchestral closer "Lover's Day." Over marching-band drums, sleigh bells, hand claps and distorted horn loops, her voice dovetails nicely with Malone's as they sing, "Swear to God we'll get so high we'll melt our faces off." And the sentiment is right-on: this creative tour-de-force could be an epic drug album, too. -rollingstone.com