Disco de They Might Be Giants: “Mink Car”

When I first listened to 'Mink Car,' I couldn't get past the third song. That one, 'Man, It's So Loud in Here,' got played on REPEAT on my car CD player. The last time I did that with TMBG was 'Meet James Ensor.' Anyway, it's got an awesome pounding beat and incredible harmony. I can see this song topping dance charts; it's better than most of the [stuff] put out by artists who specialize in house music, like Moby or Fatboy Slim.

Other highlights are the 'lite' version of 'Another First Kiss,' also with great harmony and a cool acoustic guitar; 'Hovering Sombrero' and 'Bangs,' both in old 'Lincoln' style; "Yeh Yeh," just as fun as "No One Knows My Plan"; and the title track, with one of the greatest lyrics ever: "The silver chauffer says it's all in your head, when you're 24-karat dead." Also, "Hopeless Bleak Dispair" is quite good. However, "Mr. Excitement" has immediately become only the second TMBG song to exist that I won't listen to (the other being 'You'll Miss Me' from 'Lincoln.'). 'Cyclops Rock' also [isn't good].

TMBG fans will have heard many of these songs before, such as "Drink!", "Older," "Working Undercover for the Man," "Cyclops Rock" and "I've Got a Fang," all of which I heard in concert this summer.

Alright, I'm going to review the album, but I think that there needs to be a little clarification first. It seems more and more posts are going up that say something to the effect of:

"...I've been a longtime fan of TMBG, but this certainly isn't Flood..."

No, it isn't. Flood was Flood. This is not. If you want to review Flood, please review Flood. There are always a couple of people who worry that their bands 'don't have the same sound as they used to', and they are right. This is because bands change over time, and the Johns are no exception. Lincoln wasn't the same as Flood, Flood wasn't the same as Factory Showroom, and Factory Showroom wasn't the same Severe Tire Damage, (well, alright, a couple songs were the same). So please try to review Mink Car as Mink Car; not as Flood.

Anywho, Mink Car is a hard album to rate. Some love it - others absolutley hate it. I think this is because of the absolute doversity of the songs. Some are the Johns, better than ever (Yeh Yeh, Another FIrst Kiss, My Man, Mink Car); Some are, well, tepid, (Drink, Working Undercover for The Man, Bangs...). Overall, I moderatley suggest it, and the fact that J&J are starting to branch out a little is a good sign, (Man It's So Loud In Here, Another First Kiss...), even if they aren't always able to pull it off. Mr. Exictement and Wicked Little Critta leave me boggled, (and most fans, from what I can see), but every album has it's own oddball song, I guess, - Flood had Minimum Wage, John Henry had Stomp Box, Factory had I Can Hear You, (and so on). I guess in all, the really good and the really not so good come crashing together into a decent album. After their last couple, which weren't that great, I think we all wanted something different, and better. They pulled off the different; I'm just going to enjoy it and hope this is just an awkward stage till they really get solid again. Even though this album would only get 3 stars compared to earlier works, I gave the album 4 stars as an album in itself.

As a They Might Be Giants album that showcases the talents (and eccentricities) of John Flansburgh and John Linnell equally, 2001's Mink Car is more deep and satisfying than Flood (1990), but not as consistent as Factory Showroom (1996). Some of the 17 tracks are stronger than others, but only three are utterly disposable. Flansburgh's "Wicked Little Critta" and Linnell's "I've Got a Fang" are hilarious on the page, but are ill-served by slick arrangements and intentionally bad vocal performances (Flansy's exaggerated Boston accent; Linnell's affected deep voice). "Mr. Xcitement," a silly rap featuring Soul Coughing's Mike Doughty on lead vocals, feels entirely out-of-place, as it lacks any trace of the Johns' personalities or signature style. On the remaining tracks, however, John and John revel in their greatest qualities.

Linnell's contributions generally match deliciously dark lyrics with pop hooks as big as all outdoors. The opener "Bangs" is probably the closest he's ever come to a pure love song, and even then it's just directed toward a woman's haircut ("I'm only holding your hand so I can look at your bangs")! In the lovely, mid-tempo "Hovering Sombrero," he offers words of encouragement to an alienated fellow; and "Hopeless Bleak Despair" is a jangly, upbeat ode to that thing we sometimes call the "sweet release" of death. In the madly catchy "My Man," Linnell takes on the voice of a man paralyzed from the waist down; for all his cold, clinical language about "messages" and severed "cables," he rather poignantly suggests the frustration of having a body that suddenly can't do what the brain wants it to do. In the Beatle-esque jangle-pop number "Finished With Lies," he plays an erstwhile pathological liar trying to explain that he's finally turned over a new leaf (though you have to wonder about lines like "I'll turn everything around and confuse you / Talk faster and faster till I lose you"). He also contributes "Man, It's So Loud in Here," perhaps TMBG's most inspired marriage of sonics (New Order/Pet Shop Boys-syle '80s techno-pop) and lyrical content (corner stores and airports revamped to look like dance clubs?) since 1996's "I Can Hear You." As for "Older," while the version from 1999's 'Net-only release Long Tall Weekend (and 2002's Dial-A-Song anthology) is sparser, more dramatic, and thus funnier than the watered-down version here, it's still a clever little ditty -- a real-time meditation on aging -- worth owning in any form.

Linnell's bespectacled bandmate Flansburgh is harder to pin down; he just follows his restless muse, fitting his seriocomic and often surreal lyrics into a wide variety of musical styles. In the garage/punk/metal hybrid "Cyclops Rock," he turns in one of his angriest performances as a freakish outcast who realizes he can never be one of the so-called "beautiful people" and now just wants to find a crowd that will accept him for what he is. The gorgeous "Another First Kiss" comes dangerously close to generic-love-song territory, but is saved by Flansy's unusually sweet, James Tayloresque performance and lyrics like "I'm asleep but she's talking to me / She's walking 'round wearing all of my clothes." He tosses in a fun cover of the Georgie Fame chestnut "Yeh Yeh"; and the title track sounds like something that Burt Bacharach could have written in his '60s heyday (despite such freaky lyrics as, "I got hit by a mink car driven by a guitar, and the silver chauffeur says that it's all in your head when you're 24-carat dead"). "Drink!" is a melancholy, Irish-flavored tune about needing alcohol to enjoy life (I'd love to hear Flansburgh and his wife Robin cover the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" on the next TMBG or Mono Puff CD!). "She Thinks She's Edith Head" is a tense rocker about an old schoolmate who's having an identity crisis; Flansy sings it in an unusually deep register that fittingly seems as much of a put-on as his old schoolmate's new "accent." And the closer "Working Undercover for the Man" is a sugary pop confection (complete with "sha-la-la" choruses) about a guy who poses as a rock star to spy on and bust some concertgoers.

Bottom line: Mink Car is typical TMBG -- fun and catchy, yet mature and often surprising.

I enjoyed my friend's copy of the U.S. version of Mink Car, but felt that it had a bit too much filler to make it worth my while. When I saw this version, I snapped it up right away. TMBG completists will probably go for the longer U.S. version, but the U.K. version makes for a better listen, IMHO. Interesting to note that the running order is mixed up a bit. Presumably the club-friendly "Man It's So Loud In Here" was intended as an emphasis track for the European market. It was relegated to track three for the U.S. release. Also, the M. Doughty collaboration "Your Mom's Alright" is much better than "Mr. Excitement," which appears on the U.S. release. So, pound for pound the UK version is a more solid album.

I have seen a few of the other reviews and I disagree with those who say this is TMBG's worst effort.

To me this seems more like a step back to their old selves rather than a step away. John Henry and Factory Showroom saw the band go from a quirky duo to a poppy full band act. With Mink Car, we see more of the different sounds and instrumentation that weren't really there on the last two efforts but still retain the full band sound. Though I love pretty much everything TMBG has released.

I've had this CD since it came out and it's grown on me more each time I listen to it. It reminds me a lot of Apollo 18 especially melody wise. There are a lot of songs that have been around for awhile ("Older," "Another First Kiss") and I didn't like the new arrangements as much as the one's we've heard before ("Finished With Lies" especially I think was best with just the accordion). It kinda feels like the band was planning on putting these songs on but wanted to give us a different twist on them rather than release the exact versions they already had over the internet. In some cases it works, in some it doesn't.

I saw them on Halloween this past year (2001) and they were still the best and most fun live show you could pay money to see. And it's great to see how some of the newer stuff is worked in (especially "Man It's So Loud In Here").

But whatever, there are still going to be those who dislike the new sound compared to the old sound. Me, I love both and this feels like a combination of both worlds rather than a step away from either.