They Might Be Giants - "The Cap'm" (mp3)
A couple weeks ago, They Might Be Giants put their new album, The Else, on iTunes, almost 2 months before its official release in stores. I haven't really bought a new album by them in a long time, but considering that several of my favorite albums of 2007 so far are by bands who I cared a lot more about 10 years ago (Dinosaur Jr., Nine Inch Nails, Sloan), it seemed like a good time to give them a fair shot again. They're still an irredeemably dorky band to like, maybe even more than back in the day now that they're pandering more and more to their cult audience and haven't had a radio hit in years. But I think their early records have aged about as well as any other goofy college rock band of that era.
It's hard to say if They Might Be Giants jumped the shark at some point, or if they just shifted their focus to specialty projects like Venue Songs and albums geared toward children/parents, instead of regular TMBG records. The Else doesn't make a really strong argument that they're still at the top of their game as anything other than a touring act that still plays the old hits, though. These days most of Flansburgh only seems to write or sing generic, obnoxious tracks like "Take Out The Trash" and "Feign Amnesia" that sound like they were written in the time it takes to play them. Linnell still has some of his old songwriting spark, though, and "Cap'm" is easily the best uptempo song on the album. The lyrics are kind of inanely clever, but it's really all about the weird chord changes in the chorus, and the shoutalong harmonies. The weirder downtempo stuff like "With The Dark" and "Careful What You Pack" are probably the most impressive parts of The Else, but right now "The Cap'm is the one I keep playing over and over, even if it's probably more comparable to a mid-period highlight like "'Til My Head Falls Off" than one of the classics.
A couple weeks ago, They Might Be Giants put their new album, The Else, on iTunes, almost 2 months before its official release in stores. I haven't really bought a new album by them in a long time, but considering that several of my favorite albums of 2007 so far are by bands who I cared a lot more about 10 years ago (Dinosaur Jr., Nine Inch Nails, Sloan), it seemed like a good time to give them a fair shot again. They're still an irredeemably dorky band to like, maybe even more than back in the day now that they're pandering more and more to their cult audience and haven't had a radio hit in years. But I think their early records have aged about as well as any other goofy college rock band of that era.
It's hard to say if They Might Be Giants jumped the shark at some point, or if they just shifted their focus to specialty projects like Venue Songs and albums geared toward children/parents, instead of regular TMBG records. The Else doesn't make a really strong argument that they're still at the top of their game as anything other than a touring act that still plays the old hits, though. These days most of Flansburgh only seems to write or sing generic, obnoxious tracks like "Take Out The Trash" and "Feign Amnesia" that sound like they were written in the time it takes to play them. Linnell still has some of his old songwriting spark, though, and "Cap'm" is easily the best uptempo song on the album. The lyrics are kind of inanely clever, but it's really all about the weird chord changes in the chorus, and the shoutalong harmonies. The weirder downtempo stuff like "With The Dark" and "Careful What You Pack" are probably the most impressive parts of The Else, but right now "The Cap'm is the one I keep playing over and over, even if it's probably more comparable to a mid-period highlight like "'Til My Head Falls Off" than one of the classics.
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on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 7:52 PM.
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