Fans of They Might Be Giants have been very patient, waiting for a new album from the band that isn’t geared toward kids. For quite some time now, TMBG have been focusing their energies on the kiddie music market, with great success. For a while there it was looking like they were going to remain in that niche indefinitely, but their new album, Nanobots, finally brings them back to their experimental, alt-rock musical roots.
The Nanobots MP3 album has an average review rating of 4/5 stars and is priced at $5 this week only. Better still, since all of its 25 tracks are very short, you can listen to quite a bit of the album in the form of free preview snippets on Amazon before deciding whether or not to buy.
Those who enjoyed the funny, eclectic mix of musical styles and subject matter on Flood will find a lot to like about Nanobots.
Amazon reviewer Paul M. Guyet says:
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…the whole album is great. So great, in fact, that, if I were you, I would order it first, and then read this review so as to hype yourself up for what you’re about to hear. But that’s just me.
Okay, here goes; the really amazing songs are as follows: “Nanobots” (poppy and sunny and about how billions upon billions of self-replicating, microscopic robots are going to rise up and overtake the world), “Call You Mom” (too good to describe, just listen to it), “Stone Cold Coup D’Etat” (a song about role reversal, murder and revolution…sorry, a super-catchy, rock/pop song about role reversal, murder and revolution), “Sleep” (Linnell only needs forty-two seconds to get things done and done well), “Sometimes A Lonely Way” (a beautiful, heartwrenching Flans ballad that serves to remind folks that these guys aren’t all “quirky” and “nerdy” and other adjectives they’ve come to loathe over the years), “Tick” (FLANSBURGH ONLY NEEDS ELEVEN SECONDS TO GET THINGS DONE AND DONE WELL), “Replicant” (a loungey, vibraphone-soaked swagger through a tale about, what else, a killer clone. One gets the unsettling feeling that Linnell is speaking from experience), “The Darlings of Lumberland” (not only is a song about zombies, but I have never, EVER heard TMBG sound like this before. I’m assuming this has a lot to do with sonic collaborators, the Elegant Too. The whole thing…is robo-cyber horns…kind of?), “Stuff Is Way” (best way to describe this: it’s like listening to an English professor’s stroke), and “Icky” (a smarmy, surf-rock romp about that awful person we all know and detest…this might be a prequel to “When Will You Die?”).
AND THERE ARE STILL TEN REALLY, REALLY GOOD SONGS ON THE ALBUM! Like a rampant footstomper about a guy whose head is on fire (“You’re On Fire”), a kid’s song that was too dark for TMBG’s most recent Disney-funded kids’ album, Here Comes Science (Tesla), a straight up Flans rocker reminiscent of “On The Drag” (“Circular Karate Chop”) AND FREAKING SEVEN MORE SONGS!
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Whether you’re already a They Might Be Giants fan, or just curious about this very unusual nerd-rock duo, Nanobots is worth picking up at just $5 this week. Note that TMBG’s classic and bestselling album Flood is also currently priced at $4.99, and has an average review rating of 4.5/5 stars.