this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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This Might Be Lemmy: They Might Be Giants (tmbg) Community
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A community for fans of the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants. Post about your favorite songs, discuss your concert experiences, yeat fanart here, etc.
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I did a full listen through of their non-kids albums not long ago. I think it's fair to say that they get a bit more "mainstream" with each album. I think the first, eponymous, album is the purest distillation of their sound.
Don't get me wrong, I love everything through the 90s, and I think John Henry, Long Tall Weekend, and Mink Car get slept on for how many great tracks there are. There are plenty of great songs after Mink Car, but things start to feel a bit sterilized.
But that first album has so many great, creative songs all over the genre map. Everything Right is Wrong Again, Number Three, Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes, I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die, Alternation's for the Rich, Rhythm Section Want Ad, all bangers.
I also listened to the albums in order recently and noticed the same. The first album is the most creative and eclectic in many ways, and each album loses a little of that essence but the production values get noticeably better.
That said, my favourite is probably Lincoln which is nearly as crazy as the first, but with slightly better songwriting IMO.
I also love John Henry in a different way; the songwriting and production is as good as TMBG gets, but it definitely has a different vibe to the first two albums.
I find most post-90s TMBG albums get very much slept-on. I also love The Else and Glean, but again they have an entirely different vibe to the first couple of albums.
Post-90s their songs start to get a bit samey. There are definite stand-outs for sure, but the albums as a whole shift to a more homogenous alt rock.
I agree - their first few albums used some wonderful and wacky sound choices when it was just the two of them messing around, and their post-90s albums rely a lot more on the band.