Since the release of their career making third album (1990's 'Flood') which spawned international super-hit 'Birdhouse in Your Soul', John's Flansburgh and Linnell (the creative heart of They Might Be Giants) have made an effort to distance themselves from the humble beginnings (just the two of them and a drum machine) by writing increasingly elaborate records of tongue-in-cheek, gently dark alternative pop. Having taken a detour into children's themed 'educational' territory since 2007's well received 'The Else' however the revitalised band are obviously aiming to excise some of their remaining youthful vigour with their 15th album 'Join Us', their most immediate album in more than a decade.
Coming in at just over 45 minutes and 18 tracks not a second is wasted here with the duo's trademark harmonies, Linnell's treated accordion (played with all the heft and conviction of a lead guitar here) and consistently inventive melodies backing up sparse, quirky arrangements which range from vintage lounge pop ('Cloisonné') to vaudeville pomp ('In Fact') and Beck indebted funk hip-hop ('The Lady and the Tiger'). At their heart though TMBG are a pop band and reveal their true colours on highlights such as the Big Star styled 'Canajoharie' and 'Can't Keep Johnny Down' which sounds like a toy-town version of the E Street Band. It's true there are a few less impressive offerings here that could have been quite culled (the pitch shifted dirge-pop of 'Dog Walker' is an admirable experiment but it doesn't work) but the killer to filler ratio rests comfortably in their favour.
Best of all is the unlikely, every day, first-person ballad 'Protagonist', a song which lists a series of increasingly unlikely events in a mans day whilst managing to frame proceedings like a movie script ("exterior man on lawn, alone at dawn"). The most striking thing about it though is not the concept but the song itself, a delightful, immediately memorable pop song that sits between a full blown Ramones style rocker 'Judy Is Your Vietnam') and a Queen goes Ska anthem ('When Will You Die') without sounding even remotely out of place.
In fact that should prove TMBG's epitaph. They manage here more obviously than ever before to combine an almost limitlessly eclectic array of genres (often in the space of the same song) whilst still sounding unequivalently like They May be Giant's and nobody else. Long may they continue to delight adults and children alike.
8/10