Album Review: They Might Be Giants - 'BOOK'

Remarkably They Might Be Giants turn forty next year.

Pioneers of the DIY aesthetic, they are a band who across a twenty-plus album output have always associated with the not so obvious. Pre affordable drum machines, the two Johns of They Might Be Giants (TMBG) – Flansburgh and Linnell – tramped New York with their keyboards, electric guitar and the odd accordion with a four-track tape recorder operating as their rhythm section.

They conceived Dial-a-Song in 1983 (now a YouTube channel and smartphone app) which had the punter call a number and the answering machine message was one of their tunes. While 1999’s Long Tall Weekend was one of the first internet only albums, their latest offering BOOK isn’t just a collection of new songs, it’s also a 144-page art book, created in collaboration with Brooklyn street photographer Brian Karlsson and celebrated graphic designer Paul Sahre.

The record opens with the crafty cartoon intro of ‘Synopsis for Latecomers’, before hitting the listener with the Big Star comparable ‘Moonbeam Rays’, a pop gem, which reminds, this band can hook you whenever they want.

Lead single ‘Super Cool’ repeats that trick. ‘Quit the Circus’ is deliciously ominous, while ‘If Day for Winnipeg’ is “a new song for a zero-piece band.” ‘Darling, the Dose’ proscribes a gallon of rum and a hive of bees across a diverse cast of Hamlet, Yushchenko, Rasputin, Socrates and Hercules.

While the duo of ‘Part of You Wants to Believe Me’ and ‘I Broke My Own Rule’ prove the theorem, that TMBG are at their best when they appear to be fooling around.

Listen: 'Moonbeam Rays'

7/10

Stream BOOK below: