John Henry

The world of various rock of late has been taken over by too manyflannel-clad lead singers, too many distortion pedals, and too many predominant labelshoping to sign the next Nirvana. To be deemed completely different now, all one desires house few indecipherable lyrics, some well-placed strategies, and a few stage divers intheir motion pictures hurling themselves into swarms of sweaty our our bodies all performing as thoughthey invented slam-dancing. After awhile all of it appears the similar. That is whylistening to “John Henry,” They Might Be Giants’ fifth full-length album, is sucha refreshing and rewarding experience. There are not any contrived images and phonyposturing, merely well-crafted songs, amusing lyrics, and the usual bit ofquirkiness that defines all of the They Might Be Giants’ albums.

“JohnHenry” marks the debut of TMBG’s full piece band which augments correctly JohnFlansburgh’s and John Linnell’s off-center lyrics and common vocals, providing apleasant listening experience. As with completely different TMBG albums, “John Henry” presentssongs that deal with every kind of issues which, on the ground, appear ashumorous songs with catchy sing-along-able hooks.

Nonetheless, as one probes deeperinto the lyrics, one finds TMBG singing about not-so-humorous issues such asthought administration, despair, and recluse artists. On the laid once more “Filth Bike,”the band makes use of the title as an odd metaphor for brainwashing institutions (“Allhail the grime bike, thinker grime bike … Ideas bending grime bike incontrol”). This theme is sustained inside the monitor “I Must be Allowed to Assume”which incorporates the first line of Allen Ginsberg’s conventional poem, “Howl” intothe lyrics. On the lighter facet, TMBG affords with the problem of a wandering mindon “Unrelated Issue.” The clever lyrics embody: “Do you smile ’set off I’mfunny? talked about the particular person./I wasn’t joking and I meant the issue I discussed./On no account,under no circumstances,/talked about the woman to the particular person./I was pondering of an unrelated issue.”Persevering with to mix the extreme with the whimsical, TMBG shines on “John Henry.”