Tag Archives: they might be giants

#833: They Might Be Giants – The Mesopotamians

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I’ve gone on about They Might Be Giants being a great band on here many a time. You don’t have to hear that again. I guess I’ll say, to stray away from the praise, that the album The Else is maybe one of my least favourites of theirs. Weren’t expecting that were you? Any TMBG fans reading who really like The Else, don’t want to grind ya gears. There are just a lot of songs on there that I don’t feel very strongly about. The ones that I do though, I have a great love for and written about. Except ‘Feign Amnesia’, I started liking that one a bit too late to make a post about it. But today’s post is dedicated to the album’s closer, ‘The Mesopotamians’.

Another song of They that only John Flansburgh and John Linnell could write. Gonna go on a limb and say that it’s mainly written by Linnell. He sings the lead vocal on here. This may be the only song in existence that even touches upon ancient Mesopotamian mythology. I did learn a bit about a Mesopotamian tale with Gilgamesh in my first year of university. But I’ve forgotten about that, and I’ll continue to pretend that Mesopotamia was led by the four characters as described in the Giants song. Within the track, Mesopotamia is described as this barren place that is ruled by the heroes of Sargon, Hammurabi, Ashiburnipal and Gilgamesh as they go around the place as a travelling band. They drive around in their van and play shows to no one, but they etch their lyrics into the ground with hope that anybody in the far-distant future stumbles upon them. There’s a reference to the whole Beatles ‘Paul Is Dead’ conspiracy theory in there too.

It’s a cheery number. It’s not a track that shouts ‘album closer’ to me. I saw the tracklist, saw it was the last song on the album, and when it ended I was still surprised that nothing came afterwards. There’s not that sense of finality to it. But that doesn’t stop the track itself from being an enjoyable one. It’s a playful take on these ancient figures from years and years ago which I assume are meant to be taken seriously. Nothing bad about that.

#827: They Might Be Giants – Memo to Human Resources

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Today’s song is taken from They Might Be Giants’ 2004 album The Spine. I’m not quite sure what the consensus take on this album is among They fans, but it’s a favourite of mine. I wouldn’t say it surpasses the group’s first four albums though I reckon it’s quite a solid collection of songs. Some very strong ones on here. It’s the first to feature drummer Marty Beller who’s been in the band ever since, so there’s that. It’s the beginning of the five-man group as we know them today.

‘Memo to Human Resources’ is the third song on there. I’ll admit it took me a while to get into it. I was 14 when I heard the whole record for the first time and wasn’t fully equipped with the attention span to keep me through a long period of listening through an album just yet. But I listened to it one day and it clicked, I can’t say much else. The track’s got a very weary feel to it. Sturdy band performance, no one really puts a foot wrong. Judging by what I’ve seen on This Might Be a Wiki, some people think it’s about a man who’s suicidal. Though I’ve had the idea that it’s about a person who’s having an intervention.

The person sits alone in the back as someone searches through the bathroom shelf, maybe for a bottle or some drugs, and they don’t want to accept the advice given to him by “the people”. We don’t know who these people are, but in this case I think it’s maybe some of his family or friends. When the intervention’s over, he thinks about what’s happened in the house and ultimately feels good about it. Still, it’s a bit of a downer from the point of someone at the bottom of the bottle. Thankfully, it doesn’t last too long. Only two minutes.

#822: They Might Be Giants – Meet James Ensor

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‘Meet James Ensor’ is a song from They Might Be Giants’ fourth album, John Henry, from 1994. One of the few in the first bunch of tracks I ever heard from the band when I was about eight or something, it’s a song about the rise and fall of Belgian painter James Ensor. It may just be the only song in existence about the guy. And his story is told in the minute and a half that the track lasts for.

It is a very succinct story. Ensor lived with his mother and made a lot of nice paintings which impressed a lot of people and contemporaries, but as time passed his art was gradually forgotten. So this song was a nice reintroduction or introduction to the man for many a fan of the band. Admittedly, I think I may have googled Ensor’s name once or twice and that’s the extent of my research. But I’m sure a lot of people were more interested after having listening to this.

John Henry is noted for being the first TMBG album where the two Johns (Linnell and Flansburgh) were accompanied by an actual rhythm section rather than the programmed drums and bass that were the norm in the four albums before it. John Flansburgh takes the lead vocal on this one; Tony Maimone and Brian Doherty respectively take up the bass and drums. Doherty’s drumming on this is manic. When I first heard the song I wasn’t sure if those drum rolls were real, but I’m sure I saw a video of the band playing it live and it was exactly the same. They’re probably a very easy thing for drummers to do and I might have just been over-excited. They still provide this unexpected hectic energy that keeps the song moving on. Overall it’s a great tune, melody’s all there. Those drums though, just a highlight for me.

#800: They Might Be Giants – Mammal

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Hey, it’s post number 800 of this series. That’s decent. That’s a big number. Nice that it arrives close to the 8-year anniversary of this entire blog. I’ve been doing this for so long, geez. But we keep going, no stopping this train.

‘Mammal’ is the fifth track on They Might Be Giants’ fourth album, Apollo 18. I think it’s one of the most subtle tracks by the band you’ll ever hear. It just goes along in its own way, with John Linnell’s vocal really being the main melodic point. The programmed rhythm section is very steady, and there’s an organ that fills the soundscape. John Flansburgh’s guitar lines enter here and there. All in all, there’s no instrumental aspect that would make your head spin. I think it may be because the lyrics concern a very broad topic. Life. Humans and animals, how we’re similar to one another and what not.

I’ve been listening to this podcast where two guys are talking about They Might Be Giants, album-by-album, track-by-track in great detail. It’s a good one. They covered ‘Mammal’ in an episode. In it, they talk about why John Linnell may have written a song like this. From what I gathered, it’s because the animal aspect of it is something that no one really wants to learn about, and yet here they are having to listen to a song about them. It also gets mistaken to be an educational song which sometimes annoys Linnell, but people have used the lyrics to answer exam questions in the past, so it is to a very small extent. Sort of.

#792: They Might Be Giants – Madam, I Challenge You to a Duel

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Back in 2015, They Might Be Giants revived their iconic Dial-A-Song system, but delivered it in a very different way. Starting from the first week of January, the group released one new song every week. When they were done, the majority of the 52 songs were released on three albums: 2015’s Glean, Why?, and the following year’s Phone Power.

‘Madam’ was the second song in that 52-week run. It was an exciting time for a They Might Be Giants fan. I vaguely remember listening to the track on the day of its initial release thinking it was okay. It wasn’t until I gave Glean a full listen some time later that I truly appreciated it. Here’s a song in which John Flansburgh, who takes on this viewpoint of a very formal person, challenges a lady to a duel which you’re not really meant to do as a person of a high status. The band have always been good at building narrators up one way and then suddenly switching the narrative to make them look like terrible people.

This is a majorly piano-led track by the group, which is a bit rare for them. I think that’s what got to me when I originally heard it in 2015. Flansburgh sings with a breathy, kind of deep tone to his voice, which he would employ a lot of times on older albums, but I guess aging would affect your vocal range. The song just sounds good, you know? It’s like a soundtrack to a quaint ball, or something. Out of 910 songs on This Might Be a Wiki, the track is rated #488 by TMBG fans. That more or less categorises it as one of the average They songs. A bit unfair, I would say. I enjoy it a lot.