They Might Be Giants Maintain Champion Status of Nerd Rock
3.9 out of 5 stars
They Might Be Giants have been around for almost 40 years of active music making which is an absolutely insane thing to say.
In that time, I have been a VERY casual listener of the band. I wouldn’t call myself a fan. I do like an occasional song, but I have never listened to a full album in one sitting.
That is until I decided to give it a go to review their new album BOOK.
Now, I personally think that due to the experimental, subdued instrumentation and subtle humor that any particular single song of They Might Be Giants is okay on its own. This stands true for this album as well.
The issue I have is to try to listen to 10 or more songs of theirs in a row. It’s a BIG ask. I had the urge to press the skip button so many times. But I didn’t bail. I sat through to see how it came out.
There are some very catchy songs on this album. Songs like “Brontosaurus”, “Super Cool” and “Drown the Clown” definitely stand out in the crowd.
Then there are some super inside joke songs that I don’t get because I feel it is a super fan thing. The song “If Day for Winnipeg” is a good example of this. I don’t know what “If Day” is, and I am pretty sure it doesn’t matter to anyone in Winnipeg or anywhere else.
The whole album is very much on par with past songs that I have heard from TMBG, but the funniest thing about this album is that I literally heard probably the best song on the album and thought to myself, “Alright, now we are finally getting to some good stuff. I wonder if the rest of the album will be in this vain?”
Only to find out that it was the song “Less Than One” which is the last song on the album! Joke’s on me!
I would say that if you are a superfan of TMBG, then you will love this album. The rest of the world probably barely batted an eye that BOOK was released as it is the 17th studio album from the band, and since they have always been more of a band to please critics than to draw mass listeners, you will likely not put the effort into the album.
However, I would say it would be in your best interest to listen to “Drown the Clown” and “Less Than One” if you do nothing else to appeal to your curiosity.