Album Review: They Might Be Giants – Why?
2 min read
Brooklyn pop superstars They Might Be Giants returning to the awesome area of a kid’s world with their second album release this year. Why? is the follow up to the Grammy-award winning Here Come the 123s, delivering more memorable songs with the signature oddity of the Brooklyn band and makes fuller the feathers in their 2015 cap with a playful yet diplomatic irony to the subjects they approach.
Stand out track And Mom And Kid was suitably lent to the soundtrack of recent HBO special A Family is A Family is A Family; a wonderfully fun and light-hearted track highlighting the topic of marriage equality with a playful xylophone melody and bright and catchy vocals that state so simply ‘so many combinations, so many families’ this track outlines a subject clearly important to the band. Certainly a song for life’s trials and tribulations I Made a Mess combines the very grown up issue of how shit happens with childlike perceptions of being in trouble; quirky and abrupt riffs encapsulate feelings of worry and stress as a clean guitar line emulates the escalation of a situation with an impressive technique.
Elephants is an all-out joyous track with imaginative lyrics and instrumentation; happy and free vocals skip along with the high xylophone and bells whilst the story-telling interjection of a child’s imaginings only adds to the magic of this song! The happy boogie continues through the album with I Just Want to Dance which does what it says on the tin! They Might Be Giants create a short interlude to the album with a funky bass opening and some swanky brass parts, ‘I’m a little kid and I just want to dance!’ Just watch the big and little people move to this song!
Invoking the inner big kid as they have continuously done, They Might Be Giants not only create music about the things so important to kids but subtly cover a range of sociopolitical subjects in a really endearing way across a multitude of styles. From simple melodies in varied percussive interludes to heavier more jazzy riffs, the hybrid of maturity and music in Why? more than fits the bill in being family-friendly and is sure to delight!
