Art-rockers TV on the Radio return from a short hiatus with a newfound focus on matters of the heart on Nine Types of Light, a would-be romantic album that values love more as an escape from the woes of the world than as an end in and of itself. The world's going to hell and there's no future, so why not shack up? Despite its surface thematic shift, then, Nine Types of Light is a typically sober TV on the Radio record, dense with dreary synths, anxious funk freak-outs and lyrics that eerily seem to foreshadow the recent Japanese tsunami and nuclear fallout. As with every TV on the Radio full-length, there are moments of sublime exhilaration hereit really is amazing what this band can pull offbut those highs are ultimately offset by a buzz-killing cynicism that, for me at least, leaves behind a sour aftertaste.
Foo Fighters' new Wasting Light is the most '90s record Dave Grohl has made since the '90s, reuniting the growling frontman with old bandmate Pat Smear (who's returned to Foo Fighters full time), Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic (who guests on "I Should Have Known," even bringing along his accordion for the fuck of it), and Nevermind producer Butch Vig, working with Grohl for the first time since that breakout Nirvana record. Grohl has promised back-to-basics greatness before, trumpeting the return of The Colour and the Shape producer Gil Norton on 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, but this time he really delivers, turning out the most vital, muscular Foo Fighters album in over a decade.
Low's ninth album, C'mon, doesn't attempt another stylistic leap like the trio's records with producer Dave Fridmann, The Great Destroyer and Drums and Guns, but it does recapture the cathedral-burning intensity of earlier feats Things We Lost in the Fire and Trust. The viciously tense "Witches," in particular, stands with the finest songs the group has ever written.
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Minneapolis underground rap trailblazers Atmosphere have rarely sounded more stale than on the new The Family Sign, an exploration of familial bonds. Rapper Slug is usually a captivating storyteller, but here his tales of bad parenting give way to public-service-announcement platitudes. The album is further dragged down by its lifeless, guitar- and piano-heavy production. It's time to let beat-maker Ant dust off his sampler again, because the live-band setup is a terrible fit for this group.
Also on shelves in time for Record Store Day this weekend:
Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What
The Feelies – Here Before
Panda Bear – Tomboy
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Here We Rest
Meat Puppets – Lollipop
Brett Dennen – Loverboy
Bell X1 – Bloodless Coup
Thursday – No Devolucion
Vivian Girls – Share The Joy
Alison Krauss and Union Station – Paper Airplane
Crystal Stilts – In Love with Oblivion
