They Might Be Giants have always reveled in surreal scattergun pop. For every chart friendly ‘Birdhouse in Your Soul’ there are ten willfully offbeat gems such as ‘Hotel Detective In The Future.’Their discography is like a vast accumulation of obscure souvenirs – you can’t think what to do with them all but somehow you can’t throw any out.
And here, 25 years after they first began, comes ‘The Else’, a rare attempt to make a ‘normal’ album – that is, something that with a little pushing and squeezing could possibly fit into a single genre (alt-pop? Mainstream Surrealism?) and gel together over the span of thirteen songs. To help proceedings the band has enlisted the help of the Dust Brothers (Beck, The Beastie Boys) and Patrick Diller (Mary J Blige, David Byrne).
The result is a winning collection of whimsy and power pop: ‘Take Out The Trash’ is very indie-funk, very Smashmouth, while ‘Climbing the Walls’ takes the sentiments of ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ and turns it into an happy-go-lucky sing-a-long, filtering a song about boredom and banality through some glorious sun-drenched, beach ball bothering 60’s pop until it sounds like ‘Pretty Flamingo’. Another highlight is ‘With the Dark’ which starts off as an indie strum-a-long, then throws in some sharp brass and 70’s cop show percussion before Neil Hannon (I don’t have sleeve notes, but it’s a dead ringer) sings a verse after which the balloons are released from the ceiling and it becomes a nonsense party track a la Beck.
Notable wobbles are the humdrum ‘I’m Impressed’ and ‘Upside Down’ which is a bit of a marmite track – you’ll either love the Jonathon Richmanesque kitsch or hate it’s Sesames Street cutesyness – and while the album has verve and humour, a Venn diagram would show an uncomfortable overlap between the worst of They Might Be Giants and the best of Busted.
However, it remains a satisfying, silly album, and another obscure souvenir to add your collection of pointlessly beautiful trinkets.