“Give Blood”
from the album Rain Machine
2009
iTunes
Kyp Malone has always been a grand provocateur, singing, “I wanna love you all the way / I wanna break your back,” on last year’s “Lover’s Day” (from TV on the Radio‘s Dear Science). So to hear Malone, with his new solo project, moaning that “it’s no burnt-cork affair” on the six-and-half-minute “Smiling Black Faces” is to hear him at his most comfortable. Rain Machine doesn’t have TVotR’s Berlin Wall of Sound might, but it’s still an accomplished work. Quadruple-tracked vocals on the quavering “Hold You Holy” and the bone-shaking pop jangle of “Give Blood” make this the best side gig since Jack White rediscovered the drums.