The group has released several EPs including their debut Young Liars (2003), and five studio albums: Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004), Return to Cookie Mountain (2006), Dear Science (2008), Nine Types of Light (2011), and Seeds (2014).
For most of the band's existence, the core TV on the Radio lineup has been Tunde Adebimpe (vocals/loops), David Andrew Sitek (guitars/keyboards/loops), Kyp Malone (vocals/guitars/bass/loops), Jaleel Bunton (drums/vocals/loops/guitars) and Gerard Smith (bass/keyboards) as official members.
The band's Bio from their website:
TV on the Radio gets to do anything. Like a small platoon whose pleasing impenetrability is their core, the band consistently confounds expectations while managing to balance respect from critics and peers alike. The result is TV on the Radio gets to do anything they want. This freedom is their engine.
“It’s about doing what feels right,” says singer Tunde Adebimpe. “I really feel like this band is something that is expansive and always changing and growing. If we wear our influences on our sleeve, it’s a pretty crowded sleeve.”
It’s no different with Seeds, the new and fifth proper studio album that Adebimpe has made along with Jaleel Bunton, Kyp Malone, and David Andrew Sitek (who also produced it). Having long outlasted that early 2000s fascination with all things Brooklyn to which the hip willfully succumbed, they continue to conquer music on their own terms. This album serves as another step in continuing to heed their reputation as “the most vital, current band in America” (Associated Press).
This go-round the songs are immediate and triumphant, textured with storytelling hooks and possibly the most honest music this band has ever composed. They’ve hit a point where they’re OK being straight-up beautiful without having to manipulate prettiness into whatever unforeseen shape.
Slate says Seeds has “TV on the Radio’s best songs in years. They are sounding sharper than ever.” And the band knows it. Adebimpe has already said this is the band’s best record. Not a boast, just an observation.
“I feel like I knew it before we were done,” he says immediately. “I was so excited by the songs while we were making them, I wanted to get more and more and more into it. The general feeling going into it was, 'We're still here. Our friendship with each other is so strong. Being in a band, at its best times, is like being... well, let’s say whenever things are going really well, we're like ‘cool, Voltron's back together.’“
The TV on the Radio guys are the type of people who go on hiatus and focus on music. They may take time between albums for their other endeavors, but they know when it’s right to come together – especially when the music comes as easily and passionately as it did with case Seeds. The band found themselves collected in David Sitek’s Los Angeles studio last year and recorded a couple of songs – “Mercy” and “Million Miles” and didn’t want to stop.
“Those were just songs that we wrote because we hadn't written songs together in a while,” says Sitek “They came out really fast and inspired us to do it again – and then ‘again’ turned into the record.”
Adebimpe and Sitek live in Los Angeles, Bunton and Malone reside in New York, but make no mistake: TV on the Radio is a quartet. To attempt to parse out exactly what each member does in the group would be to dismantle the fundamental essence of what makes TV on the Radio the monolithic anomaly they have been careful to cultivate and protect for more than a decade. They permeate beyond a wall of sound, and instead create a planetarium of music with every song. They embody many voices. Most of them can play just about anything. And sing too. They are equal partners in the creation of a type of noise that appeared seemingly out of nowhere over 10 years ago.
Throughout the years, TV on the Radio has been consistent in the standard they set for themselves. Earlier records, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and Return To Cookie Mountain stole the hearts of fans and critics alike just the same, winning the Shortlist Music Prize and Spin's Album of the Year respectively. Their breakout release Dear Science was named best album of 2008 by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Spin Magazine, The New York Times, The Onion AV Club, MTV, even Entertainment Weekly. An embarrassment of riches, really. Their last album, 2011's Nine Types of Light, was deemed "pure heaven" by the cherubs at Rolling Stone, and earned the band a Grammy® nomination. The band has also graced the stages of Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report.
“The band is it’s own ‘self.’ It has to be that way,” Adebimpe says. “That's been the goal for a long time. Nobody really wants to be the focal point for the band; the band should be the focal point. Not even the band: the music. We can show up and take credit for it, but ultimately it's something that maybe we helped shape and facilitate coming into the world. But that’s all.”
They happily recruit likeminded associates to help prop up this invention of theirs in the studio and on stage. (Kelis, for instance, appears on “Lazzeray”). The band has recorded and performed with other artists who’ve conquered the music world on their own terms just as much as they have. Fellow mavericks like Trent Reznor, Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fame, Bauhaus singer Peter Murphy, Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, Martin Perna of Antibalas, Katrina Ford of Celebration, and David chuffing Bowie have all romped in the sandbox with TV on the Radio.
“If you share a material thing, it dissipates,” Adebimpe says, recalling a fragment of philosophy he once heard, or might be improvising on the spot. “If you share a spiritual thing, it just increases. It becomes more and more and more. I'm already thinking about the next record.”
Seeds is an expression of everything this band has been through in the last three years and more. They’re influential, in their prime, they’re TV on the Radio, and they’ve proven themselves to be one of the most important bands of this generation. It clicks, as it always does, and TV on the Radio is brand new again, again.
“No matter what you go through individually and collectively, when you step away from each other, you're kind of like, "I know that if we get together we can fire this thing," says Adebimpe. “It's definitely in the spirit of the punk rock we all grew up with. If you win, you're still a punk. If you lose, you're still a punk, and honestly, it's not about anybody else.”
http://www.tvontheradio.com/
Careful You
TV on the Radio Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oui, je t’aime
A demain, a la prochaine
I know it’s best to say goodbye
But I can’t seem to move away
Not to say, not to say
That you shouldn’t share the blame
There is a softness to your touch
Don’t know
How I feel
What’s the deal?
Is it real?
When’s it gonna go down?
Can we talk? Can we not?
Well I’m here
Won’t you tell me right now?
And I’ll care for you
Oh, careful you
Don’t know
Should we stay?
Should we go?
Should we back it up and turn it around?
Take the good with the bad
Still believe we could make it somehow
I will care for you
Oh, careful you
Careful you
Oui, je t’aime
Oui, je t’aime
From the cradle to the grave
You’ve done a number on my heart
And things will never be the same
Freeze a frame, freeze a frame
From a fever dream of days
We learned the secret of a kiss
And how it melts away all pain
Don’t know
How I feel
What’s the deal?
Is it real?
When’s it gonna go down?
Can we talk? Can we not?
Well I’m here
Won’t you tell me right now?
And I’ll care for you
Oh, careful you
Don’t know
Should we stay?
Should we go?
Should we back it up and turn it around?
Take the good with the bad
Still believe we can make it somehow
I will care for you
Oh, careful you
Careful you
Don’t know
How I feel
What’s the deal?
Is it real?
When’s it gonna go down?
Can we talk? Can we not?
Well I’m here
Won’t you tell me right now?
And I’ll care for you
Oh, careful you
Don’t know
Should we stay?
Should we go?
Should we back it up and turn it around?
Take the good with the bad
Still believe we can make it somehow
I will care for you
Oh, careful you
Careful you
"Careful You" by TV on the Radio depicts a dilemma in a relationship where the singer struggles with the decision of whether to stay or leave. The opening lines "Oui, je t'aime" which translates to "Yes, I love you" in French emphasizes that the relationship is of great value to the singer but there is uncertainty about its fate. The lines, "I know it's best to say goodbye, but I can't seem to move away" hints at the struggle of letting go of a relationship that is no longer healthy, which is reinforced by the confusion shown with lines like "Don't know how I feel, what's the deal? Is it real?" and "Should we back it up and turn it around?". The chorus "And I'll care for you, Oh, careful you" reiterates the singer's willingness to remain and work through the difficulties in the relationship.
The song also explores the intensity and tenderness of love as well as the depth of emotion felt in a relationship. "There is a softness to your touch, There is a wonder to your ways" describes the intimacy and wonder that the singer feels in the relationship. The phrase "You’ve done a number on my heart, And things will never be the same" implies that this kind of love has transformed the singer and that the relationship has an eternal impact.
Overall, Careful You by TV on the Radio captures the complexity and difficulties of romantic relationships, while still depicting the beauty of intimacy and connection.
Line by Line Meaning
Oui, je t’aime
Yes, I love you
Oui, je t’aime
Yes, I love you
A demain, a la prochaine
See you tomorrow, until next time
I know it’s best to say goodbye
I understand that it's better to end things
But I can’t seem to move away
But I can't bring myself to leave
Not to say, not to say
Not to suggest, not to suggest
That you shouldn’t share the blame
That you are not to blame
There is a softness to your touch
Your touch is gentle
There is a wonder to your ways
Your actions are amazing
Don’t know
I'm uncertain
How I feel
About my emotions
What’s the deal?
What's going on?
Is it real?
Is it genuine?
When’s it gonna go down?
When will it happen?
Can we talk? Can we not?
Can we have a conversation or not?
Well I’m here
I'm present
Won’t you tell me right now?
Please tell me now
And I’ll care for you
And I will take care of you
Oh, careful you
Oh, be cautious, you
Should we stay?
Should we continue this?
Should we go?
Should we end this?
Should we back it up and turn it around?
Should we try to change things?
Take the good with the bad
Accept the positive and negative
Still believe we can make it somehow
I still believe that we can figure things out
I will care for you
I will take care of you
Oh, careful you
Oh, be cautious, you
From the cradle to the grave
From birth to death
You’ve done a number on my heart
You've affected my heart greatly
And things will never be the same
And things will never be like before
Freeze a frame, freeze a frame
Capture a moment
From a fever dream of days
From a vivid memory of days past
We learned the secret of a kiss
We discovered the intimacy of a kiss
And how it melts away all pain
And how it makes all pain disappear
Oh, careful you
Oh, be cautious, you
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Babatunde Omoroga Adebimpe, David Andrew Sitek, David Kyp Joel Malone, Jaleel Bunton, Kyp Malone, Tunde Adebimpe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Timewaits4no1
This song is just incredible. There is something so hauntingly beautiful about it. A love note, and a warning all at once. Deep lyrics with music that feels somehow vintage, timeless, and new all at the same time. Then there's that infectious groove that you just can't get out of your head. Songs like this are why I love music so much
Patricia OConnor
Same
Richard Comer
Such a great and meaningful song and video. TVOTR, please please please start playing and touring again!!!
Paco Jimenez
God, I love these guys. Never fail to disappoint and their lyrics are always so clever, poetic and always bring a smile to my face.
Max S
This is one of the best songs in the last 25 years!
4 t 9
Agreed
Doug Donelson
Last 40 yrs!
Eric Kovach
Missed hearing this song from them until today. Played it 5 times in a row because of how mesmerizing this is. Wonderful song from a magical group.
phuturephunk
It really is that type of song.
yeah whatever
Just ended an almost 6 year relationship the other night. Not sure how to feel about it, but this song explains it well.