Anyone surprised that They Might Be Giants are addressing grown-up topics on The Else hasn’t listened closely enough to the Brooklyn duo’s back catalog. John Linnell and John Flansburgh have always cloaked serious—if not melancholy—discussions about mortality, heartbreak and loss underneath quirky, Technicolor music and clever lyrics. (Consider the band’s m.o. equivalent to another wacky-but-dark touchstone, the 1980s TV show Pee-wee’s Playhouse.) For instance, take the band’s watershed 1990 album, Flood, and specifically “Twisting,” a peppy surf-pop rave-up that seems fluffy until you realize that it’s actually a biting break-up tune full of literate wordplay: “She wants to see you again/Slowly twisting/In the wind.”
But the beauty of TMBG has always been how effortlessly they made this sadness palatable, and The Else, for all of its meticulously arranged music and colorful orchestration, feels burdened by its maturity. Production by Beck/Beastie Boys collaborators the Dust Brothers—which explains the hints of drum ’n’ bass, electro flourishes and abundance of horns—makes the songs feel too crowded and slick; Flansburgh’s nasal delivery of sing-songy lyrics feels oddly dispassionate (save for the glammy strut of the abstract “With the Dark”).
The Else does show flashes of brilliance, however: “The Shadow Government” contains wicked political jabs and a deceptively cheery burbling organ; “Climbing the Walls” is a perfect slice of crunchy guitar-pop; and the jazzy whimsy of “Withered Hope” is a genius depiction of a love pentagon involving a literal sad sack, among others (it’s complicated).
While one of the most cohesive TMBG albums stylistically, The Else feels somewhat labored; perhaps the children’s records they released in recent years made the two Johns forget that they can have just as much fun being serious.
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They Might Be Giants
The Else
** 1/2