Album of the day (#1377): Flood by They Might Be Giants - Music

albummaster
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Location: Spain
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Today's album of the day

Flood by They Might Be Giants (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1990.
Country:

Overall rank: 873
Average rating: 76/100 (from 109 votes).

Tracks:
1. Theme From Flood
2. Birdhouse In Your Soul
3. Lucky Ball And Chain
4. Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
5. Dead
6. Your Racist Friend
7. Particle Man
8. Twisting
9. We Want A Rock
10. Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
11. Hearing Aid
12. Minimum Wage
13. Letterbox
14. Whistling In The Dark
15. Hot Cha
16. Women And Men
17. Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love
18. They Might Be Giants
19. Road Movie To Berlin

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

satiemaniac

absolutely one of the best college rock albums ever, the first album i listened to end to end (and one that's gotten that treatment from me probably another 60 or 70 times since then) and an absolute treasure trove of variety, charm, humor, and surprisingly disarming emotional resonance in places.

philbutrin
gaze at my shoes!

Location: liming town

satiemaniac wrote:

... an absolute treasure trove of variety, charm, humor, and surprisingly disarming emotional resonance in places.

after not playing this album for a few years, i ended up listening to it a couple weeks ago in a friend's car. i'd always enjoyed the album, but i have to confess i'd never really listened that closely to the lyrics. my friend is big on lyrics, though, so i started paying more attention to the words, and i was surprised by the insight and poignancy of some of the passages on the album. i've listened to it a few more times since then, and i'm still finding things i'd never noticed before. i guess the johns' colorful, wacky presentation had always distracted me from what they were actually singing about.

satiemaniac

philbutrin wrote:

after not playing this album for a few years, i ended up listening to it a couple weeks ago in a friend's car. i'd always enjoyed the album, but i have to confess i'd never really listened that closely to the lyrics. my friend is big on lyrics, though, so i started paying more attention to the words, and i was surprised by the insight and poignancy of some of the passages on the album. i've listened to it a few more times since then, and i'm still finding things i'd never noticed before. i guess the johns' colorful, wacky presentation had always distracted me from what they were actually singing about.

"Twisting" is probably my favorite juxtaposition of lyrics and music on the album, and that's a hard-won title. "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair" is also a bit heartbreaking

RockyRaccoon
Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Maryland

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TMBG are exceptionally good about writing really catchy songs about weird shit and I love them for it.
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denmarkman

Gender: Male
Age: 30

philbutrin
gaze at my shoes!

Location: liming town

satiemaniac wrote:

"Twisting" is probably my favorite juxtaposition of lyrics and music on the album, and that's a hard-won title. "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair" is also a bit heartbreaking

interesting that you mention "twisting"... that was one of the songs where i realized that underneath the bouncy tune was really a kinda sad song about the end of a relationship.

"lucky ball & chain" was another... the first line makes it clear it's about a breakup, but i'd never listened that closely to lines like "i could shake my tiny fist / and swear i wasn't wrong / but what's the sense in arguing / when you're all alone?"

Skinny
birdman_handrub.gif

This album reminds me of Costello's Imperial Bedroom, except nowhere near as good. I dunno, they wear thin pretty quickly for me. A little too consciously wacky. There's no doubt that they're capable of absolute pop gold ('Twisting', 'Birdhouse in Your Soul'), but then they're also capable of 'Particle Man'. The definition of a hit or miss band.
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denmarkman

Gender: Male
Age: 30

Seriously, though, this is one of my favorite albums of all time. When I first heard it a little over a year ago, I mostly just thought it was a really catchy, really silly album, but that's far from all it is. Sure, the lyrics are pretty goofy in places, but they can also be surprisingly powerful. I mean sure, "We Want a Rock" makes me laugh, but it also gives me goosebumps every time. And while the album is certainly catchy, it's far from a "happy" album. While most of the tunes are upbeat, there's usually a darker side hiding in the lyrics and chord progressions. There's really nothing else quite like it (and no, they aren't that similar to Ween).

And yeah, the run from "Twisting" through "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair" is always one of the first to cross my mind when thinking of dope track runs. All super fun while also being kind of really dark.

If you like this album, check out the rest of TMBG's first 5. They're all pretty great.

Happymeal

I own both this album and Lincoln and most of what people state is true in the sense that this album does have a not quite as joyous side to it, but I honestly never viewed the lyrical content as all that important unless it was goofy (which happens to be a majority of the album). Everything on this particular album is wonderful and perfect in regards to fun and wacky alt rock songs. I think Lincoln did better in overall lyrical content as it was typically of a darker nature all around despite having that goofy and wacky element that Flood is famous for.