The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.comu

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 - 5

* TV's waning 'Light'
TV on the Radio

Lights, camera, fade out

loses the funk in
latest release
By JULIA
SMITH-EPPSTEINER
Daily Arts Writer
Nine Types of Light, TV on the
Radio's fourth studio album, is
the first time the band has ven-
tured out of its
creative Brook- * _
lyn haven and
recorded 10 TV on the
popular rock Radio
tracks in Los
Angeles. Yet Nine Types
the California of Light
breeze was no
agent for an Interscope
effervescent
product - at least, not this time
around. The intrigue of 2006's
Return to Cookie Mountain has
fallen by the wayside as TV
smooths out the crunch of its
sound.
A different sound from album
to album is typically impressive
and respectable. But Nine Types
of Light evokes a nostalgic desire
in the listener to re-explore the
funky intricacy of the quintet's
sophisticated past material,
which struck a worldwide audi-
ence.
TV's latest endeavor seems to
be missing one thing: grunge. For
the most part, the graffiti-timbre
was replaced on this record by
over-simplified chord progres-
sions. But as always, there are
exceptions to the rule.
One of these exceptions is the
unfittingly tenacious "New Can-
nonball Blues," which brings for-
ward badass chords and lyrical

How many hipsters can you find in this light?

ferocity - almost "DLZ" style.
Another success is the penulti-
mate "Forgotten," which thun-
ders with energy derived from a
whip-cracking bass drum, whis-
tles and indecipherable hush-
ings.
One slow croon that holds
allure is "Will Do," which con-
tains an elongated riff that
arches away from boredom with
banjo and layered vocal pitches
of lead singer Tunde Adebimpe
and vocalist Kyp Malone. Lis-
teners get a bite of verve as
Adebimpe howls between the
stinging down-beat, "We won't
know the actual if we never take
the chance / I'd love to collapse
with you and ease you against
this song."
The members of TV on the
Radio sport a hipster look - fresh
afro-inspired hair formations,
Delphian facial hair, square
glasses and sleek patterned coat
jackets dominate their style -
but on Nine Types of Light, these
men have produced music that
matches less with their contem-

porary bohemian appearance
and more with your average
25-year-old lover-boy band.
Though Tunde says there is
deeper meaning underneath
the album - particularly on the
track "You," which he haunts
with an eerie melody of deceiv-
ing love - there is still an absent
element that renders the record
forgettable.
"Keep Your Heart" and "Kill-
er Crane" lethargically spell out
dull and manage to keep bones
and extremities still. Becoming
desperate for some upbeat magic,
Malone's vocals in "No Future
Shock" cure a bit of rock depres-
sion. The rap beat "Caffeinated
Consciousness" concludes the
album with an '80s feel - the
title's trump over its content can
be measured by an extra-large
cup of Greenwich roast.
For the hope of future intrigu-
ing TV on the Radio albums,
it's comforting to think that
maybe the reason Nine Types of
Light didn't hold up the band's
See TV ON THE RADIO, Page 6

s we approach the end
of another school year -
for me, the final days of
my junior year - the time seems
right to reflect on what we've
learned. Not
to be vague,
but a year can ii
change alot of
things.
This is per- r
haps a little
too vague, I
know. But this ANKUR
is my last col- SOHONI
umn, so for-
give me if my
specifics are tapped out. What I
can say, though, is when it comes
to movies - and more impor-
tantly (my education in film - the
past two semesters have been a
long journey of breakingthrough
personal barriers and accepting
the barriers that sometimes won't
budge. Transcribing my usually
lucid ruminations on Hollywood
franchises, film criticism and
my love of the screen into this
column for the past eight months,
combined with diving headfirst
into the shallow pools of screen-
writing and studying film busi-
ness, have opened up the doors of
how I think about film.
These things have also revealed
me to be a cocky, procrastinative
and stubborn kid suffering from
perpetual senioritis. Film is my
passion and my motivation for the
future, but late nights working on
a column or a screenplay outline
(usually consisting of playing
"Snake" on Facebook for a few
hours and then proclaimingI'll do
my work tomorrow) followed by
extreme sleep deprivation have

been pa
rienceo
ButI
Every t
turning
and fin
protagc
thrusts
battle.I
man on
attenti
set and
I'm
out of S
devoid
a sign o
Maguir
And
learned
film, an
to findf
emulat
of Chan
charact
fectedc
your pl
accept:

ar in the course of my expe- Ina column last October,
as a junior. I lamented that screenwrit-
I still have time to dream. ing didn't feed off my previous
hree-act structure has a understanding offilm, but rather
g point before the third forced me to redefine my creative
al act - one that takes our emphasis in the art form and
onist from a low point and take on a new, story-centric cin-
him or her into a final ematic mentality.
Perhaps that's me. I'm the Everything is different now.
the screen, the center of And what's more, I've matured
on. The world is a movie enough to accept that change.
I'm the player. I've come to believe in the roll-
Truman trying to break ercoaster and the high emotional
eahaven, long trapped and tides that come with pushing
of effortbut renewed with myself to the limit. While I once
f what couldbe. I'm Jerry held tight to my character, I've
e looking to be complete. learned to reveal it, test it and
while I can say I've change it.
i much from watching ButI now have buta single act
d even studying it, I hope left in my story here at the Uni-
even greater lessons from versity. I have everything I need
ing it. The story isan agent - all the information and insight
ge, a chemical reaction of to continue my story - but like
ters that leaves none unaf- every third act, time is short. I've
or untouched. To accept got 20 pages and I better make
ace as part of the story is to it good.
your own transformation. Each of our passages through
this Universitybecomes like a.
film - the kind you don't want to
n ready for end. And while we wish it could
last forever, we should realize
yc s u that our film is importantbecause
it doesn't last forever.
It's what we do with the time
that is given to us.
's the insight I've gained Think of the audience. It's
ng screenwriting student what we leave in mind aswe walk
The Michigan Daily's film off the screen - when the credits
ist, and perhaps just in start rolling, it's the end they'll
creenwriting has tuned me remember. So let's please the
eaks and valleys of narra- crowd and make this tale a happy
d the necessary evils of any one. Some stories don't have
especially my own. My sequels.

F]
I

That
as a you
and as'
column
time. S
to the p
tive ant
story -

challenge in conquering screen-
play structure is mirrored by my Sohoni is playing "Snake."
reluctance to accept that struc- To distract him, e-mail
ture in life. asohoni@umich.edu.

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