They Might Be Giants - 'The Spine' (Cooking Vinyl)
3/5
By: Matt Tomiak
When you're talking maverick pop duos, it's unlikely that They Might Be Giants would automatically feature very prominently.
Perhaps best known in these climes for providing the theme-tune for 'Malcolm In the middle', John Linnell and John Flansburgh have been churning out playfully absurd nonsense poetry pop for nigh-on two decades.
Like the garishly luminous sleeve that house TMBG's 10th full LP, their whiny geek-wit is on the annoying side. Despite this, 'The Spine' is absolutely laden with hooks, dizzy sugar-coated melodies and the odd ironic punk workout, all that come in a handy little nugget size.
But for all their grating kera-zee-ness, tracks such as 'Broke In Two' and 'Au Contraire' are lessons in straightforward songwriting aptitude. It's never dull, with the two Johns undertaking vocal approximations of everyone from Paul Heaton ('Spine') to, erm, Ernie from 'Sesame Street' ('Wearing A Raincoat' - well this is a band who released a children's album a couple of years ago.)
Yet it's 'Bastard Wants To Hit Me' that perhaps sums this album up best, managing to meld lulling, 'Up'-era REM, Daft Punk-style vocoder effects and a frantic tale of impending violence. Hardly one for the snooty indie purists, then, but a good fun hotchpotch record nevertheless.
Artists in this article: They Might Be Giants
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