They Might Be Giants: The Else (Idlewild/Rounder)
release: July 10, 2007 (today!)
style: they might be giants
similar: Factory Showroom, John Henry, Mink Car
rating: **
It's incredible that the two Johns have already written hundreds of songs and still more incred that they have another album 22 years after the debut. They are indeed writing decent songs here, but The Else is nothing more than safe pop-rock with a very very slight piece of quirk from TMBG. It's probably the band maturing. After all, they've been doing this for a long time now and have played countless shows. Most of the songs themselves (aside from a couple like "Feign Amnesia") are sleepy and the shared vocals on The Else are calm calm calm ("Upside Down Frown" is pretty darn cute though). Most of the time it sounds like they are holding back big time- especially John Linell. Although "With the Dark" is quite unusual, the excitement and curiosity of the first few albums are a different era. -Kenyon