Howling like wolves

The Brooklyn-based quintet, TV on the Radio, has been around for a couple of years impressing fans and critics alike with their special blend of electronica, punkish energy and throbbing rhythms. Two years after the highly acclaimed debut, "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes", they're back with their sophomore album, "Return to the cookie mountain".

In short, not many changes have been introduced to their music in the two years that have passed but the songs are, if possible, even more complex and catchy with atmospheric moods and raw energy intermingled. This is an album that just keeps growing, it's a real wolfish beast with no fillers!

The album opens up with the post-industrial "I was a lover". With sonic noise and heavy rhythms, interspersed with a piano, it sets the pace for the rest of the album. The following track, "Hours", is the closest thing to a radio-friendly song the band has ever written, with driving marching drums it has a certain hit potential.

About halfway into the album we encounter "Wolf like me", a haunting song with a drive that would have made Iggy Pop proud to be the creator of.

We could jet in a stolen car
but i bet we wouldn't get too far
before the transformation takes
and bloodlust tanks and
crave gets slaked.

My mind has changed
my body's frame, but God i like it.
My heart's aflame
my body's strained, but God i like it.
[Wolf like us]

The album ends with the slow and heavy "Wash the day away" that runs you over like a steamroller, leaving a gap that can only be filled by pushing the play button again and again and again ...

What a Beast!