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