FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
They Might Be Giants - Flood
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I am not sure how far….
They Might Be Giants got through their thirtieth anniversary tour of Flood, but I suspect that there were dates that were moved because of the pandemic. The Brooklyn duo’s third studio album was released on 15th January, 1990 and, if you can, I would recommend people buying the album on vinyl. It is a phenomenal album and, to that point, their most ambitious and biggest album. I think my first exposure to the album – and They Might Be Giants – was the song, Birdhouse in Your Soul. That was released as a single in 1989, and I was taken aback by the blend of the quirky and catchy. It was definitely different to any other songs that I had encountered at the time. The rest of the album is filled with invention, wonderfully original sounds and seamless brilliance. I will bring in an article highlighting the album in addition a review. The three singles from Flood, Birdhouse in Your Soul, Istanbul (Not Constantinople), and the domestic promotional track, Twisting, are phenomenal. I think Flood is the definitive album when we think of They Might Be Giants even though they have put out twenty-two albums – their latest, The Escape Team, arrived in 2018. Although the duo (John Flansburgh and John Linnell) are on fine form through the album, I think producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley helped pushed the They Might Be Giants sound in new directions.
Also, at the time, the duo utilised new equipment and recording techniques - including home-recorded samples, which were programmed through Casio FZ-1 synthesizers. Flood has won massive praise from critics and, at the start of a decade that was going to provide us with so much genius and so many musical breakthroughs, I think that the album can stand alongside the very finest from the time. What has always stood They Might Be Giants aside is their unusual and unique lyrics; the fact they tackle unconventional subjects and are far from ordinary! The vocal sounds are brilliant as they are sort of conversational and ordinary but, the more you listen, the more nuance and richness you find. It is hard to explain, but albums like Flood need to be listened to over and over because there is so much to enjoy! If you want a track-by-track guide, then have a read of this article. I want to bring in an article from The A.V. Club from earlier this year, where Gwen Ihnat writes about the duo avoiding the major label ‘curse’ that some artists experience:
“Leave it to two boundary busters like John Flansburgh and John Linnell to upend even that familiar trope: They Might Be Giants’ third album and major-label debut, Flood, which came out 30 years ago this month, still stands as the band’s watershed moment. “In so many ways, when people tell the standard ‘We got signed and it sucked’ stories, we had the opposite experience, and I feel very grateful that it was so positive,” says Flansburgh now.
For what would turn out to be their fateful third release, the pair signed with Elektra. But “they’ve never really relied on being signed… they play the songs they want to play,” explains Sue Drew, Elektra’s then-VP of A&R, in the hard-to-find TMBG documentary Gigantic: A Tale Of Two Johns (the DVD is currently $88.50 on Amazon).
They Might Be Giants spent most of their major-label recording budget on just four of Flood’s 19 songs: “Birdhouse,” “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” “Your Racist Friend,” and “We Want A Rock,” aided by legendary producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. Flansburgh describes, “They had produced hits for Madness and Morrissey, and they’d done ‘Come On, Eileen,’ which was a huge hit. They were commercially England’s biggest music producers at the time. The fact that they were interested was a much bigger get for the record company than getting us.”
That relationship proved to be advantageous, helping Linnell and Flansburgh transition from a “home-brew” outfit to a more formidable setup. While nowadays, any bedroom producer can craft something in ProTools, “Back then, you didn’t have any access, you didn’t have any flight hours,” Flansburgh describes. “It was all earn as you learn, on-the-job training. So working with Clive and Alan was like a crazy full-immersion master class in how song structure works, how sonics work, how instruments interact successfully, how to put effects on vocals, how to make things not sound corny—like a million tricks that were pouring out of these guys. I feel like we got so much more out of working with them than a bunch of good-sounding songs. They were really generous with us. They didn’t need to be helpful to us, but they were incredibly kind and cool.”
Flansburgh also explains the band’s inclination to expand the parameters of rock, which they do over and over again on Flood. “I think one of the things that’s very tricky and tough about us in how we fit into the rock culture is that people often think that our expression in a way is kind of anti-rock. I mean, we wouldn’t be in the rock business if we didn’t love rock music. There are a lot of people who want their rock music very dangerous and druggie and very mysterious. And I completely understand that and respect that, but it doesn’t really reflect the kind of people that we are. We’re just being authentic to ourselves, or trying to be, and trying to do interesting work, and that’s who we are. We don’t need that many more Keith Richardses.” “Particle Man” has also had a second life over at Tiny Toons Adventures, and sounds like the kind of song a one-man band could have created, carrying a bass drum on his back”.
I really love Flood and, through their career, Flansburgh and Linnel have continued to push forward and release music that is in a league of its own. Stream the album if you cannot buy the vinyl; it sounds great no matter how you listen to it. Thirty years after its release and Flood is still offering up tantalising revelations, wonderfully memorable moments and huge pleasure. I will end by sourcing from an interview SPIN provided regarding one of the 1990s’ best albums:
“Boundless imagination, loopy mix-and-match arrangements and a gyroscopic sense of what makes a pop tune click are still responsible for the easy and abiding appeal of TMBG’s ingenious material. Improved production facilities and, on four cuts, British hitmakers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (Madness, Dexys Midnight Runners) just make them sound better than ever.
In a typical avalanche of how’d-they-come-up-with-that ideas, TMBG open Flood’s gates with a tongue-in-cheek promotional jingle for the album. They put on a ritzy history lesson about Turkish geography called “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” describe the vindictive fallout of a failed relationship to the accompaniment of ’60s Farfisa beat in “Twistin’,” promote prosthetic foreheads (?!) in “We Want a Rock” and put an oomph superhero spin on science with “Particle Man.” The piano-and-vocal ballad “Dead” weighs the relative merits of life and reincarnation: “Now it’s over, I’m dead and I haven’t done anything that I want/Or I’m still alive and there’s nothing I want to do.” “Your Racist Friend,” a heavy slice of moral indignation, nonchalantly borrows its topic, ska beat, and title from a Specials song.
Throughout, the Giants reel off memorable (not a subjective issue: there is ample empirical proof) melodies, punctuated by assorted bursts of inspired madness, as if there were nothing to it. Like the bullethead in Physics 101 who aces every exam and screws up the grading curve for everyone else, TMBG should be in a class by themselves”.
If you are new to They Might Be Giants, then I would suggest starting with Flood. I think it is their best album but, like all artists, it is worth checking out all they have done to get a sense of how They Might Be Giants have changed through the years. Even though 2020 was meant to be a celebratory year for the duo and they had hoped to perform more, I am sure they will be back on the road soon enough – a new album, BOOK, has been announced for next year. Go and spend some time investigating…
THE stunning Flood.