Join Us is the new full length record from They Might Be Giants, and their return to more traditional rock albums after some dabbling with more kid-themed and aimed works on their Here Comes The… series. The return to the ‘adult’ format brings us some more classic TMBG zaniness and weirdness with typically off the wall, literate confustications of both bizarre and everyday scenarios. The album certainly features what you would expect in their own brand of quirky rock, but while there are some sublime moments on this album, unfortuantely there isn’t much that really stands out on this record to make it a standout TMBG record. For fans who have been clamoring for more original material, this album will definitely be welcomed and enjoyed, but the album lacks some of the more rocking, catchy and WTF moments that have defined this band’s long career.
The last 2 full TMBG albums, The Spine and The Else, had some really great songs and great constructions of scenarios and weird situations that just worked extremely well. This album features a lot of edgy and quirky twists and turns, but it all doesn’t seem to quite all meld and gel together quite as well as it did on that last 2 albums with songs like “Bastard Wants To Hit Me” and “The Cap’m”. You still have some great oddities here like “Old Pine Box” and “When Will You Die”, where the classic TMBG imagery just oozes from every chord and lyric. “Can’t Keep Johnny Down”, the album opener, is an upbeat song that is probably the closest to the rock leanings that the band has toyed with over the years, but it is still a fairly paced song, as the band definitely isn’t trying to really rock out on any of these tracks. Other bizarre and surreal yet entertaining songs are “Protagonist” and “Spoiler Alert”. While a lot of these are great fun and it is great to have a new full length from the band, this feels more like a collection of great little ideas but not as many fully realized and grown concepts.
By this point in your musical life, you probably are aware of TMBG and know whether you love or hate them. Certainly there are a lot of people who can’t stand the goofiness of this band, but I have to say that I find it really refreshing and enjoy it thoroughly. While this isn’t an album that will sway you to the side of liking them if you didn’t like them before, this is a nice return from the band and it features some really nice tracks. It probably doesn’t stand up to some of their stronger early works, but for fans who have been eager to hear some new stuff from the band, it is really hard to go wrong here and they don’t disappoint. As always, just go in with an open mind and open ears, and be ready to spend a good amount of the album trying to discern what exactly is transpiring in these good old TMBG style songs.
