dopple's Full Review: Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants by T...
Since this 2 CD best-of collection is meant to 'celebrate' the 20 year anniversary of They Might Be Giants, I thought I might include a run-down of the bands illustrious recording career, and a guide of how to explore their music the right way instead of wimping out and buying the 'best-of'...
S/T aka The Pink Album (1986) - Their first album and one of their best. The Johns are definitely at their most new-wave here, and most of the songs boast that flowing beat and spacey sounds that defined the 80s, though with plenty of TMBG uniqueness (no other band I've known has dared sing about the dog-murdering aspects of youth culture). The highlights include "Don't Lets Start", "Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head", "She's An Angel", "Youth Culture Killed My Dog", "Nothings Gonna Change My Clothes" and "Rythm Section Want Ad".
Lincoln (1989) - Though not as spacey and light-hearted as their original, LINCOLN is kind of the stronger of their first two albums - boasting more accomplished/addictive melodies and greater flow (not to mention a more diverse array of sounds - this is where the group started dabbling in every genre it could gets it's hands on, not just new-wave and punk). Lyrical themes get darker, too. Perhaps the best record they've ever made. Highlights include "Ana NG", "Purple Toupee", "Where Your Eyes Don't Go", "The World's Address", "They'll Need A Crane", "Shoehorn With Teeth", and "Kiss Me, Son Of God".
FLOOD (1990) - The album you have to kind of dislike if you're a hardcore fan. It was most peoples' first TMBG album though (mine included), and most have a soft-spot for it. While their first two albums were a great example of the fantastic music two guys could make with some electronic instruments, an accordian and a knack for melody - FLOOD is their major label debut and much of the amaturish, do-it-yourself charm inevitably vanishes. Still, their songwriting skills do not, though the set here is definitely not their strongest. They crank out a number of their finest songs though, it's just not as consistantly impressive as the two records that preceded it. Much more polished sound, too. Highlights include "Birdhouse In Your Soul", "Istanbule", "Dead", "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair", "Particle Man", "Saphire Bullets of Pure Love" and the self-titled "They Might Be Giants".
Apollo 18 (1992) - More of the same, and probably the weakest outing of their entire career. You can't fault them for trying, as we get another long set of songs from the duo and a darker aura than _Flood_. But the overall album is inconsistant, and the songs have a lot less going for them. Even one of the best numbers here, "Actual Size", comes off kind of flat (which the band later recognized and replaced with a live version for their anthology collection). Not awful though, and we can be thankful for "I Palendrome I", "Spider", "The Statue Got Me High" and the collection of over twenty song-segments that make the album so damn interesting on Shuffle mode, "Fingertips".
John Henry (1994) - A big change in the bands sound: they become an actual band, not just two guys from Brooklyn experimenting with samples. Here we have horns, a rythm section, and more. And while it inevitably alienated some fanst, a la Bob Dylan going electric, it was also a very wise move creatively as their sound was starting to stand still on Apollo 18. On John Henry, they sound alive again with all these new sounds to fool around with, and it has one of the more organic feels of a TMBG record. The instrumental parts were all recorded live, too, and while future albums would also feature the full band, it would be much more controlled after this. Also, it is much darker and "serious" than any other album they've produced, featuring only one song that could be classified as 'novelty' ("O Do Not Forsake Me"), and thats a slow, deep operatic number sung by a one-thousand year old man. A stand-out rock album, with gems like "Subliminal", "Snail Shell", "Sleeping In The Flowers", "I Should Be Allowed To Think", "No One Knows My Plan", and fan favorite "End of the Tour".
Factory Showroom (1996) - Perhaps the only album more hated by hardcore fans than FLOOD, Factory Showroom is disliked for a couple valid reasons: it is quite short for a Giants record (only 14 songs compared to the usual 18-20), includes some stuff that belonged more on rarity compilations (the previously released "James K. Polk" and the poorly recorded - on Edison wax cylinder - "I Can Hear You") than such a short studio album. It also has the weakest first track of any TMBG album, "S-E-X-X-Y", a cute but tiresome long funk tune about getting it on. But Factory Showroom certainly does have it's charms. The big rock sound of John Henry gets carried on via the top-notch "XTC vs. Atom Ant", "Metal Detector", and "Spiraling Shape". "Till My Head Falls Off" and "The Bells Are Ringing" are two of the greatest songs they've ever recorded as well. Even the unusually standard "New York City" has it's charms. Don't forget the secret 'negative' track before the album begins, not playable on all CD players.
Severe Tire Damage (1999) - The live album. What can I say? It features quite interesting versions of "Istanbul", "Particle Man" and "Meet James Ensor", and an "Actual Size" that topples over the original. But it seriously neglects their earlier work, only to produce a plodding "Ana NG", and gives us another version of the lackluster "S-E-X-X-Y". It also feels kinda short - it's 17 (listed) tracks long, and only 14 of those are actually live. The others are studio tunes that haven't been released before, like "Dr. Worm" and "About Me", which are good but should have found real albums to exist on to make room for more live fun here. This would be a disappointing concert, and makes a mediocre record. There are several 'secret songs' about Planet of the Apes at the end, all recorded poorly but funny to listen to once.
Mink Car (2001) - The downward spiral continues! No, not really. Mink Car is actually a surprisingly strong album from a band that seemed to be letting down their guard. Granted, the album has it's weak point: the new version of "First Kiss" here sounds like adult contemporary radio hell. Other than that, though, it's top-notch. They retain their full Band of Dans, but it recaptures the studio experimentation of their early work by delving back into electronic beats, samples and synths here and there. Oh, don't get me wrong - this is yet another album that displeased a significant chunk of their fanbase, this time because the fans had already heard most of the album in the five years leading to it's release: the songs were all live staples, mp3s released via the bands internet music service, and heard on their famous Dial-A-Song phone service before finding their way onto Mink Car. But thats not the only reason the record sounds more like a rarities compilation than a studio album: it was also recorded in a number of studios, and boasts plenty of different producers from track to track, leaving a hodge-podge of different sounds throughout. Still, it has an intoxicating mix-tape quality about it and features a lot of really excellent songs, such as "Cyclops Rock", "Man, It's So Loud In Here", "Hovering Sombraro", "My Man", "Hopeless Bleak Dispair", "Working Undercover for the Man" (yes, the word 'man' is used a LOT) and the title track.
No! (2002) - Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a childrens album. A damn kids record. And guess what? It's by far their best album since John Henry. I liked Mink Car, but it definitely didn't have the cohesive and unique feel of their best work. No!, on the other hand, does. Children of the world haven't been blessed with music this great since the glory days of Sesame Street (and songs like "In The Middle" actually harken back to that era quite well). Old and young should not miss out on "Fibber Island", "Four of Two", "No!", "House at the top of the Tree", "I Am Not Your Broom" or "Sleepwalkers".
And finally now we have...
Dial-A-Song - while the title might make you think it is a collection of rarities from their Dial-a-Song service, which has been running since the early 80s and is still free when you call from work, is is just one of those two disc best-of anthologies. And for somebody too intimidated by all the fantastic work the band has to offer, this short summary of their first twenty years is somewhat welcome and serves it's purpose well. Granted, a number of highlights are missing, and a few of their weakest songs somehow found there way into the mix ("Another First Kiss") but overall theres not much to squabble with, except for the fact that it's more fun to just pick up a new TMBG album every couple of years than ruin the fun in just a couple of CDs. But I know such a lengthy catalogue is bound to intimidate some people, but perhaps the guide I've included above will give them a better idea of what albums to check out. It's really a much better idea.
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