I’ve been a fan of They Might Be Giants since their 2nd album. That was in the 80’s. There are words in Their songs that you won’t find anywhere else.
Oddly enough, I have to listen to a new album from Them several times before I learn to enjoy much of it.
Back in the day, I had a 5-disc CD changer. I’d load up the new TMBG CD along with up to 4 older ones, and then hit the Random Play button. I would let that cycle for days. At first, I was listening to the old songs that I loved, occasionally interspersed with the new ones that I was indifferent towards. But before long, they were all welcome old friends. Then I could stand to listen to the new album all on its own.
For instance, Their album The Spine came out in 2004. I bought it right away. But since I no longer had that 5-disc changer, I didn’t listen to it much. In September of 2005 I was helping my little sister move across country. Somewhere in the middle of the night in the middle of Kansas I put that CD into the player. I listened to it over and over. Early on I recall actually thinking: wow, this is profoundly derivative of Their earlier work. Perhaps They’re all tapped out. But somewhere before dawn I realized, It’s all NEW! What I’d thought was too familiar was really just my own lack of perception.
The more you listen, the better it gets. And read the liner notes for the words, so you can sing along.
I’ve only been through Join Us once in it’s entirety. There’s this one song that I found to be kind of annoying. It’ll probably end up my All-Time TMBG favorite. Oh well. I was really hoping that was going to be Brain Problem Situation, from the Bonus CD of the last album.