To any They Might Be Giants fan who may be reading this, hello. There are dozens of us. It’s hard for TMBG fans to agree which album is the group’s best. I have my personal favourite (their debut), people may suggest Apollo 18, some Factory Showroom, really you can’t go wrong. I believe though that Join Us released in 2011, and their first ‘adult’ album in four years at the time, is one of their best and I can’t believe that it’s been almost ten years since it’s been out. I was sixteen, just finished my GCSEs, went on holiday to the USA and it was released during my time there. I think I had heard samples of all the songs somewhere before. And ‘Can’t Keep Johnny Down‘ had premiered a few months prior. It was a good time to be alive.

‘In Fact’ is the eighth track on Join Us. Sung by John Flansburgh, it’s another playful tune on the album that takes a lot of strange musical turns. A blaring trumpet – played by Curt Ramm – begins it all and wilts away before a train-like rhythm gets going and the lyrics come in. I’ve always appreciated the little details in this song. The little climbing guitar line that plays while Flansburgh sings, that *bink-bink* noise that you can hear in every other line, the way Marty Beller improvises his percussion at some parts. It’s a great song to enjoy listening to. There is a large presence of horns as well, if you like those.

Like many other TMBG songs it’s understandable to not be able to quite understand what either John Linnell or Flansburgh are specifically singing about in their songs, just because of the wordplay and surreal imagery they tend to use in their lyrics. It is no different here. What it comes down to, I think, is that the narrator is ‘a mess’ and ‘isn’t right’ (as is repeated throughout) and Flansburgh uses all of this imagery of chess pieces and mice to illustrate the absurdity of it all. I think that’s a good way to look at it. And just when you think the song is over it turns into this huge 6/8 groove with guitar feedback and a horn freak-out ending which comes out of nowhere. (It’s actually foreshadowed by the lone trumpet right at the beginning) All of this in two minutes and twenty seconds.