Babatunde “Tunde” Adebimpe’s lyrics in Seeds speak of recovery and optimism.

TV on the Radio’s transmissions grew silent after the loss of their bassist Gerard Smith to lung cancer in April 2011. Smith was instrumental in both the band’s creation and the release of their first three albums and his death hit the tight-knit group incredibly hard. But on Nov. 18 this year, the band released an album that manages to find light amidst the darkness of the past three years.

Formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, TV on the Radio has a sound that is difficult to pin down to just one genre. With their mix of funk, rock, jazz and electronic sounds, the group has managed to carve a niche in the music market with their heavy experimentation.

The band’s sixth LP Seeds, produced by Harvest Records, is an ambitious and hopeful work that combines an upbeat pop-electronic sound with sweeping emotional vocals. The album stands apart from anything else the band has ever produced — not because it’s wildly different, but because it’s actually less outside-the-box.

A more commercial feel stems from the underlying message of hope that links the songs on Seeds. Each track could stand on its own as a single or part of an EP. It seems TV on the Radio is now simply trying to create music rather than set themselves apart.

The album’s actual single, “Happy Idiot”, is a perfect example of this shift in sound. Contrasting a fast-paced and catchy beat with mournful lyrics, the track acts as a tribute to the saying “ignorance is bliss” — which also happens to be a line in the song. It is easy to overlook the bitterness buried beneath the foot-tapping instrumentals and is reflective of  the central theme of the album itself.

Taking the experimentation down a notch seems to be exactly what the group needed. In an official statement following the album’s release, TV on the Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe stated that he believes Seeds is “without a doubt the best thing [they’ve] ever done.” This confidence and maturity of sound is evidential in tracks such as “Ride”, which lulls the listener into a dreamlike state with soaring and sleepy instrumentals before it kicks into high gear two minutes in.

The loss of bassist Smith echoes throughout the album in a beautiful and moving way. From Adebimpe’s almost frantic emotional outbursts in “Careful You” to his tentative hopefulness in “Trouble” with the chorus “Everything’s gonna be okay/Oh I keep telling myself”, the album itself seems to go through its own stages of grief before arriving at acceptance with the title track “Seeds” — whose lyrics act as the album’s namesake.

In this final song the band’s mourning comes full circle with the repeated phrase “Rain comes down like it always does/This time I’ve got seeds on ground.” This heartfelt line reinforces the belief that it is possible for beauty to grow from struggle and “Seeds” seems to radiate this unabashed hopefulness with every note.

Though certainly not TV on the Radio’s most monumental work to date, Seeds marks the group’s modest yet powerful return to the music world. It may not take as many risks or cover as much ground as their previous albums, but it is nonetheless a moving compilation of tracks that speak volumes of the hardship that the band has faced.

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Photo: Rasmin/Flickr