Top Tracks: They Might Be Giants

Submitted by Wezzo on Thu, 08/26/2004 - 08:19
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  1. Birdhouse In Your Soul
  2. New York City
  3. Destination Moon
  4. The End Of The Tour
  5. Don't Let's Start
  6. I've Got A Match
  7. Experimental Film
  8. Ana Ng
  9. Out of Jail
  10. Mr. Me
  11. No One Knows My Plan
  12. Memo To Human Resources
  13. Hey Mr DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal
  14. Climbing the Walls
  15. Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
  16. Bangs
  17. Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head
  18. I Palindrome I
  19. Love Is Eternity
  20. Everything Right Is Wrong Again
  21. I Should Be Allowed To Think
  22. Man It's So Loud In Here
  23. 'Til My Head Falls Off
  24. The World's Address
  25. Museum of Idiots
  26. Why Must I Be Sad?
  27. We're The Replacements
  28. Spiraling Shape
  29. Meet James Ensor
  30. Your Racist Friend
  31. She's An Angel
  32. Doctor Worm
  33. Pencil Rain
  34. Mammal
  35. A Self Called Nowhere
  36. Dead
  37. Another First Kiss
  38. How Can I Sing Like A Girl?
  39. Sleeping In The Flowers
  40. AKA Driver
  41. We Want A Rock
  42. They'll Need A Crane
  43. Fingertips
  44. Metal Detector
  45. The Shadow Government
  46. Subliminal
  47. Thunderbird
  48. Damn Good Times
  49. I'm Your Boyfriend Now
  50. I'm Impressed
  51. Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes
  52. Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love
  53. Another First Kiss
  54. Careful What You Pack
  55. The Mesopotamians
  56. Contrecoup
  57. Boss of Me
  58. Thermostat
  59. Feign Amnesia
  60. Rhythm Section Want Ad
  61. James K. Polk
  62. Twisting
  63. Snail Shell
  64. My Evil Twin
  65. Turn Around
  66. The Guitar
  67. Purple Toupee
  68. Lucky Ball and Chain
  69. Cyclops Rock
  70. Bastard Wants to Hit Me
  71. Broke in Two
  72. Prevenge
  73. Letterbox
  74. Dinner Bell
  75. Where Your Eyes Don't Go
  76. Santa's Beard
  77. Kiss Me, Son of God
  78. Number Three
  79. She's Actual Size
  80. Unrelated Thing
  81. Narrow Your Eyes
  82. Dirt Bike
  83. Particle Man
  84. Window
  85. It's Not My Birthday
  86. Whistling in the Dark
  87. Cowtown
  88. We Live In A Dump
  89. Lazyhead and Sleepybones
  90. Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
  91. Youth Culture Killed My Dog
  92. Pet Name
  93. Bee of the Bird of the Moth
  94. The Statue Got Me High
  95. Why Does The Sun Shine (The Sun is A Mass of Incandescent Gas)
  96. See the Constellation
  97. Lie Still, Little Bottle
  98. Shoehorn with Teeth
  99. Cage & Aquarium
  100. Older
AJDaGreat08/26/2004

Great list, and pretty similar to my own. Although, if you like this stuff, the Dial-a-Song compilation won't tell you the whole story. I would really recommend hearing some more albums.

Wezzo08/26/2004

Cheers for the comment. Yeah, I don't own too many of their albums - just Lincoln, Flood and Dial-A-Song, plus a few others downloaded. Care to recommend a next album?

AJDaGreat08/26/2004

Well, let's see. My favorite album is John Henry, but that might just be a personal favorite more than one I'd recommend to others. Still, of the five John Henry songs on the compilation, you have three on here (End of the Tour, I Should Be Allowed to Think, Meet James Ensor), so I think you might like the album too. There are definitely more wonderful songs on it that aren't on Dial-a-Song.

You might enjoy the debut self-titled album (Don't Let's Start, She's an Angel, Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head), Apollo 18 (I Palindrome I, Mammal, The Guitar), or Factory Showroom (New York City, Till My Head Falls Off) too.

Wezzo08/26/2004

Thanks for that.. I think I'll order John Henry and the debut next; after that it'll be more of a case of filling in my collection. ;-)

AJDaGreat05/23/2005

One again, great list! Your top 5 is really dead on, all wonderful songs (though I'm not really a fan of #6). But I must ask, what is "Love Is Eternity"? I've never heard of it...

Wezzo05/23/2005

Glad you like the updated list! We do appear to have fairly similar taste in the band.

"Love Is Eternity" was a free mp3 available on the band's site a while ago, it may still be there - if you like I could send it to you via e-mail, if it's gone.

The band were on Jonathan Ross's BBC Radio 2 show ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/ross/ ) on Saturday, BTW - they performed Fingertips and Birdhouse live, and Ross played Don't Let's Start, Ana Ng and Sleepyhead and Lazybones (I think that's what it called, anyway), they were interviewed too. Pretty good stuff.

Rushmore04/09/2006

i love the track Experimental Film! reminds me of a BNL track, gonna have to check these guys out

Wezzo04/11/2006

Glad you like it - I do, too, and more than this list shows. I'll have to update.

AJDaGreat07/13/2007

Have you heard The Else yet? Or the bonus disc? I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Wezzo07/13/2007

I haven't heard it yet. I should get my copy in the mail from Amazon.com soon though! I've heard a few of the bonus disc tracks in the Podcasts, but not many.

Have you heard it yet?

AJDaGreat07/13/2007

Nope, but I'm hoping to pick it up soon.

Wezzo07/19/2007

Well, I've listened to "The Else" now, and to quote the first track, "I'm Impressed". I've grown to really like "The Spine" over time but I'd definitely say "The Else" is superior to it. The sound is more dense than before but there are kick-ass tracks a-plenty - "I'm Impressed" is a slow burner but is remarkably easy to get stuck in your head; "Climbing the Walls" is very catchy and enjoyable; "Careful What You Pack" is already one of my favourite TMBG ballads; "The Mespotamians", "Shadow Government" and "Contrecoup" are all worthy candidates for my top 50 too.

The bonus disc is good fun but aside from a few standouts - "I'm Your Boyfriend Now", the live "Metal Detector" and "Vestibule" - doesn't really necessitate repeat listens any more than, say, Miscellaneous T.

I'd rank the album proper above everything sine "John Henry" in their back catalogue, though. But your mileage may vary - Pitchfork gave it just 5.3/10 and response has been rather mixed; it must be a personal taste thing.

AJDaGreat07/20/2007

I've heard it too by now. I've only listened to it three times, so it may still grow on me, but so far I must admit I haven't been too thrilled. You might be able to convince me that it's slightly superior to The Spine, but The Spine's best tracks are better than anything on The Else IMHO. Of course, The Spine's worst tracks are also worse than anything on The Else. But I just can't get excited enough about these songs to call them kick-ass. I think they're all just okay. And I was hoping for more than consistently fair quality from the new album.

I dunno, don't you feel like TMBG used to be so much more quotable than they are now? I feel like every album used to be bursting with quirky witticisms in every song. What do you think is the cleverest line on The Else? Seriously, I want to know. My vote might be for the Mohenjo-Daren line on "The Mesopotamians," and even that's more silly-funny than clever-funny.

Personally, I think "Careful What You Pack" and "Contrecoup" are among the weaker tracks (along with "Upside Down Frown"), though again they don't particularly inflame me with distaste, they're just kinda meh. My favorite track is "The Mesopotamians," with "Feign Amnesia" and "Climbing the Walls" up there as well. But again, I'm not incredibly thrilled with these songs, they're just pretty good.

By the way, check this out. It's a really terrific review of both TMBG's history and the album itself (even if he did like The Else more than I did).

I agree with your overall assessment of the bonus disc, but my favorites would be "Brain Problem Situation" and "We Live in a Dump" (in fact, I might like the latter more than anything on the actual album).

We'll see, though. All this is sort of similar to how I felt about Barenaked Ladies Are Me, and that eventually grew on me, so I'm not giving up on The Else yet.

Wezzo07/20/2007

I've listened to it about seven times now, it took me maybe three listens to start to enjoy it all.

I'd probably agree about the quotability of the lyrics. My favourite from this album would either be something from "Bee Of The Bird Of The Moth" or "The Mesopotamians".

Not a fan of "Brain Problem Situation" but "We Live In A Dump" is very good. As for weaker tracks on the main album, "Upside Down Frown" is very forgettable and "With the Dark" is a weaker version of "Fingertips" to these ears.

Thanks for the review, interesting stuff there.

On the subject of BNL, did you hear "BNL Are Men" yet?

AJDaGreat07/20/2007

There are some clever lyrics in "The Shadow Government" too, but I personally hate the line "It's a bad, bad world."

I can't decide if I like or dislike "With the Dark." You're right that it uses the rapid switching of sound thing less effectively than Fingertips, but I do like the line "She's in love with her broken heart," and any song that mentions pirates can't be all bad. Also some good hooks in the song, but most TMBG songs do, really.

Sadly, I still have not heard Barenaked Ladies Are Men. I was actually planning to head to Borders and get caught up on both bands at once by picking up both BLAMen and The Else. Unfortunately, they only had the latter in stock.

Wezzo08/24/2007

Any luck with BLAMen yet?

AJDaGreat08/24/2007

I've actually found it surprisingly hard to find in the stores and libraries in which I've looked for it. I may have to order it eventually. I'll be sure to let you know when I hear it.

JAMOOL07/08/2008

Nice list. I'd personally put "Narrow Your Eyes" in the top 5 though. It's absolutely heartbreaking. You'd never think something like that could come out of the guys who did "Particle Man", but then again...

Wezzo07/12/2008

"Narrow Your Eyes" is great, but it's never really stuck out as a genuine classic to me. haven't heard it in a while though - I'll give it a re-listen and see what I think. The lyrics are certainly pretty powerful, from what I recall.

johnparker08/20/2009

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