I got hip to TVOTR, like a lot of people, around the time of Return to Cookie Mountain in 2006. This was their third album. Since then it seems they just kept on traveling different avenues despite their success. A lot of bands stay the course and don’t get restless. A lot of bands get pressure from the labels to return consistent product. Same same same . . . so on and so on, not understanding that music by its very nature is like rolling the dice. The random elements can’t be fully controlled and flourish.
The band’s musical taste is as diverse as their music. They seem to have this wisdom about their music that gets deeper and deeper. If you listen to Seeds, you find a band with a ton of confidence and the bravery of being open-hearted. They maintain their sense of humour while still making some heavy points. They have sensitive lyrics while not getting maudlin. They have intelligent lyrics without getting too pretentious (“pretentious” isn’t always a bad word in my book). They have many styles in their music while still maintaining a sort of unified identity. Seeds is a very different album from 2011’s Nine Types of Light (which is very different from Dear Science).
The mix of Progressive rock, Psychedelic rock, R ‘n’ B, Punk and Funk works very well on this album. R ‘n’ B cohabitates with progressive rock happily on such songs as “Love Stained.” They can go back for a 60’s sound on “Could You.” Standard Rock and elements of Electronica? No problem on “Happy Idiot.” They even have the guts to use a childhood sing song tone on “Ride”. Actually, I find the song a work of genius. I mean, taking a sing song tone that kids have used for ages to make fun of others in a song about unity is amazing. Talk about subtly turning a negative into a positive!
The track “Trouble” especially hits a chord for me. I think these thoughts quite often. If there are lyrics that reflect how I feel at this point in my life, these are it. What a comfort this song truly is! The whole album deals with stress, conflict and hardship honestly with a sense of optimism. “Yeah, things are tough but we’ll get through it” seems to be the message of the album.
Overall, I find the album very inspiring. It’s a total package musically, lyrically, vocally and production-wise. The great thing is that they do this in a seemingly effortless manner. Even more amazing is that they do this after the death of one of their founding members. From all appearances, these guys are not just a band, they are friends. This makes it harder when you lose a member to cancer.
Yeah, this album is not brand new. It came out in 2014. I seldom review brand new albums. It took me a while to pick this one up for one reason or another and I wish I had done so sooner. They came to town a week or two after Swervedriver and I decided it wouldn’t be prudent to lay down more cash on shows so close together. Stupid! Hopefully, I’ll catch them next time around. This would have been the tour I would have liked to seen them in, though. This is what I would call a career album. This means that if this was their only good album, it would be a career well spent. Obviously, this isn’t their only good album by long shot and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.