CD REVIEW: The Else by They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants have a new album The Else, with production by the famous Dust Brothers. Having listened to this a dozen times, I don't hear that much of a difference for their presence. Maybe there's just a little better sonic detail, but it's fairly subtle. The band is about pop songwriting, not production gimmicks. Their DIY philosophy started out with very simple productions, but they've long since turned into outstanding arrangers and producers in their own rite. They just don't really much need outside help.
The best song is probably "Take Out the Trash," a bit of advice to a girl regarding a no-good boyfriend. That nice fuzzy low guitar riff gives the whole thing some kind of 60s pedigree, but I can't put my finger on any particular group to compare it to. "Girl, why don't you take out the trash, and when you do tell him not to come back again." The music also reflects the sharp edge of that lyrical sentiment, pleasingly just a bit harsh for this group. This is both the catchiest pop song, and the realest emotion on the CD. This would be the place to start if you wanted to sample the album.
The other best song is the first song, "I'm Impressed." It's got a catchy chorus, and a particularly pleasing pounding rhythm. For one thing, this makes a good car song. It roars along right nicely with some good hard pop guitar rhythms. You'll remember this after you hear it.
Pretty much every song here is at least halfway worthwhile. There's some kind of decent hook and development to all this stuff. "Bird of the Bee of the Moth" strikes me as one of the catchier tunes, though the lyric goes absolutely nowhere. They're random phrases that don't seem to actually end up saying anything. "The Mesopotamians" at the end of the album has also gotten a fair amount of acclaim. I don't know if it's all that, but it's pretty good.
I particularly like "The Shadow Government," partly because it's animated by a relatively dark emotional tenor, beginning with the narrator driving home from his meth lab and ending up as a body in the mayor's trunk. "Where's the shadow government when you need them?"
The album's pretty good overall, perhaps a little above They Might Be Giants fairly high pop song average. The first two songs in particular are real sharp, obvious candidates for a future box set. Overall though, the album seems relatively homogenized or normal. That's not a compliment. These songs have some good hooks and choruses, and good orchestration, but they mostly lack the unique quirky geekdom that really makes the band special.
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