Of course, a lot of bands released great albums in the 2000s, and TV on the Radio certainly is one of them. They released 3.5 albums during the decade to increasing popular and critical success, and the content of those 3.5 albums is almost ceaselessly creative, sometimes seeming as if they've assimilated the entirety of music to formulate their own pot-clanging, jury-rigged harmonies. From rock 'n' roll to doo wop, electronic and post-punk, they produce a synthesis that feels often gauzy but precise, electronic but warm and ambitious but still natural. They are one of the most unique, interesting and potent bands currently making music, and have been since their debut 2003 EP (Young Liars).
But there's more to it than that. Some of the bands on this Best of the 2000s list would have felt right at home in the 60s (the Strokes), the 70s (Spoon, Arcade Fire) or some undefined bygone era (the White Stripes), but TV on the Radio is of our specific time and our specific place, to an extent that maybe only Radiohead can match. They are truly a band of the 2000s.
What does that mean, exactly? Well, they were virulently, actively anti-George W. Bush and that helps, but there's more to it than that.
The music of TV On the Radio accurately reflects an entire era, the era where irony was declared dead, war was all around, and hope was still far off in the distance. TV On the Radio is a serious, earnest band that makes serious, earnest music, and the disillusionment and weariness of being a young person living in America post-9/11 and pre-Obama bleeds through all over their aforementioned 3.5 albums in an authentic, visceral way.
So yeah, a lot of bands released great albums in the 2000s. TV On the Radio is one of the few that weren't content with writing songs about falling in love with girls or about personal loss and grief—they were writing about the world, and in a way that will always act as a time capsule for the era. And also their albums are awesome to listen to, which should qualify them for this list anyway.
