They Might Be Giants

Unknown source, 1986

Ever wondered what happened to all those squeaky clean Yank TV kids from the Sixties who, day inday out, scanned the box for their favourite snippets of trash culture? Well, some went on to join the State Department, and others (two others to be precise) went on to form They Might Be Giants. All those sickly TV progs like Mr. Ed, Howdy Doody, Bewitched, they all rear their ugly visogs on this splendid piece of vinyl.

They Might Be Giants, then, is a dynamic, confused, disparate, colourful and utterly brilliant hunk of lunacy. Messrs Flansburgh and Linnell treat their debut album as a roller coaster ride through what seems to be a junked out infancy. With titles such as "I Hope I Get Old Before I Die" and "Youth Culture Killed My dog," they strike an amazing resemblance to those other acid brains, Half Man Half Biscuit. Check this out for a couple, "Never would he worry/He'd just run and fetch the ball/But the hiphop and the white funk just blew away my puppy's mind." Weird and truly wonderful, man. ****1/2

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