They Might Be Giants, or TMBG to their friends, are perhaps music’s most well-known cult act. They’ve been running unimpeded for three decades, under no-one’s creative demands but their own, producing an overwhelmingly body of work in the process. A prodigious history that includes 15(!) studio records, at least three children’s albums, and one very catchy TV theme tune (Malcom In The Middle’s Boss Of Me); and yet they remain an alternative musical cornerstone that many remain blissfully unaware of.
Join Us, the group’s first ‘serious’ album since 2007’s The Else, makes no concessions to the uninitiated. It’s a product clearly tilted towards the fans, adding another eighteen tracks to the group’s heaving back-catalogue, but at its heart it may well be the band’s most all-encompassing and accessible set since the turn of the decade.
The core creative bureaucracy of TMBG, Johns Flansburgh and Linnell, have revived the economic simplicity of their singular style. Specifically, brilliantly arranged and crafted pieces disguised as kooky, inventive three-minute pop songs. Where else but in their playful musical world will you hear jubilant wordplay about stating the obvious (You Probably Get That A Lot), to verses sung from the perspective of a raindrop (Cloissoné), or voiced film noir script annotations (Protagonist).
It would all seem wilfully quirky if it wasn’t for the robust musical vehicle that drives it all. Influenced by the twin poles of their American power-pop forebears (Big Star, Supertramp), as well as the genre-shifting English masters (XTC, The Beatles, Bowie). The results will do little to sway those already immune (or ignorant) to their idiosyncratic charm, but for those already won over, Join Us is a brilliant reminder of their unique appeal.
Best Track: The Lady And The Tiger
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Skylarking XTC Running With Scissors WEIRD AL YANKOVIC, Whatever And Ever, Amen BEN FOLDS FIVE
In A Word: Definitive
BY AL NEWSTEAD
