TV on the Radio plant new 'Seeds' at Union Transfer

TV on the Radio has been through some hard times in the last few years, and the band has responded with their easiest album yet. Seeds, released this week, doesn't lose the turbulence of past albums such as Return to Cookie Mountain and Dear Science, but it pours oil on the waters, letting Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone's vocals come to the fore, where, as often as not, they're singing about love.

The band's show at Union Transfer on Monday night sold out before Seeds leaked onto the Internet a couple of weeks ago, but if their fans were disappointed that their favorite avant-rock band had gotten tuneful on them, there was no sign of it. True, guitarist Malone did ask the audience to "soak in the warts, soak in the beauty," and put their iPhones away. "It's not a demand," he said, "more of a challenge."

With the room freed of glowing screens, TV on the Radio provided both light and heat. The death of the band's bassist, Gerard Smith, in 2011, isn't alluded to in the new songs, but it's a part of what pushed Adebimpe, Malone, David Sitek, and Jaleel Bunton toward a simple and more spacious sound. Even with two additional musicians joining them on tour, songs like "Careful You" had plenty of room for the chiming echo of Sitek's 12-string guitar or the eerie open fifths of Adebimpe and Malone's vocal harmonies. "Lazerray," which Malone announced as one of his new favorites, dwells on a single chord for much of its verse, then gives way to a set of changes nicked from the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop."

It doesn't get much simpler, or more ingratiating, than that.

With two-thirds of the 90-minute set taken up with older material, there was plenty of opportunity to delve into the dark complexities of albums past. But the energy seemed to lift when the new stuff surfaced, although Seeds had only officially been released earlier that day. It doesn't take long for TV on the Radio's new songs to get their hooks in you, and once they're in, they stay in.