A is for alphabet, J is for John

[vovat]

bethje and I had wanted to buy tickets to an upcoming Tori Amos concert. There was a presale today, and the tickets apparently sold out within two minutes, so I didn't get any. The website was set up poorly, in that it required you to set up an account BEFORE it searched for tickets, but it didn't tell you this ahead of time. I'm not sure if this really made any difference, but it was still annoying. The even more annoying part was that, before hearing about the presale, I was planning on getting the Pizza Hut lunch buffet, and I ended up not getting any pizza OR tickets.

Work was called off today due to the snow, which is pretty cool, but I don't know that I've really taken advantage of my time off. After the ticket-buying didn't work out, I went to the post office to mail the CDs for the swap at the Frank Black Forum. A few of them were going to other countries, and they made me fill out some kind of customs forms for those. By the time I had finished filling out the envelopes AND these forms, my hand was really worn out. I got them all mailed, though. Then I picked up Beth, whose school let out early, and we went out to eat at Chili's, using the third of the gift certificates that my dad gave us for Christmas.

So, I got Here Come the ABCs, the new They Might Be Giants release. There's a CD and a DVD, but I haven't had a chance to watch the DVD yet, but here are my thoughts on the CD songs, based on at least two listens to each one:


Here Come The ABCs--Short introductory track. Okay for what it is.

Alphabet Of Nations--A genuinely good song, and not just by the standards of TMBG's kids' songs about the alphabet. They performed this on Conan O'Brien with an added bridge, which was pretty cool.

E Eats Everything--Pretty catchy. This is one of the few songs where I've actually seen the video, and I thought the Pac-Man motif near the end was amusing. (Yeah, I should probably have waited until I review the DVD to mention that, but what are you going to do?)

Flying V--The jazzy keyboard part to this is pretty cool.

Q U--Um, okay for a song about this letter combination, I guess. Otherwise nothing special, but not bad, either.

Go For G!--Really catchy, upbeat tune, especially in the chorus. I think this is a song where they could easily reuse the same tune (or at least a similar one) for a more "adult" song. Not that I think they will, but they COULD.

Pictures Of Pandas Painting--Another song where the music and style are far superior to the lyrics. I mean, you can't exactly expect masterful lyrics when the songs are about the alphabet, but this has a nice psychedelic sound that I think could have been used for something more interesting than brief alliterative phrases. I guess that's kind of a theme for this album.

D&W--Not that great, but I like the contrast between the music in the two parts of the song. The dialogue at the end is the best part. "I got this big TV set at home now, and I like to watch the sports."

Fake-Believe--Another power-of-imagination song along the lines of "Fibber Island" or "Impossible." Not really as good as either of those songs, but I do think it has a good beat.

Can You Find It?--I don't think this one really works without the visuals, and it's not a particularly great song anyway. The line where they admit that the hidden L is "part of the H, which isn't fair" is amusing, though, and I like the callback to "D&W."

The Vowel Family--Repetitive, with goofy voices. Not one of the better songs.

Letter/Not A Letter--If you thought "Can You Find It?" didn't work without the visuals, you're REALLY going to think that with this one. At least that had an actual song, while this is just some music with kids yelling, "That's a letter!" and such on top of it. The liner notes credit "Henry Linelli" as one of the voices. Is this a pseudonym for John Linnell's son?

Alphabet Lost And Found--Current drummer Marty Beller finally gets a chance to sing. One of the better songs on the record. I like the various spoken announcements.

I C U--Not about the intensive care unit, but simply a song where the lyrics are made up entirely of letters that can double as words. This one is done in a country style. It's a creative concept, certainly.

Letter Shapes--This one doesn't even have any lyrics, and the music is nothing to write home about. Maybe this is another one where you pretty much need the visuals.

Who Put The Alphabet In Alphabetical Order?--I generally like Robin Goldwasser, but this song doesn't do much for me.

Rolling O--Another song with no words, but the music is considerably better than that for "Letter Shapes."

L M N O--I like the "Professor Flans" introduction, although I have to wonder whether anybody REALLY mistakes "LMNO" for one letter. Maybe Flans himself did when he was a kid. The song itself is okay, I guess, but nothing spectacular.

C Is For Conifers--An educational song primarily about something other than the alphabet itself, which is a refreshing change of pace. I like this one pretty well.

Fake-Believe (Type B)--As you might have guessed, it's a reprise of "Fake-Believe." I think I actually like the lyrics to this version a little better.

D Is For Drums--Primarily a conversation between the two Johns. The exchange towards the end about juice is funny.

Z Y X--It's the alphabet again, but BACKWARDS this time! The music is pretty good.

Goodnight My Friends--Short little song to end the album proper.

Clap Your Hands--The first of the exclusive Amazon bonus songs. It's either exactly the same as the No! version, or similar enough as not to make much a difference, and I didn't really think the song was that good in the first place.

Here In Higglytown--The theme to Higglytown Heroes, some Disney show about live nesting dolls or something. I've never seen it, but the song is pretty catchy. The was a video for this theme on the Internet, which included a spoken reference to "The Guitar" before the song proper.

Hovering Sombrero '05--A scat/electronic version of my favorite song from Mink Car. Why they would choose this song to give that kind of treatment is beyond me, but I don't think it works very well.

Overall, a bit subpar for TMBG, but, really, I wasn't exactly expecting it to be my favorite TMBG album or anything. I think of it more as a "project," like the CD they did for McSweeney's, than as an actual album per se. It's oriented much more toward little kids than No! was, but I still think it's worth getting if you're an adult fan.


In the near future, expect a review of the DVD and an in-store performance, and probably some comments on the new Tori album. I'm listening to that album right now, but I'm only on the second song.

You scored as Democrat. </td> Democrat 100% Anarchism 92% Green 83% Socialist 67% Communism 67% Republican 33% Nazi 0% Fascism 0% What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In? created with QuizFarm.com

Hmm, I'm 92% anarchist? Should I be scared? And would anyone actually answer "yes" to the "Are you racist?" question?

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I always thought the LMNO thing was pretty common; I know my mom used to think that (I mean, you know, waaaay before she became my mom, of course, but, still). She said that in schools they used to do the alphabet song really fast, which gave that impression. I think schools tend to slow it down a little bit now, because I tend to remember pretty much enunciating the spaces between L M N O, probably to stop the LMNO letter.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

You're probably right. I just hadn't heard of it before.

[obsessical.livejournal.com]

I thought LMNO was one word.

Can You Find It? is one of my favorite songs on there. Other than that, you seemed to like and dislike all the songs that i did.

Oh, excpet I totally *love* the 05 version of Hovering Sombrero. I'm not sure why they did it, but for some really strange reason, I can't stop listening to it. The "don't be shy" part is really the best part. I like listening to that over and over again.

The DVD is cute, and makes Alphabet Lost and Found and Can You Find It? even better. I agree with you, it's like a project They did. It's still pretty cool for something geared towards children. I think it's audience is much differnet from the audience that No! was geared towards, though.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

"Can You Find It?" isn't really bad or anything. I just think it doesn't make that much sense without the visuals, you know? Also, I thought of another line in that song that I thought was really amusing: "Is it invisible, or is that against the rules?"

[richegreen.livejournal.com]

I haven't even seen the DVD, but Can You Find It is my fav song on that album. Although, that isn't really saying much.....

[k1cup.livejournal.com]

Urgh! I'm still waiting for my copies to arrive from Amazon. I guess I won't have them for tomorrow's Borders appearance. :(

I have a feeling I won't like this opus as much as the adult stuff. Although, I really like "Flying V".

[pandaman27.livejournal.com]

I find huge amounts of charm in childrens music, and tmbg are tied for my favorite band, so I'm going to love this album...when I finally get it.

[loz]

I really want that album now, just to listen. I like your write up of each song.

I find I can't do that generally, because I'll either hate or love a song for no discernable reason, and it will change over time.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sometimes happens with me, too. For some reason, I find it easier to do that with TMBG than with most other artists. There are times, however, when I'm trying to do a song-by-song review, and all I can think of to say for some of the songs is, "Yeah, this is pretty good, I guess."

[titletownie.livejournal.com]

The even more annoying part was that, before hearing about the presale, I was planning on getting the Pizza Hut lunch buffet, and I ended up not getting any pizza OR tickets.

I'm really sorry.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It's okay. I'll get the lunch buffet some other time.

[onib.livejournal.com]

I think I pretty much agree with you on your reviews. I still need to sit down and watch the DVD, too, so maybe I'll like the visually oriented ones more after I can attach some images to them. I'm kinda torn on Sombrero '05. I loved this song on Dial-A-Song and on the Mink Car album. I loved watching it progress to its previous form, and think it's an amazing song on many levels. Having said that, I really liked the upbeat, fun musical treatment it received here, but I hate that it lost the amazing lyrics that drew me into the song to begin with. [On a side note, I find sometimes that I like many of their songs faster, and that they play them faster in concert - Thunderbird is a fine example here. One of these days, I'm going to rip all their albums and speed up every song by 10 - 20% just to see how much of a difference it makes.]

[onib.livejournal.com]

In regards to Tori, I hadn't even heard about the presale, and was waiting to buy regular tickets from cc.com when they go on sale tomorrow at 10am.

[therealtdk.livejournal.com]

The liner notes credit "Henry Linelli" as one of the voices. Is this a psedonym for John Linnell's son?

Seems more like a misprint, since it has the correct spelling on the DVD liner notes.

Letter Shapes--This one doesn't even have any lyrics, and the music is nothing to write home about. Maybe this is another one where you pretty much need the visuals.

Did you notice that there are twenty six letter sounds? Each sound represents the shape of its corresponding letter. It's actually really neat.

[aliste.livejournal.com]

Re: Linelli, I thought that might have been meant as a joke, to rhyme with "Tomaselli" which is the name of the other little boy who's credited. Although it does seem kinda sloppy for them to have changed it between the two different packages.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Seems more like a misprint, since it has the correct spelling on the DVD liner notes.

Yeah, I hadn't yet read the DVD notes when I wrote the entry. Whoever typed it up probably mixed up his name with that of the other kid, Desi Tomaselli. (I wonder who he is.)

Did you notice that there are twenty six letter sounds?

No, but that's pretty cool. It still works much better with the visuals, though.

[richegreen.livejournal.com]

agree with you on most of the comments. In general, I'd say it is their weakest album so far (this is after two complete listens), and I'm probably not going to buy it, especially if all of these songs are on the DVD as well. It's really pretty silly that they'd even release songs that make no sense without visual material anyway!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but if they HADN'T put those songs on the DVD, people probably would have been complaining about that, and recording MP3s of the audio from the DVD.