Seeds

Not only is Seeds the most direct and optimistic album, but in some ways, it's their poppiest.

Seeds is destined to grow and grow. Exhilarating stuff.

It's a rare record that serves as an entry point for newcomers while rewarding old fans who've stuck by them since the beginning.

A record rich in fruits to reap, the result of unbridled enthusiasm, masterful craft and, yes, a long gaze sunwards.

Seeds isn’t TV on the Radio’s strongest album, but it is a radiant reboot, a move forward and a reason to move.

Seeds finds an adventurous art-rock band embracing accessibility. [No. 116, p.60]

Seeds is the most streamlined, most polished, most sharp-edged album of their career. And yet it manages to retain their trademark schizophrenia.

The band is as sharp and bold as ever, finding new facets of a sound they spearheaded more than a decade ago.

Its fifth album is another successful step toward the mainstream.

At its best, Seeds is a fine tribute to Smith and the sound of enduring unimaginable loss.

TV On The Radio have returned from an uncertain period sounding remarkably fresh.

Instead of sewing the seed for a brighter future, TV on the Radio leap ahead with a renewed sense of being.

Seeds is a very strong album, even if it may alienate fans of their older synth-led doom-gaze sound. Their loss--this is a triumph that has risen from tragedy, a glittering testament to a fallen band mate who has been done proud.

Seeds is a credit to their bassist’s memory: staying true to the TOTR ethos of writing music that yo-yos between genres, its 12 expansive tracks make for a compelling and frankly splendid record that you should seriously consider adding to your collection.

Seeds is not 1000 per cent their best work, but it's not far off. [Dec 2014, p.108]

Even at their most euphoric, there’s a gentle melancholy in Tunde Adebimpe’s soulful vocals, while lyrics such as Trouble’s mantra of “Everything will be OK” suggest a band emerging from the darkness to throw open the curtains.

This very quick, very pretty album is a good new look for TV on the Radio, and longtime fans will also feel at home with Seeds.

The band have shed the Most-Important-Band-In-the-World-For-Try-Hard-Twenty-Something-Hipsters image of their earlier career and are now just making effortlessly good, effortlessly cool music.

So while they've long segued from fin-de-siecle Brooklyn to edge-of-the-continent Silver Lake, losing more than they’ve gained along the way, TV on the Radio are still capable of conquering big stages and broad sonic territory with the kind of precision and power for which their increasingly desperate older contemporaries need to rely on expensive stunts.

The album churns away on a mid-tempo path throughout, ethereal harmonies skimming past and back to Adebimpe’s yearning lead vocals being the main thread through it.

[Seeds is] not up there with its makers’ very best releases, but a welcome indication that they still absolutely mean business.

Fans of TVOTR's early density and difficulty might get dismayed at their gradual transformation into the thinking stoner's Coldplay. But it's impossible to listen to Seeds' luxurious fuzz and think that this is a band who mean to be anything but fat and in love.

There are fewer risks taken here than on previous albums (though the New Wave chase "Happy Idiot" and the Ramones-y "Lazerray" are worthy exceptions). TVOTR's boldest move this time around is starting over.

The album succeeds by being both engaging on a intuitive level and deceptively thoughtful, putting aside overt ambition to pursue a condensed, often melancholy sound that retains TV on the Radio's characteristic inquisitive nature.

Tunde Adebimpe's gorgeous voice guarantees quasi-spiritual uplift even in their more obvious moments, but there are a couple of wild cards. [Dec 2014, p.81]

Moving past melancholy into mild acceptance is a real accomplishment, but a difficult one to make compelling for an entire album. Seeds struggles in that regard, but has to be called a success.

Yes, TV on the Radio is trying to write pop tunes. Some of them aren't bad, and some are so single-minded that it becomes wearying.

There's even more of a streamlined feeling to Seeds.... but there's precious little which surprises. [Dec 2014, p.93]