- Record Label: Touch & Go
- Release Date: Mar 9, 2004
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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While it's not perfect -- occasionally the album's heady, indulgent feel tends to make it drag -- Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes is still an impressive expansion of TV on the Radio's fascinating music.
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The Young Liars EP was as fully realized as all the critics suggested, yet now, TV on the Radio sound like a work in progress. Still, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes shows more strengths than mistakes.
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UncutWhat's most frightening is that, mighty as Desperate Youth... is, their real stone killer is probably yet to come. [Jul 2004, p.100]
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MojoA Martian mix of space-age sax, sky-high doo wop, seance-strange electronics and the rich, soulful vocals of [Adebimpe]. [Jun 2004, p.116]
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New Musical Express (NME)It's this eclectic intensity which makes TV On The Radio such a vital prospect. [5 Jun 2004, p.55]
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It all hangs together, somehow, swaying unerringly from one idea to the next.
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TVOTR splurge slabs of strange sound into almost freeform structures that draw on jazz sensibilities, alt-rock peculiarities and the whole NYC infatuation with cool.
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TV On The Radio's ace is Adebimpe, whose urgent vocal performance sounds slyly bluesy and in sync with his and Sitek's dense urban soundscapes.
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Entertainment WeeklyIt's that very rare thing: a totally fresh--and utterly engaging--sound. [Listen 2 This supplement, Mar 2004, p.12]
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While Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes could have become an exercise in studio-based formalistic noodling, Adebimpe and Malone’s vocals and lyrics give the songs structure and direction.
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For anyone who found themselves begging for more than five songs, you will be happy with this new album; the distance traveled from Young Liars is not so drastic as to alienate anyone.
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Their initial EP documented a band that sounded ready to take on the world – but the follow up just shows that the journey may take longer than expected.
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The WireAn exciting record crawling with new ideas. [#243, p.74]
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Blender[Adebimpe's] singing is consistently riveting, and the oddball mix gives it room to flourish. [Apr 2004, p.138]
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Like David Bowie’s Station to Station or Peter Gabriel’s So, TV on the Radio make music that demands to be listened to actively, as for the listener to absorb the lethal amounts of heartbreak, dignity, and mystery in the human voice.
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Sitek manages to conjure a musical playground within which Adebimpe’s vocals can frolic.
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UrbMajestic, glorious and not like much else you've ever heard before.... A strong contender for Album of the Year. [Mar 2004, p.107]
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To their considerable credit, TVoTR don't run out of innovation before they run out of songs, so even "Wear You Out"'s final minutes, during which a flute, a sax and various oscillating tones bang away at each other, are inventive and enticing.
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Much more realized than last year's Young Liars EP, it's also a bit more conventional.
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Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes extends and refines both the lyrical smarts and programmatically adventurous nature of Young Liars.
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While Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes is far from a perfect offering, this album provides a plethora of outstanding moments reminiscent of the musical exploration the band's heroes The Pixies exhibited on their debut longplayer, Surfer Rosa.
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There are some amazing songs on Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, but overall it still feels like a transition[al] release of a group really trying to nail things.
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TV on the Radio relies more on the influence of eighties prog-pop than the typical Brooklyn grit, which is definitely refreshing.
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All told, pretty dull--unless you're so desperate that you'll sing hosanna for every piece of intelligent-honest-original that comes down the circuit.
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PlanetThey're five years ahead of their time. [#6, p.86]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 49 out of 53
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Mixed: 1 out of 53
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Negative: 3 out of 53
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Apr 28, 2011
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Mar 27, 2011
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fakenameSep 11, 2006