Fun-lovers can find solace in They Might Be Giants’ new album.
The Brooklyn-based indie rock duo, They Might Be Be Giants, composed of multi-instrumentalists John Flansburgh and John Linnell, exudes a light-hearted persona on their new album, I Like Fun.
Released on Jan. 19, I Like Fun is a compilation of peculiar sounds and lyrics from start to finish.
The first song on the album, “Let’s Get This Over With,” comically suggests that the band is quite literally trying to get through the album. A quick look at the lyrics, however, suggests a deeper meaning, hinting at the strains of everyday life.
It sounds like the style of music one may hear in a musical. Strong, swinging piano melodies accompanied by upbeat drums and flat vocal recordings, “Let’s Get This Over With” paints a picture of a high school show choir performer snapping his fingers as he sings the song on stage. To me, this song opens the album the way I would expect to be welcomed to a Broadway show, which may have been the band’s exact intentions.
The second song on the album, “I Left My Body,” varies only in instrument selection. The intro to the song sounds like an ‘80s boy band with overlapping vocals and electric guitar riffs. Unfortunately, this song is as lyrically lacking as its predecessor. “I Left My Body,” is the most memorable lyric, which was poorly chosen to double as the song’s title. The song attempts to be creatively morbid, saying, “They’re gonna tow you if they think you’re abandoned.” Not all lyrics are meant to be poetic, but as a whole, this song misses the mark completely.
“All Time What” brings a light to the track sequence. Its intended purpose, much like the first song, is obviously to be fun and different. It delivers through quirky lyrics such as, “The barn I was raised in was constructed out of noise” and “She pulled out the rug from her doodlebug.” Underlying these lyrics is a sad message. Disguised by upbeat saxophone melodies and wild lyrics, the song is about a man’s broken heart.
“By the Time You Get This” and “An Insult to the Fact Checkers,” albeit differing in overall sound, provide the same joyful feeling. Both songs use the same electric guitar with different melodies. The largest and most important difference between the two is the morbid lyrics from “By the Time You Get This,” with them singing, “By the time you get this, we’ll no longer be alive, we’ll have all gone up in smoke, there’ll be no way to reply.” “An Insult to the Fact Checkers” contrasts with lines like, “What’s up to with the side eye?” in a song about calling people out.
“Mrs. Bluebeard” begins with a piano melody very similar to the one used in “Let’s Get This Over With.” Once again, the sound is similar to what one would hear at a live theatre show.
“I Like Fun,” the album’s namesake, is actually quite funny. The song is not exactly easy on the ears, with the singer talk-singing with a repeating background vocal and mild drum beat. The lyrics provide some comic relief with lines like, “My excellence at parkour is not to be discounted” and, “No applause, awkward pause, hand extended waiting for a shake.” And irony is clear with the lyrics, “I’m waiting for a prescription...that’s my fun, and I like fun.”
The remainder of the songs fit the album’s theme of well-recorded vocals and live-sounding instruments. Each piece consists of unconventional lyrics, guitar riffs and drum patterns, all contributing to the ‘fun’ sound the band has always tried to achieve.
On the last track of the album, titled “Last Wave,” the band gives its most sonically impressive performance. The song begins with multiple guitars with differing strumming patterns accompanied by passionate drumming. The song continues with these instruments and is joined by pianos, saxophones and fantastic vocals sung by the duo.
The more I listened to this album, the more I was able to appreciate it. At first listen and with no prior knowledge of the band, I Like Fun is the type of album I would change and listen to something else immediately, never looking back. However, after proper analysis into each song as well as pondering the intent behind each song, it is an album worth listening to.
In I Like Fun, They Might Be Giants stayed true to its sound and nature. I Like Fun may not be a record-breaking, chart-topping collection, but it adds flavor and quirkiness to a genre that has earned bands millions off of content that is sonically similar. The lyrics are not the most poetic, and will not win a Pulitzer Prize, but they are creative and match the fun and youthful sound of the music.
They Might Be Giants has been around for years, and has found what works for it. They bring its sound back in a new and fun way in I Like Fun, and this new album deserves at least one listen.