| They Might Be Giants – 'Join Us' |
| Written by Derek Harrison | |||
| Thursday, 15 September 2011 01:11 | |||
 Top tracks: "Old Pine Box" "Celebration" "In Fact" "The Lady And The Tiger" Bottom tracks: "Canajoharie" "Never Knew Love" "Dog Walker" "Three Might Be Duende" With Join Us, They Might Be Giants have made a great, accessible album which owes something to every phase of their career, which began 30 years ago with two men – John Linnell and John Flansburgh – and a drum machine. Join Us is the ninth major album by the band, not including online releases or their recent spat of children's albums, four of which have been released since 2002. It's a testament that the band, at its age, has made a new album which could serve as a great introduction to the band for new fans and which proves worth the wait for fans who have been waiting for another 'adult' album after their last two studio releases, both children's music. The album opens with the upbeat "Can't Keep Johnny Down," a pop-punk song that sets the tone for an album dominated by guitar-oriented, full-band arrangements. The song is straightforward, the performance is strong, the lyrics are great, but without a proper hook, which is typically the band's forté, it has little value beyond its service as an introduction, and one of the rare appearances of the accordion on Join Us. "You Probably Get That A Lot" is a relaxed, synthesizer led tune in a segmented song-structure typical of TMBG. Despite being only 2:57, it is tied with the closing track as the third-longest song on the album. "Old Pine Box," Flansburgh's first lead vocal, is a Moxy Fruvous-esque folk-rock song with dead-on backing vocals and, despite being the second shortest song, at 1:51, is one of the most convincing tracks. Linnell takes over again for "Canajoharie," a return to the pop-rock tone that dominates the album. The song overstays it welcome, mostly because the chorus is shrill and repetitive and gets in the way of the song itself. "Cloisonné" is a return to the sound of early TMBG. The backing band doesn't play on this track, Flansburgh programs a drum track, and Linnell grabs the bass clarinet, arranged by guest performer Stan Harrison, who also plays the saxophone on this jaunty, jazzy, guitar-less track which features one of best vocal performances. Continuing the pattern, "Let Your Hair Hand Down" once again returns to guitar-driven, radio-friendly music. "Celebration" strikes me as the centerpiece of the album, opening with the line "I see that Banksy left a post-it note for Anonymous." Not only is it the longest one, but it's disco-influenced groove is the setting for some of the catchiest hooks on Join Us, and is an example of the band's ability to blend radio-friendly rock with their quirky inventiveness. Guest performer Curt Ramm opens the next track, "In Fact" with a trumpet squeal. The frenetic song, built around a repeated guitar riff, is another quirky TMBG arrangement, which is what the Johns are most comfortable, and thereby comes off as one of the most confident and convincing tracks, even when TMBG breaks into a prog-rock organ at the close of the song. "When Will You Die" is another pop song, complete with guitar solo. The song is catchy, but isn't as mature as most of the material here, a problem that applies to the jazzy acoustic guitar song "Protagonist" that follows it. Both songs are full of hooks, but lacking the refinement TMBG is capable of. The main problem with Join Us is that most of the songs are one-or-the-other, either original and melodically strong, or refined and comfortable in their performance. Only occasionally, like on the afore-mentioned "Celebration" and "In Fact," and on the next (and shortest) track, "Judy Is Your Viet Nam," do they manage to combine the two. "Never Knew Love" is one of the latter, one of the weakest songs on the album but one of the best performances. It's as close as TMBG gets to romance, but the lyrics are as low as they get on Join Us and the arrangement, though clever, well-executed and confident, is a little cheesy. It's pretty good for being one of the weakest tracks though. "The Lady And The Tiger" is the polar opposite of "Never Knew Love," and is my personal favourite cut. Featuring Curt Ramm on trumpet, Dan Levine on trombone and Mauro Refosco on percussion, the song is based on a clever contrapuntal horn arrangement. The main melody is followed a half-bar later by the same melody delayed and designed to harmonize perfectly with the counter-melody. On top of this is a third independent melody, the vocal line. This study in counterpoint manages to play like a great song despite its complexity. You just have to hear it. The next song, "Spoiler Alert" is another play on counterpoint, this time in the voices, with each of the Johns taking an independent lead vocal sung overlapping each other and pushed into the extreme left and right. Both sing from the perspective of a driver, the two drivers being about to collide and telling the story leading up to the event and the causes thereof. It takes a few listens to follow along. "Dog Walker" is pure TMBG weirdness, but once the novelty is gone the song doesn't stand-up anymore. The exaggerated vocal performance is even more exaggerated due to being tuned up electronically, Alvin-and-the-Chipmunks style. "2082" is sci-fi rock, part of the series of weird songs that makes up the back third of the album, ranging in quality from my personal favourite song on the album ("The Lady And The Tiger") and my least favourite ("Dog Walker"). This is case-in-point why TMBG has such a love-it-or-hate-it response from the public and such a committed cult following. They are explorative, they are unafraid, and they refuse to take themselves too seriously. For "Three Might Be Duende" the Johns are helped out by David Driver and Michael Cerveris each singing one of the four verses. The song is a campy march, predictable in melody and arrangement, unique in lyrics but still sounding like it was thrown together at the last minute. The closing track, "You Don't Like Me" is the best of the straightforward pop-rock songs that filled the first two-thirds of the album. Guitar chords and a straight arrangement are the setting for one of the most evocative melodies, balancing just the right amount of seriousness against the Johns' inevitable humour. The weak songs on Join Us are not weak enough to skip, and the strong songs are worth the occasional valleys, and all-in-all, the album is one of the band's most solid releases in a very long time. For more articles like They Might Be Giants – 'Join Us', please visit the Music/Album Reviews Section of TimesSquare.com
|
