I used to be a huge They Might Be Giants fan. Flood<\/i> was one of the many important records of my adolescence. But I tuned out after 2004 and haven\u2019t really noticed much of what they\u2019ve done since then. Most of their recent records have been comprised of songs done for their long running Dial-A-Song phone line. These tracks present here seem to be in the same line and asides from their always impressive instrumentation and musicianship, there isn\u2019t a whole lot here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve Been Seeing Things\u201d is a furious little rave up with lots of guitar, which is a plus if you haven\u2019t been a fan of their keyboard-driven pop. Nice to see they can still rock like they used to. Unfortunately there\u2019s not a lot that\u2019s very distinct and memorable. Most of these tracks like \u201cDog\u201d come off bland and unappealing, which is disappointing for any TMBG fan. \u201cAmpersand\u201d and \u201cTick Tick Tick\u201d are good enough tracks and stick out but TMBG records used to be chocked full of memorable songs, not just one or two.<\/p>\n
Several tracks just feel unfinished and unnecessary, like the strange \u201cThe Neck Rolls Aren\u2019t Working,\u201d \u201cRowboat Mayor\u201d and \u201cApplause Applause Applause.\u201d Tracks like these didn\u2019t need to be here and really drag the overall feel of the record down.<\/p>\n
The version of the record I received comes with a bonus disc of extra tracks. Most of these are well under three minutes and feel like a continuation of their kids records or songs done for Dial-A-Song. Most of these tracks are completely inconsequential and are only notable if you\u2019re a diehard TMBG fan and own every record they\u2019ve ever done. There\u2019s even a cover of The Records\u2019 classic \u201cStarry Eyes\u201d but I\u2019ve already heard this before; Too Much Joy did a better version way back in 1992. If you happen to come across a copy of this two-disc set, just ignore the second disc, you\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n
What we have here is a record that feels rushed and indifferent, several good tracks plus a ton of either mediocre or crap that was thrown together in order to have enough stuff for a full-length. Now I know why I tuned out on TMBG all those years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":33750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10334],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-45571","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-they-might-be-giants","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45571"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45571"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}