Tag Archives: shape

#1261: They Might Be Giants – Spiraling Shape

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And continuing talk about They Might Be Giants songs that leave me wanting more, today’s song is ‘Spiraling Shape’, the ninth song on the band’s Factory Showroom album from 1996. The track is almost four minutes longer than ‘Spine’. But when it reaches its end where everything cuts to sudden silence, I usually think “I could listen to that one again.” And I usually do. When I first came round to listen to Factory Showroom, in about 2010 or something, ‘Spiraling Shape’ appeared to be one that fans considered to be their best according to the Song Ratings list on the the band’s fan-run Wikipedia site. In the top 20, I want to say, even back then. I won’t say it was an immediate hit on the first listen. I was probably being a dumb hater. Usually was at 15. But then it was those listens that followed that got me thinking, “Yep. This song is a good one.” Something along those lines.

Another TMBG number written by John Linnell, the track is about a little thing known as a ‘fad’ – an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived; a craze. Thank you, Google, for that definition. And in the case of the song, this enthusiasm is for the titular subject. People see this spiraling shape, immediately stop what they’re doing and are drawn in to this hypnotising presence that looms before them, like lambs to the slaughter. Perspectives from the people who haven’t yet experienced the shape but have heard what others have said about it, those who did but were left disillusioned by it, and those who know they could even come to harm by being allured by it are told. And the melodies utliised throughout are oh-so sweet. “The spiraling shape will make you go insaaaaaane”, Linnell sings. “Everyone wants to see that groovy thiiiiiiiing”, Flansburgh replies. There are some pitched-up Linnell harmonies that show up to in the midst of it all. You’ve gotta love it. I know I do.

The song actually has origins as early as 1992. In that year, They Might Be Giants made a demo for the song ‘Rocket Ship’. Quite the groovy number about travelling in a rocket ship that may or may not crash during its journey. Linnell switches up his vocal during the verses to make it sound more unusual than normal. But then suddenly out of nowhere, the chorus that would end up being used in ‘Spiraling Shape’ starts playing seemingly out of nowhere. Two somewhat disparate sections brought together to make a whole. Linnell recognised the greatness he had achieved with this section, reserving it for use at a later date. The parts making up the verses were never used again. Maybe they will be one day. It’s looking more likely that they won’t. But just goes to show that if a complete song doesn’t seem to work, as long as there’s one memorable part within it, you can always recycle it to make it its own thing some time in the future.

#1184: They Might Be Giants – Shape Shifter

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In preparation for the release of They Might Be Giants’s BOOK album in 2021 – or because it had just been released, I can’t quite recall – I went ahead and listened through the band’s whole discography via Spotify. Missing out the children’s albums in the process, though. Now, TMBG’s one of my favourite ever groups, there are so many posts on here for songs by the band that back that up, so a lot of their albums I knew front to back already. But that wasn’t the case when it came to their 2016 album, Phone Power. That was the one record of theirs that I had never heard in full before. 2021 was the year to change this.

Back in 2015, TMBG revived their Dial-a-Song project – which initially existed in the ’80s as a literal thing where you could dial a number and new/old/in-the-works They Might Be Giants song would play through the phone speaker. But now this was the 21st century. But now there was a website and phone apps where you could easily access the stuff, and the band announced that a new song would be released every week throughout the year. ‘Shape Shifter’ arrived as the 52nd and last song in the “new” service, being provided to the masses on the 28th December 2015. The majority of the tracks were then compiled into three albums, Glean, Why?, and the aforementioned Phone Power, where ‘Shape Shifter’ can be found as the 15th track. The album isn’t a favourite of mine, by any means. It does sort of feel like a compilation rather than an album that was properly thought out. But ‘Shape Shifter’ was a hit to me from the jump.

The track has this grand showtune atmosphere about it, introduced by these processed John Linnell harmonies leading into the verses where he then adopts this more loungey, crooning tone to his vocal. The track concerns a person witnessing people and objects changing all around them. It may be a whole big metaphor about not being able to keep up with the times while people, technology, nature, whatever is constantly evolving. Or it’s literally about a man disturbed by his clarinet turning into a purple tentacle. It’s all entertaining stuff. I think the only irk I have about the track is that it could sound so much larger than it does. The horns that come in near the end are clearly synthesized. And I feel like the use of an actual brass section would have been amazing. And those Linnell harmonies I mentioned before could sound so much wider, have more of a booming presence. But hey, what do I know? The way it is, I’ll take it any day of the week.