šŸŽµ How Good Are They Really šŸŽµ TV On The Radio

Releasing your best song on your first EP is bold

Strong 3. RTCM and Dear Science are really really good albums, but not been keen on what Iā€™ve heard since DS.

Goddamn if even TVOTR are getting the also-ran tag then weā€™ll clearly never get to the point where I can give that first CYHSY! album the 5/5 smashing it deserves

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Yeah, this is odd. Not like theyā€™re the Futureheads or something.

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If theyā€™d maintained the quality of the first 2 albums then they could have been worth a 5. They get a 4 for these, pity about the diminishing returns.

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I really like nine types of light too

Return To Cookie Mountain is a solid 10/10 (I actually gave it a 10/10 on this here site but it was edited down to a 9/10). Just one of the most thrilling, inventive rock albums of that era if not all time.
The promo version had a different track order and started with ā€œwolf like meā€, ā€œI was a loverā€, ā€œprovinceā€
and it flows much better that way. Donā€™t know why they changed it.

Dear Science was an incredibly disappointing follow up that neutered their sound and just seemed like a vehicle for Sitekā€™s production skills.

Staring At The Sun is a massive tune.

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Also 5/5

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Hmm.

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Almost exactly what you said - I loved the first three but was so underwhelmed by the last two I hardly remember what they sound like. At their peak they were my favourite band in the world; at their worst they were not very interesting.

5+ for the good albums; 2 for the boring ones.

4 from me.

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Not really but the first album is absolutely a 5 for me, it does everything I want from an indie guitar album almost perfectly. And 15 songs in 35 minutes! Thatā€™s the stuff

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I never really got along with them despite really liking a few songs. Not sure you could call them also-rans or lump with in with any Pitchfork-curated music scene though - they have been a very acclaimed band (especially Return to Cookie Mountain) and a pretty popular one too.

Absolutely worthy of discussion.

Canā€™t decide on a 2 or a generous 3.

Iā€™ll give them 3/5. The years that produced Young Liars, Desperate Youth, Cookie Mountain, and Dear Science were a very fruitful period, but theyā€™re mainly good albums with songs I love rather than great ones front to back. Ever since Dear Science theyā€™ve really been lacking the inspiration/spark that got them thereā€¦ Hope their next album is a return to form when it finally arrives, but they feel like a less essential band these days as a consequence of stalling just as they hit their peak in popularity.

I only know Return to Cookie Mountain and itā€™s fantastic. So, 5/5.

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Similar to QOTSA, gonna give them a high score because even though it was diminishing returns as they went on, the good stuff is so good that they warrant it. Still listen to Return to Cookie Mountain loads, one of my favourite albums of the decade and still sounds so fresh. Dear Science is really good too, never understand the hate - might be an 8/10 to the previous twoā€™s 10s, but still great.

Also think itā€™s cool that they were a bunch of black guys making innovative and successful music in such a white-dominated scene.

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what a cruel way to find out youā€™ve muted me

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A total monster of a song! Those chimes and those falsettos all drenched in that glorious feedback :heart:

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Was gonna go for a 3 but Iā€™ve bumped it up to a 4 because the highs are very high for me, only thing I can think of that I wasnā€™t arsed about was 9 types of light and they are absolutely ridiculous live.

Also, for a show that had itā€™s ups and downs, the use of DLZ in Breaking Bad was perfect and turned out to be one of my favourite scenes.

I revisit that Letterman performance a LOT.

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5 just for this

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Anyone else completely forget they released an album in 2014?

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