Dear Time

TV on the Radio's Dear Science has been popping up on a whole lot of "Best of 2008" lists, even topping off compendiums by mainstream mags like Spin and Rolling Stone. I could bemoan how blog culture is becoming synonymous with the mainstream press like Idolator did, but I'd rather just be happy that most people--Big Media and bloggers/blog readers alike--seem to recognize how great this album is, and they're giving TV on the Radio the credit it deserves for this one (it nabbed the #4 spot on my list).

Time has joined the party too, awarding Dear Science the #2 spot. Now, I hate to be one of those guys who critiques someone else's critique, but I have to say the accompanying writeup smacked of ignorance, especially this line: "With its Beach Boys '"ba-ba-bas" and killer lo-fi guitar, "Halfway Home" is all propulsion and energy, the best album opener of the year."

True, it's a great opener, but "lo-fi guitar"? Is it me, or does almost nothing on this album, guitars included, even approach lo-fi? To my ears, this is one of the most crisp, cleanly recorded albums I heard all year. I don't hear it.

And one more quibble with the closer: "Hopefully the merging of their cerebral side with melodies you can actually hum will finally get TVotR an audience outside their borough." To say that TVotR hasn't had an audience outside Brooklyn until now is just uninformed, lazy journalism.