As passionate as ever, but now with a little more polish, {$TV on the Radio}'s second album (and {@Interscope} debut), {^Return to Cookie Mountain}, is their most satisfying work since they exploded onto the scene with {^Young Liars}. More than some of their {\indie rock} peers, {$TV on the Radio} seems comfortable on a major label. They've always been a band with a big, unapologetically ambitious sound, and on {^Return to Cookie Mountain}, they give that sound room to breathe with a lush, expansive production. The sonic depth throughout the album is a sharp contrast with the density of their first full-length, {^Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes}, which was so jam-packed with sounds and ideas that it was nearly suffocated by them. However, {^Return to Cookie Mountain} is hardly slick or dumbed-down for mass consumption. In fact, the opening track, {&"I Was a Lover,"} is one of the band's most challenging songs yet, mixing a stuttering {\hip-hop} beat with guitars of {^Loveless} proportions and juxtaposing inviting vocal harmonies and horns with glitches and trippy sitars. {&"Playhouses"} is only slightly less radical, with its wildly syncopated drumming and {$Tunde Adepimbe}'s layered, impassioned singing. At times, {^Return to Cookie Mountain} threatens to become more impressive than likeable -- a complaint that could also arguably be leveled against {^Desperate Youth} as well -- but fortunately, {$TV on the Radio} reconnects with, and builds on, the intimacy and purity that made {^Young Liars} so striking. {$David Bowie}'s backing vocals on {&"Province"} are only one part of the song's enveloping warmth, rather than its focal point, while the album's centerpiece, {&"A Method,"} is another beautiful example of the band's haunting update on {\doo wop}. Meanwhile, the mention of "the needle/the dirty spoon" on {&"Tonight"} cements it as a gorgeous but unsettling urban elegy. As with all their other work, on {^Return to Cookie Mountain} {$TV on the Radio} deals with the fallout of living in a post-9/11 world; politics and morality are still touchstones for the band, particularly on the anguished {&"Blues from Down Here"} and {&"Hours,"} on which {$Adepimbe} urges, "Now listen to the truth." Notably, though, the album builds on the hopeful, or at least living for the moment, vibe that emerged at the end of {^Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes}. The sexy, funky {&"Wolf Like Me,"} which is the closest the album gets to {\rock} in any conventional sense of the term, and {&"Dirtywhirl,"} which spins together images of girls and hurricanes, offer erotic escapes. And by the time the epic final track, {&"Wash the Day,"} revisits the sitars that opened the album with a serene, hypnotic groove, {^Return to Cookie Mountain} gives the most complete representation of the hopes, joys, and fears within {$TV on the Radio}'s music. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide