They Might Be Giants - John Henry

They Might Be Giants expands to a sextet on its fifth album, John Henry. Even with the addition of bass, drums, sax, and trumpet, the focus is still on the goofy vocals, silly lyrical puns, and accordion-driven hooks of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, and that is not a good thing. These 20 songs include a tune that quotes Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," love songs to a dirt bike and a copy shop clerk, and a song that takes its lyrics from Alice Cooper song titles. If that sounds like your idea of clever, enjoy. --Jim DeRogatis Amazon.com

Peppy competence in spades rarely achieves more

Coming across as a lighter, nerdier Ween, this mid-career disc from the super quirky duo certainly is not short on bursts of hooky pop with just enough songwriting flair to perk jaded ears, though few of John Henry's 20 tracks transcend the geeky confines this nasally pair has cultivated. Usually what makes this more for fans then initiates would be the goofy brand of humor attached to nearly all the lyrics. December 23, 2007

John Horny? (Heh, Bad Pun.)

This is probably my favorite of all of They Might Be Giants' albums, and believe me... I've heard them all. In this release, They Might Be Giants have moved from being a duo with a drum machine to a full band. The results are spectacular! Imagine old TMBG with a fuller drum sound, REAL bass, and lots of horns. This allows TMBG to expand their songwriting to their full creative potential.

And boy, this album has a lot of horns. "No One Knows My Plan" is really great, one of their best arrangements, I think. "Dirt Bike" is another favorite. The intro is beautiful (Well... for a TMBG song.) And on many other songs, they're rocking out more than they ever have before, with loud drums, bass, and guitar...

I don't really understand what's not to like on this album (Besides "Extra Savoir-Faire"... Ech, that's a boring song.) Maybe the old fans are afraid of the monster sound on this or something. June 10, 2007

We're never gonna tour again.

This is They Might Be Giants fifth album, and it's their first album performing with a full band. The extra musicians definitely produce a "fuller" sound than their previous records. But the album is one of the less popular ones in They Might Be Giants catalogue. I guess some people just don't care much for the songs on it, although I personally like most of them. The fact of the matter is, only one song from this album ("Meet James Ensor") made it onto TMBG's "greatest hits" album. I guess it's true that some of the songs aren't among the group's most memorable, but as an overall album, it holds together rather well. May 7, 2007

get over it...this one's great

Apparently, some people have a problem with this album. That makes about as much sence to me as if there were actually people who prefer the quality of the BEATLES' "LOVE ME DO" to any song they produced later.

The quality of this album is great, you can actually listen to it. Look, if you wake up every morning and put in your FLOOD album and listen to annoying tracks like "HEARING AID" and "MINIMUM WAGE" then you may want to skip this one, because those irritating TMBG snippits don't exist on this album. I'm pretty sure that They Might Be Giants debut album led to the invention of the skip button on a CD player. Dont get excited, I love the album too, but you can't tell me that you love every song on their previous albums. There's just no way you can listen to every song on one of their previous albums without going berzerk. As much as I love them, FLOOD, APPOLLO 18 and all the rest have about 5 songs on them that I actually want to listen to on a given day...not that there's not a love for the others.

My point is, you can listen to "JOHN HENRY" (this album) from start to finish...over and over and never be disappointed. From the beginning 2 tracks, SnailShell and Subliminal, you will be grinning from ear to ear. Listen to the thing all the way through and when you get to great songs like "Thermostat" and "Self Called Nowhere" you'll be more excited than Christian Slater during happy hour.

I bought this album when it was brand new...in like '94 or something. I'm in my upper 20's now and still love it. Put aside all your hesitations, because you won't be singing 'why must I be sad?' after buying this release. Drop your 'too cool' for school attitude about there not being 50 of those fourty second irritating songs on this album,you can pop this in, go on a road movie to Berlin and not have to worry about taking a hand off the steering wheel to skip every other song.

trust me. This contains some of the best songs they ever did. If you prefer "Put your hand inside the Puppet head" to this, throw down your ATARI controller for 2 seconds, change your dirty parachute pants and crawl out of the '80s for a while. Drum machines are for retards and poor people. See you at the end of the tour. April 27, 2007

My favorite by TMBG too

This one has everything you'd want from a TMBG cd. Plenty of variety. Melodic, quirky, rockin', existentialism, etc. All of their cds have some great songs - they also usually have some filler. But John Henry is solid throughout.
This is the album where they turned into a full fledged band - a bad thing to some of their die hard early fans, but I think it really works. It gives them a fuller palette to draw from.
A good place to start if you're not too familiar with the band, and an essential album if you already appreciate them. February 13, 2007

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