Artist – Album: They Might Be Giants – Long Tall Weekend
Released: 19th
July 1999
Sounds Like: No longer always the bridesmaid
Congratulations are in order to They Might Be Giants who, at
the fifth time of asking, at last have an album covered in my little blog. Yes,
where Flood, Apollo 18, The Else and The Spine all missed out (to Husker Du,
Arrested Development, Passion Pit and Big Boi respectively), Long Tall Weekend
has finally made it. Ok, so it’s more by virtue of the fact that I didn’t have
any other albums released today, but it ain’t a bad record all the same.
It was also a bit of a landmark at that. Released in 1999,
it was the first major full-length album released exclusively on the Internet
by an established major label band. Also, many of these songs were outtakes from
the Factory Showroom sessions (thanks and thanks, Wikipedia). As a result, the
album does have a bit of a hotchpotch feel but at its best it really sparkles.
Opener ‘Drinkin’’ is
an enjoyable instrumental romp; if you think it slightly odd to start
proceedings without vocals, welcome to the slightly odd world of They Might Be
Giants. ‘Maybe I Know’ is a sunny
harmony cover of a Lesley Gore tune and ‘Rat
Patrol’ possesses a guitar heavy rousing verse and a chorus vocals that
brings to mind Axel Rose at his least annoying. ‘Operators are Standing By’ is probably the wittiest of a humorous
set, although the captivating piano piece ‘Reprehensible’
runs it close. ‘Certain People I
Could Name’ is genuinely lovely despite its samurai movies subject matter, ‘On Earth My Nina’ sounds like a song
being played backwards but isn’t (not quite anyway), and ‘The Edison Museum’ is a suitably idiosyncratic closer finishing
with the cautionary tale lyrics “So when your children quarrel, And nothing
seems to quell them, Just tell them that you'll take them to the Edison Museum,
The largest independently owned and operated mausoleum.”
It’s not revolutionary, it won’t change your life, but if
you’re into this kind of thing (and I am) you will enjoy it. You may as well
try it sooner rather than later because as ‘Older’
has it – “you’re older than you’ve ever been and now you’re even older. And now
you’re even older. And now you’re even older...’
Albumaday... rating:
6/10
1. Drinkin’
– 1:36
2. (She
Thinks She’s) Edith Head – 2:33
3. Maybe
I Know – 2:07
4. Rat
Patrol – 2:07
5. Token
Back to Brooklyn – 1:04
6. Older
– 1:57
7. Operators
are Standing By – 1:24
8. Dark
and Metric – 1:44
9. Reprehensible
– 3:20
10. Certain
People I Could Name – 3:33
11. Counterfeit
Faker – 2:15
12. They
Got Lost – 4:42
13. Lullaby
to Nightmares – 2:31
14. On
Earth My Nina – 1:27
15. The
Edison Museum – 2:00
Listen to ‘Certain
People I Could Name ’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_842105&feature=iv&src_vid=UNIIO23IsRo&v=OsDWl3xDMOU
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