Surprise! Bet you weren’t expecting that were you? No update post to say I’ll be coming back soon, just bam – here it is. Your favourite music blog. Or not, there are many others out there. But in general, I’m well and still kicking. It’s time to start the N section.

And it begins with the title track from They Might Be Giants’ 2013 album Nanobots. That year I was in my final year of secondary school and not having the greatest time, but the release of new TMBG material was a ray of light during that period. It’s not my favourite album of the group’s; at the time of its release I couldn’t help but compare it to 2011’s Join Us, which I still think is one of their best albums now. I think it was just a bit more consistent. But the highs of Nanobots are some of the group’s best songs, I think.

‘Nanobots’ is the second track on there, and introduces a theme of reproduction that appears here and there throughout the record. John Linnell is the lead vocalist, but is accompanied by some harmonising robotic backing vocals by John Flansburgh. Thinking about how just a bit weird it is to think that we were put on this earth to just make more of ourselves, Linnell wrote the track comparing the act of reproduction to the emerging technology field of nanorobotics. There’s a certain type of music that the song’s rhythm and guitar progression reminds me of… I want to say calypso? I’m probably way off, but I’ve had that thought for years. And as the song progresses, there’s a tasteful horn section that comes in, mirrors the chorus melody and adds another warm layer to the track’s proceedings. All in all, it’s a very pleasant two minute and 44 second affair.

I’m a bit rusty, so forgive me if the post’s a bit short. I’ll get into it though. Still got a lot more songs to come. Below’s the official video for the song, directed by the man who wrote ‘United States of Whatever’.