Lincoln

Performer: They Might Be Giants
Artist: Benjamin Bossi; Robin Casey; Fritz Van Order; Barbara Schloss; Garo Yellin
Engineer: Al Houghton
Producer: Bill Kraus; Bill Krauss
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: They Might Be Giants: John Linnell, John Flansburgh. Additional personnel: Dr. Kenneth Nolan (drums). The Ordinaires include: Benjamin Bossi, Robin Casey, Fritz Van Order, Barbara Schloss, Garo Yellin. Personnel: Kenny Nolan (drums). Recording information: Dubway Studio, New York, NY. Unknown Contributor Roles: John Flansburgh; John Linnell. They Might Be Giant's second album takes everything that was good about their first and makes it better. There's a greater dramatic range in the sound as well as in the songs and arrangements. Catchy songs abound, and the disc becomes a catalog of the most consistently peculiar hooks to spring out of contemporary music. Meanings are not always apparent (or, it could be argued, are either multi-faceted or simply non-existent), but the songs sound like the hit parade of some alternate world (a better world, some might say). "Ana Ng" and "Purple Toupee" are perfect pop gems, no matter what the lyrics may be saying. Recording as a duo, John Linnel and John Flansburgh pull at everything from kitsch-fueled western moviescapes to plain punkish garage songs to finely honed gems that can evoke Burt Bacharach (as inhabited by the spirit of Monty Python). LINCOLN, and its major label successor, FLOOD, both make fine entry points into the endearingly bizarre world of They Might Be Giants.

Rolling Stone - 3 Stars - Good Spin (1/89, p.73) - "...haughty hurdy-gurdy music compressing tonal history into smug vignettes of global and cosmic hokum, transmuting the base metal of popcore, polka, and poetry into something illuminated..."

John Flansburgh and John Linnell, the two singer/songwriters behind Brooklyn avant-pop cult band They Might Be Giants, were childhood friends who have been working under the TMBG banner since the '80s. The words "nerdy," "geek-rock," and "quirky" have been applied to their melodic, humor-filled songs so often there should be a cross-reference in the dictionary. Over their numerous albums with and without backing musicians (in the early days they used a drum machine) they've offered songs about the most unlikely subjects imaginable, from Belgian painter James Ensor to famed cinematic costume designer Edith Head. Their masterful songcraft is such that they've long maintained a healthy audience for their idiosyncratic sound.

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