End of the road (Factory Showroom - They Might Be Giants)

Member Name: MykReeve

Product:	Factory Showroom - They Might Be Giants
Date:	05/09/00 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent songs with some superb lyrics

Disadvantages: Too short!

This is the last album of new music They Might Be Giants released on CD - all their new music is now released only as MP3s available online. Since this album's release in 1996, the band has released an album of early material ('Then - The Earlier Years') and a compilation album ('Severe Tire Damage').

This album is something of a return to form for the band. As I listen to it again in order to review it, I fully accept that I'm going to be humming the tunes for several days to come - see what I put myself through for you, gentle reader!

The lyrics are every bit as entertaining as we have become used to, and they have produced some brilliantly catchy and tuneful music to go with it - a great improvement on the brashness of 'John Henry'.

There are some fantastic songs on the album, from the list of New York landmarks in the upbeat track 'New York City' ("Statue of Liberty - Staten Island Ferry - Co-op City - Katz's and Tiffany's"), to the intense debate of musical superiority that is 'XTC vs Adam Ant' ("Beatle-based pop versus New Romantic - History will decide"). My favourite song on the album, however, is definitely the instantly memorable insane ode to obsessive compulsive disorder 'Till My Head Falls Off' - at least, that's what I imagine it's about...

'Spiralling Shape' was used in the excellent 'Brain Candy' movie, made by Canadian sketch-comedy troupe The Kids In The Hall, and is a brilliantly upbeat song. Another interesting song is 'I Can Hear You' apparently recorded onto scratchy cylinder at the Edison laboratory.

Oh, and the educational song for this album is a historical account of 'James K. Polk' - "Napoleon of the Stump". I learnt that in 1844, the Democrats were split between three nominees for their presidential candidate, until Polk rode up from Nashville, going on to become
the eleventh U.S. president.

Overall, this is one of the band's finest albums, but has considerably fewer songs than their others - only 13 tracks, totalling just 42 minutes of auditory pleasure. The only other disappointment is that the lyrics aren't provided in the inlay card, unlike all the other They Might Be Giants albums!

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