Going down to Cowtown (Lincoln - They Might Be Giants)

Member Name: MykReeve

Product:	Lincoln - They Might Be Giants
Date:	14/08/00 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Insane lyrics

Disadvantages: Not too many great songs

They Might Be Giants' second album is for me, slightly inferior to their eponymous first album. While their presentation has significantly improved since the first album, and this has a more coherent feel to it, overall, the songs aren't so obviously catchy.

That's not to say that there aren't any good songs, the opening two, 'Ana Ng' and 'Cowtown', are certainly superb and very entertaining but, beyond these two, there are no particularly memorable tracks. The lyrics are as insane as ever, as are the song titles – 'Pencil Rain', 'Santa's Beard' and 'Stand On Your Own Head', for example!

However, Linnell and Flansburgh's second album was something of a disappointment, showing considerably less inventiveness in its tunes. Despite this, there are some real gems among the lyrics – "Purple toupee and gold lame will turn your brain around" ('Purple Toupee'), "What's the sense in ever thinking about the tomb when you’re much too busy returning to the womb?" ('Shoehorn With Teeth'), or "This is the spawning of the cage and aquarium" ('Cage and Aquarium', the band's parody of Sixties music).

Each track is as beautifully short as ever – the album has 18 tracks, but weighs in at under 40 minutes! So, even a bad song never lasts longer than a couple of minutes!

Summary: