Dear excellence

Dear Science, the third full-length from Brooklyn quintet TV on the Radio, immediately harkens back to a different era with insistent hand claps and a faux-Rivingtons/Trashmen vocal scat on “Halfway Home,” all building to an aural explosion, ushering in the band’s latest experimental musical treatise. If you thought Return to Cookie Mountain was heady, prepare yourself.

A sign-of-the-times update about the mixed-up world in which we live, “Crying” instructs listeners to “hold your breath through late-breaking disasters, next to news of the trite.”

The jangling “Red Dress” is a tad more direct, with singer Tunde Adebimpe howling “hey jackboot, fuck your war” over a Prince-like guitar riff.

The seductive closer, “Lover’s Day,” with its commanding eroticism and crunching drum line, is as close to a mini-epic as the band have recorded and wraps up the record on a hopeful note.

Although it’s still tempting to brand TV on the Radio as art-rock, guitarist/producer Dave Sitek has infused Dear Science, with a funky accessibility that’s more inviting than the band’s previous work.

The best moments of Return to Cookie Mountain still kept their distance, holding listeners at bay while amazing them at the same time. Dear Science,’s best (“Halfway Home,” “Dancing Choose,” “Golden Age”) beckon everyone to get down in their singular groove.

If any weakness is to be detected here, it’s that slower-tempo tracks like “Stork and Owl,” “Family Tree” and “Love Dog” threaten to stop the cerebral dance party in its tracks.

Luckily, the juxtaposition of white-hot funk tracks like “Crying” and “Golden Age” with the more ponderous fare give Dear Science, a cohesive feel in an age of singles.

All of this won’t get TV on the Radio any closer to the modern rock charts, but thankfully user-friendliness is the furthest thing from their minds. More musically diverse and lyrically denser than Return to Cookie Mountain, it’s the band’s best and most unswervingly consistent album.