You know, at first, I was actually sceptical about this album. TV on the Radio had a dream debut for an indie band a few years back, creating a whole load of indie buzz, and having an extremely well received debut EP that garnered good reviews in all the important places, but for me that's when it all fell apart. Their first full-length album, while generally well received by critics, and picking up some important prizes, just didn't resonate with me too much, and neither did their follow-up effort a couple of years later. I felt that the band had fallen into a trap that too many over-hyped bands do, and had decided to produce artistically meritorious music that was too difficult for all but the most dedicated listener to get into.

The first five and a half minutes of "Dear Science", the band's third album, corrected that misconception. Halfway Home, the opening track, is an absolute ripper of a song, mixing a gauzy post-punk guitar line, wordless backing vocals, and Tunde Adebimpe's superb vocal range (which seems to be considerably more versatile here than it was on the band's earlier outings) into a package that not only has artistic merit, but is also fun to listen to.

This winning formula is repeated again and again over the course of this album, although always with enough variety and diversity of tone that it never becomes stale or boring. It's not that the band have sold out or become an indie pop group, rather they have adapted their famously difficult sound so that even the casual listener can see the rays of musical sunshine cutting through the stylistic haze that characterised the band's earlier work.

So, what else is there on this album to recommend? Crying is a gorgeously upbeat track that uses the band's trademark jumble of musical styles to create something that's strangely uplifting. It's not that TV on the Radio have never written upbeat songs before, but this is probably the first time they've done so without the result sounding like a token throwaway song to balance out the gloom and darkness in the other tracks.

Dancing Choose on the other hand mixes in a rapidfire hip-hop style vocal delivery and a minimal instrumental section to produce something that is, well, danceable. Red Dress uses short staccato lashings of electric guitar and some strong, if unsubtle political slogans to get its point across. Family Tree is a gorgeous, slower piano ballad that sounds like a fractured, distorted Brian Eno song.

These all mix and feed into Golden Age, which is probably the most accessible track on the album and an obvious single candidate. There is a whole load of influences clearly at work here, from Michael Jackson to The Village People to the ironic New Wave-revival scene to funk music and then back to good old-fashioned New York art-rock. Not only does it essentially serve as the centre of the album itself, but it manages to summarise in four minutes exactly what "Dear Science" is all about.

Like I said, I was at first sceptical when I received this album, especially given the sticker attached to the front which suggested that 'all' of the tracks were recommended. But, blow me down, TV on the Radio seem to have actually delivered on that promise. It's hard to identify a single misstep on this album, and it's got 'modern classic' written all over it. If the band can keep their future releases in this happy medium between having artistic cred and being enjoyable to listen to, they might yet manage to conquer the world.