They Might Be Giants Album: “Dial-a-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants”

To clarify, what you're looking at is *not* a compilation of rarities, alternate studio cuts, or live performances (so what if the album title references their Dial-a-Song service? it means *nothing*...), but a yay-happy-twentieth-anniversary celebration of some of the Giant's greatest releases, spanning from their very first album through their latest release, the youngsta-oriented "No!" Also included are two previously-available-only-on-soundtrack tracks, the "Malcom in the Middle" [extended] theme, "Boss of Me" and "Dr. Evil" from Austin Powers II.

What I love most about this item is that it's not exclusive to the more popular TMBG singles, and includes a few old-school, lesser-known gems like "Nightgown of the Sullen Moon", "Snowball in Hell", and "She Was An Angel" (by my definition, one of the best Giant songs to ever exist).

For most TMBG fans, this CD brings few surprises...but that's no reason to shrug it off. As I said earlier, this is a great-great-wonderful collection of songs and, by *far*, one of the better "Best Of" albums that I've ever encountered. My recommendation? Open your wallet in the name of supporting quality music, and buy the li'l darlin.

For all those They Might Be Giants' fans hoping that "Dial-A-Song" will attract new fans, well, I'm one of those newbies. Before I picked up "Dial-A-Song", I had only heard a tiny amount of TMBG material ("Istanbul", "Particle Man", "Boss of Me", "Dr. Evil") but I loved all those songs. So, I walk into my local music store, pick it up and listen to it and I am duly impressed. Since, I didn't want to purchase a studio album by then, I opted for this instead and it's now in heavy rotation around my house. I couldn't believe I was missing out on such great songs like "Doctor Worm", "New York City" and "Man, It's So Loud in Here". I was also amused by the humorous second disc, which featured some of TMBG's more obscure works like "I Can Hear You" and the three new live tracks. Add a new fan to your tally, folks!

Wow! I kind of expected these to be "Answering Machine"-quality recordings, but they are almost all identical to the recordings on the other albums (when applicable). This is mostly a "Best Of" compilation with a few goodies here and there for the most devout TMBG afficionados out there. Most of those require several listens to appreciate or perhaps one listen to forever decide to skip the tracks.

One interesting thing is that "Fingertips" is included as a single track. Those of you with Apollo 18 on CD know that it was separated into several distinct portions. This was because John and John intended it to be played in random order (or perhaps even in a choose-your-own kind of sequence). It's a neat idea, but I don't know that it ever worked all that well.

All in all, I think this collection deserves 5 stars. It's an amazing collection of a lot of the songs that really make me love TMBG, and it's ALMOST a "Then & Now" counterpart to their previous compilation, "Then." I only wish they had included the version of "Sensurround" found ONLY on the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers soundtrack.

If you are new to TMBG and have any interest in their sound at all, you shouldn't be disappointed by this compilation, as it is all great music. You are however, being seriously short-changed on just how enjoyable their music can be, since a lot of their best work is not included here and a lot of their more mediocre output unfortunately is.

The band put it together themselves, so as can be expected, they used it as an opportunity to shed more light on their more "underappreciated" work - for instance, their weakest-selling and most fan/critic-slagged album, Factory Showroom, is one of the most largely represented here, moreso than much more loved and acclaimed records like Lincoln, Apollo 18 and John Henry. Factory Showroom may not have been as bad as some reviews made it out to be, but it certainly shouldn't have been relied upon so much for a 'best of' compilation; but it's even more disturbing that in including over half of that record on this anhtology, they STILL left off what are widely considered to be it's two finest songs: "Spiraling Shape" and "The Bells are Ringing". When they do tap into their more rewarding work, like their 1988 LP Lincoln, they still overlook obvious gems like "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" and "Kiss Me, Son of God". And why are "Cowtown" and "Purple Toupee" jammed all the way into the back of the second disc while "Pet Name" and "Dr. Evil" enjoy front row seats? Whats the point of including the "Fingertips" song-fragment-medly as a single track and near the front of the second disc (it was designed to make shuffle mode more interesting and in it's entirety, has a tendency to annoy the hell out of most people). Their recent childrens album NO! is represented by it's fun but rather trite title track and the grating "Robot Parade" even though "Bed Bed Bed" has become a concert favorite even at their adult shows and "Four of Two" has a healthy fan following. And why on earth did their schmaltzy, radio-friendly "Another First Kiss" pop up again here after it grossed everybody out just a year earlier on Mink Car?

Sure, it has masterpieces like "Ana Ng", "Birdhouse in your Soul", "Cyclops Rock", "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" and "Don't Lets Start" but it's missing lots of equally impressive material and includes way too much mediocre work than a double-disc, twenty-year anthology by They Might Be Giants has any right to. Your better off delving into the actual albums (start from the beginning, work your way up) or having a fan make you a mix tape.

I got my second they might be giants, Dial-a-song, at my local Tower records. I was really excited.That day I spent about 4 seperate hours listening to this.But I noticed that it was missing some great songs such as Everything Right is Wrong Again,Till my head falls off,Spiraling shape, The bells are ringing, and many others.Other than that its great, and I'm glad I chose it over then:the earlier years since I'm more fond of TMBG later years with song like Dr.Worm and Birdhouse in your soul.