They Might Be Giants – The Else
Idlewild/Zoe Records (7/10/07)
Rock / Alternative
Let me start this off by confessing that I’m partial.
Not mathematically, snarky; I am not a fraction. I mean that I’m not objective about the works of John Flansburgh and John Linnel, the Brooklyn duo that comprise the nerd-rock institution known as They Might Be Giants.
Sometime in 1990, while watching MTV’s 120 Minutes, I saw a group of people in a video in one of those Michael Jackson back-up-dancer triangles. Instead of street-gang leotards they wore matching flannel shirts and large cardboard eyes over their real eyes. As if the visual stimulation of this moment wasn’t enough, the clip had the audacity to be paired with the most beautiful song ever written, “Birdhouse in Your Soul”.
Granted I was ten years old, but I was smart enough even then to know that the Go-Bots couldn’t hold a wax candle to the Transformers, so my discerning tastes were well on their way.
Something about that fantastic melody, that shameless and vulnerable nasal tone and the unabashed awkwardness of the whole thing tugged at my lonely bones. I had been hooked, and from that moment forward they would be the most important band in my life.
Nine albums later (12th overall), TMBG has released The Else. While its thirteen tracks clock in at barely forty minutes, this is a critical LP for the Johns. Since 2001’s Mink Car, the band has experienced some fluctuations in support from its cult-ish devotees. That record saw the duo conspicuously reaching for some measure of attention from listeners outside of the margin. The strength of the songwriting was potent as ever, but some of the songs seemed to delve into serious electronic rock to the degree that some fans supposed that the Johns might be parodying the genre.
I, too, felt the difference in texture. And while it did seem uncomfortably self-indulgent at times, it eventually grew on me, as I became able to separate the songs from the production. 2004’s The Spine saw somewhat of a return to form, but even it had an air of “wanting to be taken seriously” that was a little disheartening for hardcore fans.
On Tuesday, July 10, 2007, The Else was released, and I drove around L.A. for two days trying to wrap my crooked fingers around a copy. I was a tad alarmed when I read that much of the production was done by The Dust Brothers of Paul’s Boutique fame. The last thing that I wanted was for the Johns to start sounding all hip-hoppity. Yes, I’m a rapper, and no, the irony isn’t lost on me.
I eventually found a copy at Amoeba Music (if you don’t know, I almost pity you), and by the time I’d made it back to my car, I had wrestled the disc free of shrink-wrap and military-grade adhesive. I loaded the disc into the player and I swear to god it was over in what felt like ten minutes. I had skipped through close to half of the album’s thirteen tracks within 30 seconds of hearing them. I instantly related to all the women who had sex with me in college:
“Is that it?”
“Yup, that’s it.”
Its not that the songs are bad. In fact, there are some beautiful songs on The Else. “I’m Impressed”?, “The Bee of the Bird of the Moth”, and “The Cap’m”? are gorgeous melodies, and most of the songs are arranged and penned magnificently, but it is the frowning skull of over-production that once again sucks much of the flavor out of the LP. Too much drum machine, too much electric piano, and too much, too much, too much guitar. It seems as if TMBG have convinced themselves that their best music is made when they’re aiming towards polished pop, when many of their fans prefer the geek-punk sensibility that made the music just as quirky as the lyrics.
I am especially troubled by this quote from Flansburgh, delivered during an interview about the new album:
We were very lucky that we could approach this project without deadlines or release schedules hanging over our heads. We wanted to be sure this was an album that was our best effort from beginning to end and I am very excited to report I believe we’ve actually done it!
These words effectively remove all possible sources of blame for what I consider a lackluster effort. Unfortunately, this is what they think is good.
But wait! There’s a 23-song bonus disc. Yep, a thirteen-song album with a 23-song bonus disc. And get this, most of the bonus disc is good—it’s a collection of popular re-worked songs from their podcast entitled “Cast Your Pod to the Wind”. The bonus disc is my hero. It has nunchucks and its not afraid to use them. Just yesterday it put out a puppy fire. And as good as it is, it’s somewhat insulting. For a band to have such a good handle of what their fans wan’t and to give it to them as an appendix to a mediocre album is awfully close to disrespectful.
But these are not the thoughts of a impartial person. For when it comes to the Johns there’s not an objective bone in my brain.
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