{"id":33620,"date":"2018-03-19T12:23:08","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T12:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=33620"},"modified":"2021-10-04T20:48:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T19:48:40","slug":"funny-bones-they-might-be-giants-greet-death-and-dystopia-with-gallows-humour-on-i-like-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/03\/funny-bones-they-might-be-giants-greet-death-and-dystopia-with-gallows-humour-on-i-like-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"FUNNY BONES – They Might Be Giants Greet Death And Dystopia With Gallows Humour On ‘I Like Fun’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Recorded at the same Skyline studios, where they made their best-selling major label debut\u00a0Flood<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0I Like Fun<\/strong><\/em> feels like a hearkening back to They Might Be Giants’<\/strong>\u00a0glory days of old.<\/h4>\n

TMBG fans have long learned to expect the unexpected and this their 20th album is typically eclectic, mixing and mashing genres from surf-punk to funk, college rock to avant garde jazz – often over the course of a single song.<\/h4>\n

As ever their jaunty and witty compositions belie darker themes and this album features some of the New York duo’s darkest and most world weary lyrics yet.<\/p>\n

The two Johns, Flansburgh<\/strong> and\u00a0Linnell, <\/strong>have\u00a0never been afraid to confront death and disaster in their songs, but here the grim reaper looms larger than ever before, with visions of a dystopian future adding a sour aftertaste to the sweetness of their melodies.<\/p>\n

Opener\u00a0Let’s Get This One Over With<\/strong><\/em> is a case in point, ostensibly an almost show tune romp of piano and drums, it’s actually a pretty cynical take on the classic existential crisis.<\/p>\n

There’s a strong sense of oppression as “like a rock” the drumbeat “crushes you as it gets louder”.<\/p>\n

It’s a world where jobs control you and you’re left behind as the world passes you by:\u00a0“You’re still hanging around the clambake\/After every clam has been baked\/No applause\/Awkward pause\/Hand extended waiting for a shake.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The music is almost relentlessly cheerful, but what’s being expressed is icily detached – the circular lyric constantly returning to the fatalistic couplet: “Everybody knows how this goes so let’s get over it\/And let’s get this over with.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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Picture by Shervin Lainez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the frequent stylistic changes and unusual instrumentation, the waspish, acid thread courses through the album.<\/p>\n

I Left My Body\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>– a piano and guitar chugger – describes a pretty bleak out of body experience, while\u00a0By The Time You Get This <\/strong><\/em>tells of a message left for the people of 1937 by the “smiling skulls” of those that walked the Earth a millennium before.<\/p>\n

The writers “Confidently know that you’ll enjoy a better world\/<\/em>When the evils that we faced\/<\/em>
\nWill at last be laid to rest,”\u00a0<\/em>blissfully unaware of the rise of fascism and all the horrors yet to come.<\/p>\n

When The Lights Come On<\/strong><\/em> appears to depict the aftermath of an apocalypse – “See I’ve been picturing\/Diagrams of master plans\/I taught myself to draw in the dust\/With what remains of my left hand”.<\/em><\/p>\n

Groping around in the darkness, the unreliable narrator dreams of a time “It will have been worth it\/When the lights come on”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The B-52s<\/strong>-esque\u00a0disco-funk of Lake<\/strong>\u00a0Monsters <\/strong>sees creatures “all across America” so disgusted by the state of US politics, they drag themselves out of the water and into the polling stations to vote.<\/p>\n

A sinister cure for all ills haunts the surreal space-rock of\u00a0McCafferty’s Bib<\/em><\/strong>, while there’s more stone cold cynicism in\u00a0The Greatest – “<\/strong><\/em>They call me the greatest, because I\u2019m not very good and they\u2019re being sarcastic<\/span>\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Picture by Christine Mitchell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite its disquieting undercurrent,\u00a0I Like Fun\u00a0<\/em>is by no means a joyless or dispiriting album, TMBG are way too smart for that.<\/p>\n

There’s a guise and guile about their wordplay and they just can’t stop themselves from writing irresistibly catchy pop songs like\u00a0The Bright Side<\/strong><\/em> and\u00a0An Insult To The Fact Checkers<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Like most of their albums, the 15-songs come and go pretty fast, so if one doesn’t take your fancy, never fear, because the chances are you’ll like the next one.<\/p>\n

While there’s nothing that quite touches the grace and gravitas of\u00a0Ana Ng <\/strong><\/em>or\u00a0Your Racist Friend<\/strong><\/em>, <\/em>many\u00a0o<\/em>f the songs on this record would not be out of place on their landmark early LPs.<\/p>\n

Mrs Bluebeard<\/strong><\/em> is a wonderfully off-kilter reminiscence from a murder victim, while Push Back The Hands<\/strong><\/em>, with its insistent guitar stabs, sees the protagonist desperately trying to hold back the march of time.<\/p>\n

The skewed indie-rock of All Time\u00a0What<\/strong><\/em> sounds like\u00a0Weezer <\/strong>meets\u00a0Pavement<\/strong> – never a bad thing – while the\u00a0Supertramp<\/strong>-sounding\u00a0This Microphone <\/strong><\/em>features some of their sharpest and most affecting lyrics to date.<\/p>\n

Closing track\u00a0Last Wave\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>provides a fitting summary for the whole album, a grim message wrapped up in lush layers of piano and guitar pop.<\/p>\n

“We die alone we die afraid\/We live in terror we’re naked and alone\/And the grave is the loneliest place.”<\/em><\/p>\n