- Record Label: Interscope / 4AD
- Release Date: Sep 12, 2006
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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At times, Return to Cookie Mountain threatens to become more impressive than likeable -- a complaint that could also arguably be leveled against Desperate Youth as well -- but fortunately, TV on the Radio reconnects with, and builds on, the intimacy and purity that made Young Liars so striking.
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Maybe that's why this album has such an incredible pull: It doesn't make an atmosphere so much as a space to spend time in, and Adebimpe doesn't become a narrator so much as a witness.
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It may sound strange and unwieldy on first (or second or third) exposure, but those who stick with it will be rewarded with an album of surpassing intricacy, filled with an abundance of musical nooks and crannies, the likes of which reward sustained attention and concentrated effort on the part of the listener.
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UncutReturn To Cookie Mountain sees TV solidifying their more ethereal tendencies into denser compositions. [Aug 2006, p.100]
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MojoA triumph of psychedelic melody, drone and eerie groove. [Jul 2006, p.104]
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Q MagazineAn album full of playful daring. [Aug 2006, p.115]
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New Musical Express (NME)Odd, addictive, unsettling and beautiful. [8 Jul 2006, p.41]
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Rolling StoneMight be the most oddly beautiful, psychedelic and ambitious [album] of the year. [21 Sep 2006, p.84]
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While far from immaculate, Cookie Mountain is the logical progression from Desperate Youth, with its conception fruit enough for those who appreciate musical innovation.
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Under The RadarReturn to Cookie Mountain sweats off most of the band’s more head-scratching impulses and leaves a manic, depressive, exhilarating album of experimental pop. [#15]
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Return to Cookie Mountain is largely a delight - an experimental album with a pop heart that avoids self-indulgence.
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Return To Cookie Mountain is a party soundtrack for a fucked-up generation and an opus that inhabits the midpoint between the scarcely conjoining circles of eclecticism and enjoyability whilst maintaining consistency throughout.
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TV On The Radio previously seemed content to roam the open horizon; here, it's intent on exploring the far side. The journey is, once again, enthralling.
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SpinSitek's layered sonics have grown more immense... and almost none of these songs charts a predictable course. [Jun 2006, p.81]
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Paste MagazineTV on the Radio is that rare band able to simultaneously identify the pitfalls of modern life and offer a spiritual alternative... That the band does so with music that's at once readily accessible and refreshingly unique is simply the crowning touch. [Jun/Jul 2006, p.118]
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The savvier arrangements, brimming with unsettling sound effects, put Cookie Mountain several steps ahead of its fine 2004 predecessor, Desperate Youth, Bloody Thirsty Babes.
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TV On The Radio do more than keep pace with their Shortlist Prize-winning Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes; they enhance nearly every aspect of their debut, creating an album that is uniquely theirs in the modern scene.
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Alternative PressYes, the journey is often challenging, but that's what makes it unforgettable. [Dec 2006, p.190]
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There's a wider range of styles and sounds here, from dramatic shoegazer epics to the closest they've ever gotten to straight-ahead rock. Not everything gels solidly, and there are some awkward moments, but no real stumbles.
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Return To Cookie Mountain is one for the ages.
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A densely tangled masterpiece that floods and floors by straddling swaggering grooves and boggling cacophony.
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Return to Cookie Mountain makes Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes look almost silly by comparison.
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It’s more experimental yet catchier, more introspective yet more assertive, by turns gloomier and funnier, and above all richer in both sound and implication. “Return to Cookie Mountain” is simply one of this year’s best albums.
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BlenderOn their lush major-label debut, the haunting Peter Gabriel-esque yawlps of singer Tunde Adebimpbe are punctuated by singer-guitarist Kyp Malone, whose raspy falsetto provides a sense of deadpan panic. [Jul 2006, p.103]
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FilterAs an artistic achievement, it ranks incredibly high on the list of great postmodern statements. Here is a piece of music (but oh so much more) that proves that something new can be done, and it can be entirely engaging. [#21, p.92]
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The music beneath Cookie Mountain is an earthquake of nearly generation-defining proportions.
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While TVOTR now record for just another major label, their music is more distinctive than ever.
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Take the time to squeeze inside, and you'll discover a startling, significant, endlessly inspiring album.
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TV on the Radio have crafted a work of immense, cataclysmic, almost overwhelming power and righteous fire.
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UrbGive up now, guys, because it rarely gets better than this. [Jun 2006, p.113]
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Experimental without sacrificing anything in terms of hooks or melody, passionate yet never overbearing, and clever without giving in to the urge to indulge, it places TV on the Radio on a plane with no peers.
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Fascinatingly dense, soulful and utterly divine.
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A warmer, more linear record than their debut... Spellbinding, frustrating, wonderful.
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Return to Cookie Mountain validates the promise of TV on the Radio, an outfit that heretofore had displayed more potential than actual returns.
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Whichever way you look at it, as avant-pop or cubist soul, Return to Cookie Mountain remains an intoxicating, intriguing but accessible album.
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Almost wholly brilliant.
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Dense and substantive, Return To Cookie Mountain is a nice head-trip to take.
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VibeThese are antiheroic, anti-anthemic, antiwar gems of abstraction, full of consistently strange and exotic charms. [Oct 2006, p.146]
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MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)Never rousing and too often glum, the album is carried by its intelligence, integrity and terrible beauty. [Feb/Mar 2007]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 198 out of 247
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Mixed: 28 out of 247
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Negative: 21 out of 247
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JamesB.Aug 8, 2008Great music isn't always easy to digest. This is an 11-course meal of gristle on which I happily dine.
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Apr 24, 2018Post-rock, art rock, indie rock, whatever you wanna call it, this is one of the best of its kind
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Apr 25, 2012