I met someone at the dog show (They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants)

Member Name: MykReeve

Product:	They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants
Date:	13/08/00 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great lyrics, catchy tunes

Disadvantages: Presentation seems a bit naïve

The lyrics in track three of this first album by They Might Be Giants show their modesty, "There's only two songs in me and I just wrote the third", but there's no way that this could possibly be true – the band has since produced more than seven albums, and there are nineteen tracks on this album alone!

So, this is where John Flansburgh and John Linnell's insanely surreal song-writing career begun. From the first track 'Everything Right Is Wrong Again' to the final 'Rhythm Section Want Ad', we're treated to a brilliant selection of well-constructed and well-performed pop songs. While the album lacks the more competent, experienced presentation of the band's later albums, there are moments of sheer brilliance, especially 'She's An Angel', a ballad to the feeling of not being good enough for your girlfriend.

There are truly bizarre lyrics in such classics as 'Youth Culture Killed My Dog' ("the hiphop and the white funk just blue away my puppy's mind"), 'Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes' ("all the people are so happy now, their heads are caving in"), '(She Was A) Hotel Detective' ("the bellhop is funky, the dumbwaiter's a monkey").

A lot of the songs are irritatingly catchy, and pretty much guaranteed to stay with you for days after listening. In fact, in listening to this album again in order to review it, I know for a fact that I've pretty much guaranteed myself a few days of humming 'Don't Let's Start' or 'Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head'.

OK, so the songs really aren't anything special, but they have all the criteria of a good pop song – they're not overlong, they have entertaining lyrics and catchy tunes. There's more diversity here than in some of the later They Might Be Giants albums, but the production and presentation really isn't as clean a
s in their later albums, and this is probably my biggest criticism of it.

Summary: