Birdhouse In Your Soul (Flood - They Might Be Giants)

Member Name: MykReeve

Product:	Flood - They Might Be Giants
Date:	14/08/00 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent, catchy pop songs

Disadvantages: A couple of less good tracks

This is, for me, the band's finest work. 'Flood' introduces itself with a brief thirty-second proclamation enthusiastically welcoming us to this "brand new record for 1990", before launching straight into the band's deservedly best known song, the sublime 'Birdhouse In Your Soul'.

'Birdhouse In Your Soul' is one of my favourite songs of all time, a typically surreal song about a bird-shaped nightlight, and is three and a half minutes of purest pop perfection.

The album is well produced, and has some superb songs, guaranteed to fix themselves in your brain for weeks after listening, such as their own version of 'Istanbul (Not Constantinople)', the eminently simple but memorable 'Particle Man', and the instantly enjoyable 'Women & Men'.

There are the usual collection of insane lyrics, exemplified by 'We Want A Rock' ("Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads"), and 'Someone Keeps Moving My Chair' ("Would it be okay with you if we wrote a reminder of things we'll forget to do today otherwise, using a green magic marker, if it's alright, on the back of your head?").

There are a couple of less good songs, but generally, 'Flood' is an extremely entertaining listen, with some superbly written and well-composed, unbelievably catchy songs. The tracks are also as perfectly short as ever, with most of the nineteen tracks under three minutes long! The album is a good deal more upbeat than 'Lincoln', their previous album, and the songs all fit together well making listening to it a lot of fun!

Summary: