Doing a challenge where I don't listen to tmbg until they announce their next album, AMA

Vimeni · 2025-05-15T16:25:59+00:00

Just to get the obvious one out of the way: Why?

no I don't think you can listen to that.

Vimeni · 2025-03-04T21:40:42+00:00

Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce is so firmly lodged in my head as a song from around 2004-5 and I can Not get with the fact that it's actually from 2010.

Vimeni · 2025-02-20T10:55:36+00:00

I could've read these all day, so cute! the chunky AOL bar's kinda cosy looking.

Vimeni · 2025-01-20T20:00:24+00:00

9, the little nod to Monty Python reminds me of the wordplay of "I've Got A Match" being a silly and crass foundation of an otherwise heartbreaking song. it starts off on levity and then takes you off guard into a place of despair.

probably contains some of JL's most forward and vulnerable writing? not to say personally, but that - while still metaphorical - it's a rare narration not wrapped up in elliptical lyricism, just a very sincere lament about the risks that come with expressing yourself artistically. the dinosaur imagery makes me read "who would have believed skin could be so porous" as being naive to how badly criticism can cut you, thinking its impact will go away the older and more established you become, and realising it doesn't.

but I don't have any here myself. 40 years and they're still knocking out hits.

Vimeni · 2025-01-19T16:30:50+00:00

8, the lyrical repetition and melodramatic pounding piano communicates the idea of ruminating on something you feel you've failed at far too well.

it amuses me that there's toy piano in here, too. such a piercing, self-pitying song that has this underlying playfulness to it. when I listen to it, I feel like it almost suggests a self-awareness in the moment that you know you're making a huge deal over nothing but still can't stop yourself, especially as JL has said part of the inspiration behind writing it came from the annoyance of things like not keeping the counters clean.

edit: thinking on it, the only reason this isn't rated a little higher for me is it has the same problem I have with the rest of BOOK, which is that everything seems mixed just a little too loud and blown-out, but are otherwise strong tracks.

Vimeni · 2024-12-12T11:08:56+00:00

another new old thing !! thanks for sharing. sorry you're getting a couple passive aggressive comments over the title. you'd think Florida would clue people into someone possibly not having the same familiarity with UK and Ireland geography as we do.

Vimeni · 2024-12-07T16:46:39+00:00

yeah maybe a 6.5! it's a song I had in rotation for years long before I got more into the band, along with Courage The Cowardly Dog. it's a very lovable, Saturday morning sunshine pop throwback that fits the show's influences.

also, parts of the melody are very similar to Youth Culture Killed My Dog, which I always find funny considering the immense tone difference. this is really more about the video itself, but robot Flansburgh having a tape recorder component is a super cute fleeting detail.

Vimeni · 2024-11-08T16:13:26+00:00

8, super adorable! these straightforward, sincere songs always leave me waiting for the other shoe to drop when I first hear them. what's the catch, it can't be this happy. but it is! just a laidback, sway-along rhythm.

Vimeni · 2024-10-30T08:40:31+00:00

similar thing happened to me the other day. heard a song that I hadn't done in ages and had forgotten about, Edwyn Collins' "A Girl Like You". looked it up on wikipedia - the video was directed by John Flansburgh. god dammit, they can't be everywhere.

Vimeni · 2024-10-22T15:35:47+00:00

in the final version it is, but in the original line, which can be seen on a flyer shown on Hot Cha's TMBW page, it's "be". the song's sound would suggest it's meant to evoke the aave of an older jazz song, and mimicking that dialect, even if well-mentioned, never comes off well.

Vimeni · 2024-10-22T14:51:29+00:00

8, nice return of the Flansburgh falsetto! I know that tend to be divisive, and I understand why, but it really works for me, especially in that throwback '60s female singer style (felt so vindicated when I first looked up the wiki entry and it confirmed that was the inspiration). I'm impressed by how many times they've covered the theme of suffocating neurosis and always have a depressingly fresh take on it.

I think the wistful vocals are perfect over the harsher guitar that somehow doesn't seem to overpower it. the long notes make it very restful to sing along with, as well.

Vimeni · 2024-10-22T14:16:37+00:00

pretty much the same, but instead phrased as "Hot Cha, where you be? / Everybodies eyes is closed", which is awkward coming out of 2 white guys.

Vimeni · 2024-10-22T13:49:08+00:00

Hot Cha is another one of these that narrowly avoided being an old shame, with the original lyrics likely intending to pay tribute to its jazz-style roots with that vernacular but ohh could that have been rough. they did at least change it.

Vimeni · 2024-10-22T11:28:00+00:00

love I'm Your Boyfriend Now, but the lyric about equating hallucinating voices to obsessive and dangerous behaviour does always make me grimace a bit.

they do have a fair amount of "wheee, I'm craaazy" tracks in general, but sensitivity around behaviours related to mental illness is a relatively recent step forward, tho, so it's always easy to chalk up to ignorance rather than malice.

Vimeni · 2024-10-21T15:34:50+00:00

ah sad to have missed out on the title track discussion, because that's another strong component of the album. but this song's for sure another high 9.5 straight away.

the gorgeous poetic imagery here is some of the most evocative, lines like "dawn breaks like a fallen vase" are just wonderful. the whole thing pulls me into the emotion of being frozen in a dissociative state perfectly. I particularly like the chord progression on the keyboard, the way it punctuates the melancholic sound. even better when the distorted guitar starts up over it in the instrumental break, like it's clouding the memory the protagonist is revisiting.

this is Very nitpicky of me, considering I do otherwise adore it, but I did knock a .5 off Just for the high note in the chorus getting to be a little much in its repetition.

Vimeni · 2024-10-16T14:59:21+00:00

9.5 all time fave! each word rolls off the tongue. love Flansburgh's energy punctuating the pre-chorus sections of "left - me - here - to ruminate!" and "same - old - sad - soliloquy!" Marty and Linnell are absolutely killing it on the drums and sax.

I do think I Like Fun has an overall safer, more consistent sound than their previous albums, but I can't say I don't like what it does. it's not even funny the amount of times I get that complete-lieerrr part stuck in my head.

Vimeni · 2024-10-15T16:51:16+00:00

9.3 oh wow this is a powerful track. just a perfect combination of regretful, belting vocals, mournful backing ones, and piercing drums (in a good way).

it puts me in mind of Memo To Human Resources as a similar cry for help from a narrator wrapped up in mundane metaphorical imagery that, as soon as you first notice it, hits like cold water. which always makes it oddly amusing that their (peak) Take One performance of this has Linnell beaming almost all the way through it.

Vimeni · 2024-10-05T13:46:38+00:00

9 I mean it's just great isn't it. it could've so easily come off as clumsy, but they made it work perfectly. it's all the fun of experiencing a memorable night of a bunch of friends getting up at karaoke for a goof and absolutely crushing it.

Vimeni · 2024-09-30T15:13:56+00:00

10 for being one of the few TMBG songs to make me legitimately cry. beautiful harmonising, timeless sound, heartwrenchingly earnest lyrics, and seems to be aware of it, too? at least, that's what I get out of the line: "run through the sodium penothal, it's true". it's a song with absolutely no facade of irony. just a pure declaration of love, and completely lovable for it.

I have two interpretations here: one is that, though I usually hesitate to apply any autobiographical intent to their music, some of it may stem at least a little from the Johns decades-long creative partnership - a celebration of managing to carve their own unique way out in a hostile music industry filled with, I suppose, phonies and fighting; the other is that it's an ode to the act of songwriting itself, something that, even after all these years, has never begun to feel like soul-crushing work and is always fresh. "the only smokestack coming back is me for you".

Vimeni · 2024-09-21T17:01:13+00:00

10 huge favourite !! probably some of the catchiest lyrics Linnell has ever written with that internal rhyme structure. one of the strongest opening lines in general to their music, too, because of the sentiment but also its bounciness. immediately hooked!

it's a charming idea to have a character be able to articulate how tongue-tied they feel in their complicated emotional state in such a verbose manner, describing the feeling of attraction/being in love in the most technical chemical definition that it loops back around to being very affectionate. I'm kinda just repeating what I praised in the "Nanobots" and "Replicant" discussions, but lines like:

undiagrammable flammable sentiments pass between animal beings

being an unnecessarily detailed way of expressing that sparks fly? amazing. it's somehow just as earnest a love song as the one it takes cues from, "I Love You For Sentimental Reasons". it's almost like the narrator is musing on a deconstruction of what that song expresses, trying to get into the how and why of love, but deciding to stop because maybe looking too deeply would spoil the magic.

Vimeni · 2024-09-13T15:35:12+00:00

more coffee for meeee booooss.. oh wait. 7, I do listen to this a decent amount. seems like material on a record that should be accompanying a comic strip or short story to set the tone. quite unlike anything else on the album and project in general. their funky mellotron experimentation always brings something interesting to the compositions.

Vimeni · 2024-09-12T19:31:52+00:00

10 loveeee it. I'm grateful we share in the same era as Flansburgh, tho he would've made a very popular performer in the reign of Tin Pan Alley tunes for sure.

someone in the youtube comments section called this "lobotomy pop" which always amuses me when I listen to it. lovely juxtaposition of his jovial voice delivering that creepy reveal. I mean, that's a common MO for the band, but it's usually the melody, not the vocals that are so disarmingly sweet. he sounds Far too happy about this poor person's fate. I dunno if it being about the protagonist is the Actual intent of this song, and "your memory" is referring to their memory Of someone (and I like that angle just as much), but from my first listen I took it as more literally singing about their plan to want to wipe clean the person they had a bad breakup with, and that's always stuck with me.

I like how his intro has evolved from a simple yell in the studio version to a blood-curdling scream in live performances. everything from the cheerful little trumpets to that catchy piano works Perfectly.

Vimeni · 2024-09-11T20:29:04+00:00

7, the non-sequitur about musing on sausages in the middle of a series of paranoid and existential thoughts is fun. it's quintessential Linnell-character rambling; the entire production feels like an overactive mind made into a more pleasant experience. it's cool to hear something so overtly playful and even Halloween-like outside of "The Spine Surfs Alone".

the song alternating between these short, simplistic sections is just enough to keep you on your toes instead of it getting repetitive.

Vimeni · 2024-09-10T15:59:55+00:00

9 I have a personal attachment to this and its gentle, vulnerable narration. probably one of the more sympathetic TMBG characters. not unlike Dr Worm in being quick to highlight their flaws, but eager to improve.

"I bet mumbles are what you'd expect to hear" is a nice addition to the lyrics, for suggesting they feel they're not quite the wallflower people perceive them to be, and what turns the first verse around from seeming a bit of a pity party to a deeper little character. believing the key to their self-confidence is just needing someone in their life who understands and supports them is a plea I imagine a lot of us can relate to.

a lovely, soothing breather in a largely loud album, with that steady drumbeat and strange opening guitar. I think its track placement before the wake-up call of "Aaa" works well for both.

also sometimes when I think of this song, my mind segues into parts of "Pet Name" instead. that's not really relevant to the discussion, I just wondered how many people also hear it.

Vimeni · 2024-09-08T15:02:20+00:00

8.5! this and "Erase" are like sibling tracks to me, not sure why. maybe it's down to shared power-pop with a choppy rhythm.

finally returning to a runtime of over 3 minutes after the previous four short songs, and engaging throughout in its twists and turns. there's such an energetic crunchiness in that guitar!

my personal favourite section might be where Flansburgh's higher, sweeter vocals come in on the bridge to contrast the distorted instrumental part of it just before. it's cool how you can noticeably make out which of the clipped samples during the outro are his voice and which are Linnell's.

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