Return to Cookie Mountain [Bonus Tracks]

( 7 )

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Steve Klinge
TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain, their second full-length and their major-label debut, opens with a sparse trip-hop beat, some droning horns, and a distant sitar -- or maybe they are all keyboard-generated sounds. It's hard to tell, and that's one of the enticing qualities of this impressive album. "I was a lover, before this war," croons Tunde Adebimpe amid blasts of staticky white noise that build to a dense wall of sound by song's end. One can trace the roots of "I Was a Lover" to Massive Attack, Public Enemy, and My Bloody Valentine, but ultimately it sounds solely like TVOTR: confident, challenging, and completely engrossing. Steeped in political ...
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Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Steve Klinge
TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain, their second full-length and their major-label debut, opens with a sparse trip-hop beat, some droning horns, and a distant sitar -- or maybe they are all keyboard-generated sounds. It's hard to tell, and that's one of the enticing qualities of this impressive album. "I was a lover, before this war," croons Tunde Adebimpe amid blasts of staticky white noise that build to a dense wall of sound by song's end. One can trace the roots of "I Was a Lover" to Massive Attack, Public Enemy, and My Bloody Valentine, but ultimately it sounds solely like TVOTR: confident, challenging, and completely engrossing. Steeped in political indignation, Return to Cookie Mountain is musically adventurous, from the stuttering electronics of "Playhouses" to the thumping synth-pop base of "Wolf like Me" to the parade band march of "Let the Devil In." But the vocals, primarily Adebimpe with Kyp Malone on falsetto harmonies although David Bowie drops in to help out on "Province", make the Brooklyn quintet truly special: These guys love doo-wop as much as hip-hop as much as indie rock, and Adebimpe swoops, slurs, and chants like an otherworldly gospel singer. Cookie Mountain isn't an easy listen on the surface, but the depths of its rewards seem bottomless.
All Music Guide - Heather Phares
As passionate as ever, but now with a little more polish, TV on the Radio's second album and Interscope debut, Return to Cookie Mountain, is their most satisfying work since they exploded onto the scene with Young Liars. More than some of their indie rock peers, TV on the Radio seems comfortable on a major label. They've always been a band with a big, unapologetically ambitious sound, and on Return to Cookie Mountain, they give that sound room to breathe with a lush, expansive production. The sonic depth throughout the album is a sharp contrast with the density of their first full-length, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, which was so jam-packed with sounds and ideas that it was nearly suffocated by them. However, Return to Cookie Mountain is hardly slick or dumbed-down for mass consumption. In fact, the opening track, "I Was a Lover," is one of the band's most challenging songs yet, mixing a stuttering hip-hop beat with guitars of Loveless proportions and juxtaposing inviting vocal harmonies and horns with glitches and trippy sitars. "Playhouses" is only slightly less radical, with its wildly syncopated drumming and Tunde Adepimbe's layered, impassioned singing. 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. David Bowie's backing vocals on "Province" are only one part of the song's enveloping warmth, rather than its focal point, while the album's centerpiece, "A Method," is another beautiful example of the band's haunting update on doo wop. Meanwhile, the mention of "the needle/the dirty spoon" on "Tonight" cements it as a gorgeous but unsettling urban elegy. As with all their other work, on Return to Cookie Mountain TV on the Radio deals with the fallout of living in a post-9/11 world; politics and morality are still touchstones for the band, particularly on the anguished "Blues from Down Here" and "Hours," on which Adepimbe urges, "Now listen to the truth." Notably, though, the album builds on the hopeful, or at least living for the moment, vibe that emerged at the end of Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. The sexy, funky "Wolf Like Me," which is the closest the album gets to rock in any conventional sense of the term, and "Dirtywhirl," which spins together images of girls and hurricanes, offer erotic escapes. And by the time the epic final track, "Wash the Day," revisits the sitars that opened the album with a serene, hypnotic groove, Return to Cookie Mountain gives the most complete representation of the hopes, joys, and fears within TV on the Radio's music. [The CD was also released with bonus tracks.]
Entertainment Weekly - Greg Kot
A dystopian soundtrack in the tradition of art-of-noise classics by David Bowie (Scary Monsters), Radiohead (OK Computer), and Tricky (Pre-Millennium Tension). (A-)
The Guardian - Alexis Petridis
A new-found clarity and confidence are all over Return to Cookie Mountain.... Frontman Tunde Adebimpe is revealed to have a fantastic voice.... Return to Cookie Mountain is largely a delight - an experimental album with a pop heart that avoids self-indulgence.

A dystopian soundtrack in the tradition of art-of-noise classics by David Bowie (Scary Monsters), Radiohead (OK Computer), and Tricky (Pre-Millennium Tension). (A-)
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 9/12/2006
  • Label: Interscope Records
  • UPC: 602517056176
  • Catalog Number: 000746602
  • Sales rank: 35,552

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 I Was a Lover (4:21)
  2. 2 Hours (3:55)
  3. 3 Province - TV on the Radio & David Bowie (4:37)
  4. 4 Playhouses (5:11)
  5. 5 Wolf Like Me (4:39)
  6. 6 A Method (4:25)
  7. 7 Let the Devil In (4:27)
  8. 8 Dirtywhirl (4:15)
  9. 9 Blues from Down Here (5:17)
  10. 10 Tonight (6:53)
  11. 11 Wash the Day (8:07)
  12. 12 [Untitled Track] (0:16)
  13. 13 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  14. 14 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  15. 15 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  16. 16 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  17. 17 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  18. 18 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  19. 19 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  20. 20 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  21. 21 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  22. 22 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  23. 23 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  24. 24 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  25. 25 [Untitled Track] (0:17)
  26. 26 [Untitled Track] (1:43)
  27. 27 Snakes and Martyrs (4:06)
  28. 28 Hours (4:26)
  29. 29 Things You Can Do (5:26)
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
TV on the Radio Primary Artist
David Bowie Vocals
Chris Taylor Clarinet, Horn
Kazu Makino Vocals
Ryan Sawyer Drums
Colin Stetson Horn
Stuart Bogie Horn
Jeremy Wilms Cello
Katrina Ford Vocals
David Andrew Sitek Synthesizer, Bass, Flute, Guitar, Keyboards, Sampling, Group Member
Tunde Adebimpe Percussion, Vocals, Group Member
Kyp Malone Bass, Guitar, Vocals, Group Member
Jaleel Bunton Guitar, Percussion, Piano, Drums, Choir, Chorus, fender rhodes, Pianette, Group Member
Martin Perna Flute, Horn, Baritone Saxophone
Chris Moore Theremin
Eric Biondo Horn
Gerard Smith Organ, Bass, Guitar, Piano, Electric Sitar, Group Member
Technical Credits
Chris Taylor Horn Arrangements
Vaughan Oliver Art Direction
Steve Fallone Mastering
Marco Atkins Images
El-P Producer
David Andrew Sitek Producer, drum programming
Tunde Adebimpe Art Direction, Illustrations
Chris Coady Engineer
Chris Moore Engineer
Brooke Gillespie Intern
Sara Newkirk Management
Amirah Noaman Management
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 7 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(4)

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Sort by: Showing all of 7 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    Brilliant!

    Return to Cookie Mouintain is TV on the Radio's second LP and this time it's all hits no misses. Every song is compiled of various different music sounds while staying in that "art-rock" void of space. Sonically it seems like a film score judging how precise and clear everything seems. My favorites on the cd include the single "Wolf like Me" which carries that same jam out feel as "Smells like Teen Spirit" and "Blitzskrieg Bop". The atmospheric ballad "Tonight" and the vocal semi acapella "Method". Tunde Abedimpe is a great frontman but Kyp Malone's falsetto steals the show. I feel this cd catapults them into being one of the best bands that formed in the 2000's. Once you get a grasp on their sound the cd won't come out.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    Strange but good brew

    Just listening to the brief audio clips online is not enough. In snips it all sounds chaotic and annoying. Thankfully, the songs are not as they seem. The most linear songs on the album are the best (Wolf Like Me is one of the few songs I will willingly turn up to the point of hurting my ears, it just plain rocks, and Dirty Whirl.) The rest are not as seemingly linear and may seem odd at first. After a few listens, every single song on the album will grow on you. That is the true test of a good album, in my opinion. This CD is great. If you've heard &quot Wolf Like Me&quot on the radio, trust your gut feeling and get this album. Though that song is the best and most accessible, the rest grow and grow untill you can't take the damn cd out of the player.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 1, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    It's Blitz!
    Odelay
    By the Way
    The Warning
    Kid A

    Brilliance from the East Coast!

    This band and album are just bloody unbelievable!! I truly have not heard anything like it! It is so detailed, intricate, and complex. It is truly a remarkable work. It captures so many different genres from urban East Coast to total rock! It's amazing! After listening to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for years, I finally decided to see what David Sitek has done with his band, and this definitely does not disappoint. What a treat for those who really appreciate all types of music and creativity. Which also brings me to point out that although this is very progressive, it is not overly done. It's Spot On!!

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

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    Posted November 23, 2009

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    Posted June 17, 2009

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 16, 2008

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 8, 2009

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Sort by: Showing all of 7 Customer Reviews