While Ween get weirder and weirder, John Linnel and John Flansburgh get better and better at writing their perverse brand of pop. TMBG is back, and obstensibly again as a full band. But we know who the idea guys are. The recording setup produces a very live-sounding TMBG, with lots of guitars, pianos, and horns, but there's still plenty of churchbells, vibrowhatsis, chimey things and other stange mechanically-produced melodies going on. Factory Showroom is a classic TMBG record, boasting such lyrical topics as "Exquisite Dead Guy", "XTC vs Adam Ant" and "Metal Detector" which cops Pat Benetar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," but is really about a metal detector, sort of. John Linnell wonders aloud on track 3 "Why can't I sing like a girl/and not be stigmatized by the rest of the world?" Ah, They Might Be Giants, so cathy in their own way, or in somebody else's, for that matter. "Til My Head Falls Off" takse a stab at three-chord guitar rock, but they can't help the strings and stuff. Even enigmatic Tampan expatriate Julian Koster makes an appearance, soloing the "singing saw" on the history lesson that is "James K. Polk." And "I Can Hear You" sounds great, considering it was recorded, without electricity, on an 1898 Edison wax cylinder recording studio phonograph. I guess just saying "Factory Showroom is the fifth TMBG record" and "it sounds like them" would probably prepared you for all that, and more. An excellent release.