First impression of "Dear Science," TV on the Radio

Wow I can't believe this album is getting such positive reviews. It's pretty uninspired and pop-ish. "Family Tree" is like a wannabe Coldplay epic and "Dancing Choose" is a Dan Deacon ripoff. It makes me cringe a little it's so bad. They do this thing on a few songs where the music is discordant, which can be cool in certain situations. Here, to me, it just sounds wrong. Judge for yourself but my first impression here is "blah."

It's lacking the flirtations with darkness the other albums touched on. You can tell the studio quality is super high, which I think takes away from the great, gritty sound of the singer's voice and makes the instruments lack soul. I wanted to like it because I've enjoyed their other two albums but I can't talk myself into it. It has a good song here and there, "Golden Age" is fine, and the instruments get good on "Lover's Day," in an Arcade Fire, crescendoing way. "DLZ" progressively gets more interesting but the sort of singing/rapping reminds you of rap rock from the 90s. Too soon for that trend, I'm afraid. Overall a forgettable album. Pitchfork gave it a high number as well as Spin. They are plain wrong. Don't buy it, I'll give you my burned version if you want to give it a try.

I want to stress this is my first impression, because too many times to count in the past I've hated albums at first but then enjoyed them later on. So, I promise to listen to the album a few more times and then give an update. Not that you care, but I'm curious for myself to see if I'll change my mind.