Dear Science

Album was a good listen and had some good songs on it. Overall it was not the best from TV on the Radio as I know they have much better songs. It was a solid 6/10 for me.

The stretch of albums I have been on for about 2 weeks here has been miserable. So many undesireable albums to sit through. This one as well. Makes you wonder how something like this makes it on a list of the greatest ever albums. There's really no redeeming qualities

not their best album

I apparently had a track from TV On And The Radio on my “Likes” playlist. After listening to this album I went back and had a listen to that track, wondering if their earlier output was that different I actually liked it. Turns out my taste must have changed since I heard that track, to cut a short story even shorter - I now have no liked tracks from them on my playlist. They remind me in many places of an even more boring Coldplay/U2 clone than Coldplay or a number of other bands are. That type of music certainly has a lot of fans, and good on them, but it’s way too boring for me.

One of those '2000s indie acts that sort of flew right by me, but this was actually pretty cool. A lot in common with some of their indie dance-punk revival contemporaries; I hear a bit of LCD Soundsystem and Bloc Party in there, but this record is notably grainier and darker. Still, the standout is the infectious rhythm section, with angular funky guitars and syncopated drum and bass rhythms. 'Crying' was a personal favourite here, showcasing this funk-inspired punk with the more atmospheric electronic touches. 'Stork and Owl' was another ethereal change in pace, with these elegant, slow-moving strings over some dense pads. 'DLZ' has these very chunky boom-bap drums, sort of a throwbacky trip-hop feel, with this one's more brooding atmosphere. So it's a pretty diverse album, though it never feels inconsistent; that darker atmosphere I mentioned early remains a constant. That, and the generally stellar vocals on pretty much every track, just really emotive and sticky, and a unique fusion of RnB type falsettos and croons paired with a more traditional off-kilter indie-rock style. Good stuff, really dug this album; should've checked these guys out sooner.

It's like my Mom left me in the Department store again ...

It was ok but not really momentous. Feels like one that will be off the list again soon enough.

Always like this group. Cool, easy sounds with that spark of motivation folded in. Innovative musicianship and the vocals are always distinct and leave a lasting impression. Longtime fan of TVOTR.

Although I actually like the genre, I found the execution on this album a bit boring. There were one or two tracks toward the end of the album that I really liked. I found the rest uninteresting. 3/5

on one listen i like their previous album i got on here a LOT more.. that said this was an album full of throw it at the wall and see what sticks and you gotta commend them for going there.

passionate

It’s fine. Just fine.

Bolji od njihova dva s liste, onaj mi nimalo nije legao a na ovom mislim da su se pronašli i da je usmjereniji i konkretniji zvuk. Opet nisam ljubitelj.

Surprisingly decent.

Like an extension of Bowie or Talking Heads. Pop sensibilities with an artsy edge. Their best lyrics.

It’s ok, has its moments, but is largely underwhelming. It really jumps about in style too. A bit of Prince, a tad GnR, a bit of Scott Walker even plus a hint of Prodigy.

Fun and consistent listen

"Dear Science, please start solving problems and curing diseases or shut the fuck up" are words written by a smug and arrogant man with no idea what he's talking about, emblematic of and contributing towards the spread of a very dangerous mindset, the prevalence among the American public has since directly led to [gestures broadly at 2026], so, you know, that's pretty infuriating to me as a title. Musically it's okay I guess

Not bad. At little bit of style over substance where the the ideas are better than the finished product. However overall not a bad effort. 4 stars

Solid, I like TV on The Radio, this album lacks a Wolf Like Me stand out single but it’s consistently good, it just doesn’t quite make great though. 3.4

It's ok. It sounds quite like Arcade Fire with the odd but of Prince thrown in. But it doesn't really get close to either of these artists either.

3 1/2 Stars: The Hipster-era music from the early to mid-2000s was an obnoxious time in music. The market was flooded with lo-fi garage rock where fiddling with instrumental noise to "create" something was more important than songwriting and craftmanship. Critics made it worse by feeding into the movement declaring just about everything a masterpiece or groundbreaking. TV on the Radio was one of those bands that came into the fold and thankfully their songs are much more palatable. Driving beats over some pretty funky and interesting lyrics. I didn't devote a lot of time listening to them back then, but revisiting the album here, I can definitely find my way back to this in the future.

A band I'd always been meaning to get into, but never got round to it. Well, now I've got absolutely no excuse, as this album was an immersively transcendent experience from start to finish. Each track had a story to tell, without a single dud to be found, and I found myself entranced by the amount of talent being displayed here. How these guys never got big I shall never understand

I had something witty to say about this one yesterday. Nothing about this was particularly good. Nothing bad. It’s 90s electric alternative dance. Not pop. Not edm. Not for like a 90s rave. Just kinda there.

Stronger than I remember, stays interesting

4/8

Another album I feel like I should like more than I do. It's not bad, and dlz is awesome (like everyone else, I still get chills from the Breaking Bad association), but nothing else really grabs me.

Not great 5 stars

Very fun indie electronic music. There's nothing groundbreaking, and it's a little repetitive and empty, but the melodies and smooth production make it very enticing. This album is simply good, with brain tingling synths and occasional saxophones being great additions. The listen was a good change of pace and it was pretty straightforward. I was never bored and was very attracted to the production, so a very low 4 it gets.

I can hear their influences, particularly U2, very, very clearly. The lighter, poppier side of mainstream music isn't in my wheelhouse, but people really like this record. I kinda get it... it's fine, just not my thing.

Heerlijke plaat

Halfway Home Dancing Choose Golden Age Family Tree Love Dog DLZ

reminds me of pulp. very 90s sound even though its from the 2000s.

*2008. Indie rock? *Really hard to pin down what style this is - it doesn't quite fit in any box and each song sounds different, mostly in an interesting way. *Fine Young Cannibals with a touch of electronica is the closest I can come up in terms of a comparison. *Kind of like an American Fountaines D.C., where they seem to be doing cooler things than me. RATING - 6.5/10

These guys are a fun listen.

Ei

Unremarkable indie rock

8/10

I loved the first song on here and thought I was going to love the whole album, but it did sort of go down hill after the first song. Still a cool sound and glad I know it now, but not as impressed. I think it's hard to sustain interest through a whole album!

their first album is still my favorite, but all four of them are great. DS is probably my second fab

Really good album, with a mix of classical instrumentals and modern production. I think they are part of what I would call the "good side" of the millennial phase, not overly cringe, just happy.

Really nothing against them, creative and refreshing. Perhaps I just find the vocals unattractive? Not a question, that’s actually my truth.

I owned this first time around as it was part of the indie zeigeist but hadnt listened in years. Im not sure this holds up well. I found the vocals, especially the rap adjacent delivery, quite jarring and unpleasant. There is some decent arrangement and some songwriting but i was pleased when this ended.

2.5 out of 5 stars for TV On The Radio, and this is a group I've never heard of before. I just didn't seem to get into any of the songs on this album, and a couple of them made me actively skip them because they were painful to listen to. I imagine that there are folks out there that can get a deeper meaning or enjoy the music on this album, but I'll pass. That's the fun part of this project, finding out about new music and knowing that it may hit and resonate with you. Unfortunately, this album didn't hit with me, but it's not awful.

Ik vind het eigenlijk gewoon niet echt wat. Al heb ik niets van dit album beluisterd.

Here we are again. 2nd album by this band and it's just the same tune over and over again. 7th track before I heard something even remotely different. I've actually gone on eBay following this to get most recent version of the book. Someone has to explain to me the reason for selection of some of these albums. I just don't get some of it. You're seriously telling me this band have the same number of albums on here as Iron Maiden. I'm not saying Maiden are the best band ever but surely they've done more than this band. Annoyingly I love one of this band's songs and it's on neither of the albums listed here. 2/5 because it's not unlistenable shite.

Es muy entretenido, me ha recordado un poco a Arcade FIre pero más potentes.

yk if i ever wanted a s/h relapse i'd put this back on now, if you don't mind, i'm off to find some headache medicine after that vile attack on my eardrums

I spent half of my listening time hoping that the vocals were lower in the mix, so I could hear the (mediocre) instrumentals instead of someones bad Prince impression, and the other half hoping that everything could be lower in the mix because the loudness wars is STRONG in this album

Were you born between 1980 and 1996? Do you have distinct memories of moustache finger tattoos and have been married under or have watched people be married under string lights? Are you asked to calm down at events where "Mr. Brightside" is played? Do you believe reddit to be the funniest website on the internet? Do you wear a cable knit beanie that barely grazes your ears? Well le sir or le ma'am this might be your utopia. Shangri-la even. Yes, when 24 Karat Magic is more of a Saturday night "jam" for you and "hubby," pop-in "TV on the Radio" for those cozy autumn Sundays. Sip an 8 dollar latte and let these boys in blue lull you into a peaceful stupor. Be transported to a land where millennial grey is the pallor of every wall and The Kings of Leon reign with an Iron Fist emblazoned with a "House Slytherin" sigil. Bow down to the deliverer of honey badger memes and declare upon hearing said memes that the teller has indeed "won le internet for today." Allow the quirky (and disgustingly terrible) funk breaks on "Dear Science" to force from you an "errrm" so emphatic, that your finger naturally snaps to a point beside your head. Declare with authority, "Me thinks I LIKE this music" and snicker heartily to no one in particular. Writhe in orgiastic pleasure in your resplendent paradise. Oh millennials. Sure, you were the first generation in a hundred years to be worse off than the previous. Yeah, your complacency and pacifist "protesting" perhaps doomed the planet to cosmic annihilation, and hey, maybe you did have the worst collective sense of humour since the Nazi party and up until modern day red pill-ers, but chin up champ! You can sleep easy in your 4500 dollar a month apartment knowing that at least you had bland, sanitized ass rock (and LMFAO) to ease the daily transition between latest show on Hulu, the dismal torment of Tartarus, and bedtime! 0 HIGHLIGHTS: At least we put that Kony guy behind bars!! We didn't? Oh. Errrrm back to the music xD *chortle chortle*

Not what I expected at all. Red Dress is a great song with some funky flair. 3

The band boycott the album in my country so I can't give them respect back

Wrote some notes and they disappeared.

Hopefully Potter doesn't find this review

Not my cup of tea, not bad, interesting, but again, didn’t tickle my fancy.

Wasn’t for me

I once found a pair of tickets in Swiss Cottage Tube station for a TV on the Radio gig that was taking place that night at Brixton Academy. It fleetingly crossed my mind to go to the gig, but I handed them in at the station's ticket office in the hope that they'd find their way back to the owner's pocket. Listening to this record now, and all moral issues aside, I'm confident I did the right thing. This is an entirely forgettable record - it was possibly good at the time, but there's nothing here to make it stand out today.

This is a bit of a schizophrenic album. Now some variety and even experimentation can often hold interest but here it tends to mean I like some songs, perhaps the more straight songs like Family Tree, but some of the vocal gymnastics get right on my nerves. There are some pseudo-Michael Jackson moments which really make me want to switch the TV off and take off the plug.

Enjoyed without having a stand out song or anything super memorable

Quite good. Not my favorite TvoTR album, but a good one.

DMZ is a masterpiece of a song. The rest of the album is alright, some short highs and really drawn-out lows.

On the one hand I sympathize with the editor of the list of 1001 albums. The list first came out in 2005 he had the luxury of looking back on albums from decades earlier, choosing from among them. Of course he's going to pick the Velvet Underground, Miles Davis, The Beatles, etc. They had a clear and measurable impact on the music that came after them. So how, for future editions, does one choose among the albums released that year or the year before? How do you decide what music is indelible, influential, and timeless? It must be a daunting task. Choosing an album like "Dear Science" made sense at the time. Publications like Rolling Stone, Spin, EW, The Village Voice, and Pitchfork's readers poll all named it the best album of 2008. Listening to the album almost 20 years later, though, is it worthy of that praise and inclusion on this list? I don't really think so. The songs have interesting compositions but they go on way too long (so many unnecessary, draggy outros!). The vocals are, again, interesting but the production muddles them to the point where you can't understand half of what he's saying. And the music behind him too often sounds like pretty generic backing tracks - drum loops and guitars over-produced to the point where I'm not actually sure they weren't just put there by a computer. I think that if the songs were performed live they'd have a great energy, but as they are here, the album is kind of boring. Compared to the pop music on the radio in 2008, TV on the Radio stood out. But in 2026, is it an album you should go out of your way to listen to? Not really.

Nice

I like it, but it’s not really my genre

Interesting and refreshing sound

Surprisingly didn't mind it. Decent pop album. Did not save anything for the future, however.

Never heard of these guys, but this was a pretty neat surprise. Usually, the list has conditioned me to air on the side of caution with my expectations of unknow bands, but this one went past my expectations and delivered a pretty unique listen actually. Every song here is distinct and different. pretty nice chill vocals and instruments. It's never really blowing my mind, but its very consistently quality throughout.

Somehow sounds like everything and nothing all at once. Pass.

I would honestly like to love this album, but it sounds so so so boring to me. While TVOTR remains one of my all-time favourites, I simply cannot fathom going through their albums due to simply how mentally exhausting it is to listen to. I recognise that at their time it was, allegedly, an innovative blend of sounds from all genres and so on, but is it one of the all-time greats? For me, absolutely not. The problem, as it often happens, is that at their best TVOTR would be second to none in their own experimental-noisy-dance-pop-rap-indie rock mix of genres, but they are rarely at their best.

дуже сподобалося

It took me two listens to fully appreciate"Dear Science". The first 4 tracks were legendary. When "Dear Science" reached the middle, it began to get boring. "Shout Me Out" was the point when "Dear Science" redeemed itself. "DLZ", the next track, became my favourite. 4 stars for "Dear Science".

Cool and stylistically eclectic alternative from the mid-aughts and better than a lot of other alternative rock coming out around that. High energy rhythms that groove, sometimes funky, always heartfelt.

It was ok, I thought at one point I might enjoy the variety

3/5

is good :3

Kind of reminded me of a less exciting version of the Gorillaz

Pretty good. Didn't really hear Peter Gabriel and Prince like the reviewer in the book did; more like Arcade Fire. Don't really like the lead singer's voice on second listen.

8/10

I think this is the first record I ever bought myself? I still love it!

my friend katherine really loves these guys and even named a book of hers after them. i think they are pretty good ! rachel's sister got married to one of the guys in this group.

Kind of an oddball. Elements of funk, pop, like disco maybe. I don't know what to make of this, but it's not unpleasant. Might listen to again if I remember to. Red Dress has some Fela Kuti elements. DLZ is just solid. 4/5

Sounds like many, many other 2000s albums. Nothing wrong with that, if anything I quite like it, but it doesn't standout in any way compared to other albums from the same time and there's no good reason why this band gets two albums on the list while many equally good bands get none

I like listening to this album, but I didn’t think anything really stuck out about it either. It was just so so..

Never heard of this band before. Some really interesting stuff here. Not everything sticks for me but there are some highlights

Pretty decent. No strong feelings either way.

mostly boring. maybe i wouldn't say that after listening to it a few times but i don't have time for that

I remember this being huge with the NME in 2008. I didn't listen to it then, and going back now it seems fine although it is very derivative of lots that I enjoy more than this. Inoffensive though.

Good

There was enough outside influence to counteract the indie sleaze garbage, thankfully.

Miles and I heard wolf like me during the new spidey movie and it reminded me of what a terrific band TVOTR is and I would like more now please. This is their prettiest album and maybe they fell off after this but this is really the only meet me in the bathroom band doing anything even vaguely interesting.

No

I liked the first handful of songs. It quickly went downhill after that unfortunately. Disappointing. No clue why it's on this list either. 2.5/5

I guess it's not their worst album.

Second album après ‘Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes’ que je n’avais pas pu terminer (1/5 - trop répétitif et chant détestable). Ce second album est trop long et plutôt ennuyeux. Le chant m’a un peu moins dérangé que dans l’album précédent, j’ai pu aller au bout. Mais je n’ai aucune envie de le recommencer ! =>2/5

Decent.

Meh

this was my first impression of this band, this was a fun experience to listen to it but I got to say it was not skipless for me but the production was good it didn't make me bored and also made me check other albums of this band

Artsy Unique sound that combines many genres likable of course

3.5

I am a big hater of the la la la la las on DMZ There are a few parts where some interesting stuff was happening