Albums Reviewed: They Might Be Giants [in progress]
Comments welcome. :)
They Might Be Giants:
(owned as part of Then: The Earlier Years)
This album really has me torn in half. On one hand, the band were just starting out, and some of the songs on here (Don't Let's Start, Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head, She's An Angel) are real classics anyway. But then comes the confusingly pointless: Todler Hiway, The Day, Absolutely Bill's Mood. I know TMBG are eclectic, innovative and unusual, but several songs from this album push that border too far. Despite this though, the album is still a serviceable collection, and there are many good songs here.
Top 5 tracks: Everything Right Is Wrong Again, Don't Let's Start, Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head, She's An Angel, Number Three
Lincoln (2nd fave TMBG album):
(owned as part of Then: The Earlier Years)
Vastly improving on the band's debut, this album contains many fewer poor tracks than its' precdecessor and packs in several all-time classics. Ana Ng, Cowtown and They'll Need A Crane are up there with TMBG's best - and are indeed among some of the best alternative rock created - and duff tracks such as Stand On Your Own Head are few and far between. Purple Toupee and Where Your Eyes Don't Gos howcase some of TMBG's best lyrics and Showhorn With Teeth is bizzarely addictive, whilst Kiss Me Son Of God and Pencil Rain are also very enjoyable.
Top 5 tracks: Ana Ng, Cowtown, Purple Toupee, Pencil Rain, They'll Need A Crane, Snowball In Hell
Flood (3rd fave TMBG album):
Easily TMBG's most popular work and with good reason. Not only is it home to Birdhouse In Your Soul, certainly TMBG's most widely respected song of all-time, but kiddie favourite Particle Man, the popular Istanbul not Constantinople, and the height of TMBG's dark pop with Someone Keeps Moving My Chair also show up alongside the genius tracks Dead, Letterbox and Twisting. There are a couple of duds (the 45 second Minimum Wage and the bland Hearing Aid) but the great tracks more than make up for this.
Top 5 tracks: Birdhouse In Your Soul, Someone Keeps Moving My Chair, Twisting, Your Racist Friend, Particle Man
John Henry (Fave TMBG album):
Wow. This is a contender for my favourite album of all-time by anyone. 5 perfect tracks, and 15 remaining tracks that pretty much make your typical Johnny-come-lately average rock star sound like nails scratching on a blackboard and mass projectile vomiting. Not many albums have songs about Belgian painters (Meet James Ensor), deadly car crashes (The End Of the Tour) and a teenager's attempts to get his opinion heard (I Shoukld Be Allowed To Think). AKA Driver and Stomp Box aren't as good as many of the others, but they're by no means awful; whereas Subliminal, Extra Savoir Faire and Spy add great music and Snail Shell and Destination Moon add genius lyrics. TMBG novices: buy the "Dial-A-Song" compilation. Then, buy this. Then, go nuts: Flood, Apollo 18, Then: The Earlier Years, whatever. It's what I did. But my point is: this is essential and much maligned even by hardcore TMBG fans.
Top 5 tracks: (that'll be the 5 perfect ones then) Snail Shell, The End Of The Tour, Meet James Ensor, Destination Moon, I Should Be Allowed To Think
Dial A Song: 20 Years Of TMBG Compilation:
See here.
more coming soon!
Ahhh, good to see "I Should Be Allowed To Think" acknowledged. I love that tune - it's not very well known but it's an amazing little pop song and the lyrics are great. I disagree with your assessment of the debut though. To me, it's TMBG at their most original, creative, and off-the-wall. The worse songs are all brief and the better ones all go past the 2-minute mark, so the album never really drags. It's just that unique - haven't really heard another album like that one.
I concur about the uniqueness. But there still seems like too much filler. I think it would've been better, as, say, twelve two-and-a-half minute songs. But hey, I guess that's not TMBG's style. :-)