07. TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me

Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2011, or our Best Albums of 2011.

Artwork by Adam Sarpalius

As 2009, and the decade come to a close, PMA will be looking back at our favorite songs of the last ten years. We will update a list with 75 empty slots until we reach that song that changed everything. You can keep track of this list by keeping an eye on this page. We make these lists in hopes that you guys will chime in the comments and share your favorite musical moments of the noughties.

How do you introduce a song like “Wolf Like Me”? How do you introduce a band as polarizing as TV on the Radio? There is so much to say, but I will keep this as succinct as possible.

The music emitting from your headphones (oh, you better be listening to this with headphones on… unless you’re in front of a stage) is gripping, your attention is surrendered to these men for the remainder of the song’s four-plus minutes, longer if you’re spinning the engrossing and vital Return To Cookie Mountain.

This music is thunderous and alive, it has a mind of its own and it has a mission. It’s mission is to show you the world through the eyes of TV on the Radio. Before this, the world was linear, flat. Listening to “Wolf Like Me” is like seeing the world through a wide-scope lens for the first time. Within seconds, you’re consumed by the three-pronged attack of static, bass and, most importantly, soul. That soul of Tunde Adebimpe and his beautiful, gospel-tinged voice of his blast through the track, but by then you’re lost in it entirely.

“Wolf Like Me” is a beast. A rare beat, at that. It’s challenging and experimental, but less so than TV on the Radio’s previous work. It bears a sweet familiarity lodged in its near-subversive roots in New Wave and Soul music. Best of all? It can fill the dance floor.

• 08. Outkast – Hey Ya!
• 09. Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
• 10. M.I.A. – Paper Planes
• 11. Daft Punk – One More Time
• 12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
• 13. Spoon – The Way We Get By
• 14. The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done
• 15. Panda Bear – Comfy In Nautica
• 16. Arctic Monkeys – Leave Before The Light Comes On
• 17. Kanye West – Jesus Walks
• 18. Beyonce – Crazy In Love
• 19. LCD Soundsystem – Losing My Edge
• 20. Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling Into Place
• 21. The Strokes – The Modern Age
• 22. Jay-Z & The Beatles – 99 Problems (Danger Mouse)
• 23. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
• 24. The Knife – Heartbeats
• 25. Lil Wayne – A Milli
• 26-75: Various

by Luis Tovar on December 21, 2009 ‡ 0 reactions