The Listomania I make the lists, you shoot them down. Quid Pro Quo.

143. TV on the Radio – DLZ

There’s a teency weency list of fanTASTIC bands whose entire careers have taken place within the last decade. Short as in less than the number of official Beatles LPs. But over the course of five years (I know, technically seven, but to spare ourselves we’re not counting the truly unlistenable Ok Calculator) TV on the Radio have amassed a catalog with three separate Album of the Year contenders. It’s actually kind of unfair to other bands at this point. Like with Radiohead or The White Stripes, when a new album by TVotR drops, all other bands get ready to play catch up.

So “DLZ” is the best song on TVotR’s third consecutive Unfairly Good album, 2008’s Dear Science. It’s not one of the two singles. It’s not a show piece. It’s not an epic jam. But to me, it’s the emotional centerpiece, the guts, the cornucopia if you will of the dinner table of their career. A slow groove that builds up from overlapping drum beats and ethereal vocal clatter, the beacon in this song is not Sitek’s guitar rips, but Tunde Adebimpe’s most passionate vocals ever. “This is beginning to feel like the long-winded blues of the never.” Really listen to the song and try to admit to me that when Tunde pushes through the layers of orchestrated fuzz with those lines, you don’t feel something right in your gut. And when he kicks the door down with “Never you mind, death professor,” tell me you don’t air kick along with him, busting anything in your way into a million little pieces. And if you don’t have that reaction, it’s time to check your pulse.