TV on the Radio tends to tease its albums with one-two punches that include a hard-driving single (“Wolf Like Me” from Return to Cookie Mountain, “Dancing Choose” from Dear Science) and another that’s slower and more soft (“Province,” from Cookie Mountain, “Golden Age” for Dear Science). If “Happy Idiot” from their upcoming album Seeds was their hard-driving left lead, new track “Careful You” is their more anthemic right cross.
It’s also, like “Happy Idiot,” evidence that the band is going more new wave on Seeds. Over a fuzzed-up synth beat and that’s somewhere between New Order and Yeezus (on the coda, in particular, it begins to sound like “Blue Monday”), the song slowly builds until it sounds huge, adding atmospheric bleeps and bloops and vocal harmonies before rising into the conflicted, love-struck chorus. I’ve always been more of a fan of more melodic, more mid-tempo TV on the Radio songs, and “Careful You” should fit in nicely beside favorites like “Province,” “Golden Age,” “Ambulance,” and “I Was a Lover.”
Seeds is out Nov. 18.
Previously
TV on the Radio’s New Song Is Their Best Song in Years
