Best of the Month - 10.2008

Not long to go now for the end credits of 2008 and the traditional "Best Of" lists are starting to take shape. The latest addition to the shortlist for "Album of the Year" comes from TV On The Radio, one of the finest bands of this decade. It was just 5 years ago when they made their presence felt with the promising soulful indie-meets-doo wop sounds of "Young Liars" EP, a promise that was soon fulfilled with 2004's mesmerizing debut "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes". The supposedly difficult second album, where most new bands with a great start usually lose momentum by repeating themselves, was also a triumph. "Return to Cookie Mountain", Cool Music Central's Album of the Year for 2006, turned up the volume and cemented their maverick status by managing to improve on perfection. And now, with album number three, TV On The Radio continue their meteoric rise. The feat of "Dear Science" is that it manages to be the band's most accessible effort to date without sacrificing its experimental edge. Electro-new wave beats mix with afro-melodies, funky bass-lines and soulful singing creating an unapologetically euphoric dance-rock amalgam that reassures us for the coming of a golden age despite all today's troubles.
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There is also a TV On The Radio connection regarding the band with this month's top single. Brooklyn's Telepathe recently recorded their soon to come debut album "Dance Mother" with TV On The Radio's member and producer extraordinaire David Sitek. On the evidence of the hypnotizing charm of "Chrome's on it", along with the eery beauty of earlier single "Devil's trident", it seems likely that we have already discovered one of the best albums of 2009.

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Top 15 Albums

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1. Dear Science - TV ON THE RADIO

2. Conor Oberst - CONOR OBERST
3. Only By The Night - KINGS OF LEON
4. The Chemistry Of Common Life - FUCKED UP
5. The Bake Sale - THE COOL KIDS
6. Lightbulbs - FUJIYA & MIYAGI
7. Chemical Chords - STEREOLAB
8. Microcastle/Weird Era Continued - DEERHUNTER
9. Nouns - NO AGE
10. Bits - OXFORD COLLAPSE
11. O - TILLY AND THE WALL
12. Carried To Dust - CALEXICO
13. Tha Carter III - LIL WAYNE
14. Adorata EP - THE GUTTER TWINS
15. Motion To Rejoin - BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT

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Top 20 Tracks
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1. Chrome's on it - TELEPATHE
2. Red dress - TV ON THE RADIO
3. Knickerbocker - FUJIYA & MIYAGI
4. Nothing ever happened - DEERHUNTER
5. Down the line - THE GUTTER TWINS
6. I don’t want to die (in the hospital) - CONOR OBERST
7. Sex on fire - KINGS OF LEON
8. Victor Jara’s hands - CALEXICO
9. Cacophony - TILLY AND THE WALL
10. Electric arc - OXFORD COLLAPSE
11. Black albino bones - FUCKED UP
12. Here should be my home - NO AGE
13. Our bipolar friends - JOHNNY FOREIGNER
14. Tell the world - VIVIAN GIRLS
15. Jonny Boy - THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES
16. Connjur - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
17. Valley hi! - STEREOLAB
18. Poison dart - THE BUG featuring WARRIOR QUEEN
19. Bassment party - THE COOL KIDS
20. 3 Peat - LIL WAYNE
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Telepathe - Chrome's on it (live)