I think I may have stumbled upon something...

6.20.11

 

3:55 pm

 

Specifically something in regards to the recent decline in the quality of the music of They Might Be Giants.

 

In a recent interview, Flansburgh described the verses from their new song, "Never Knew Love", as " these raging rock moments and very dense with words and very dense with ideas. It's a lot of crazy, compressed thought in the verses."

Two things: first, if someone gave me a list of every adjective in the world and told me to pick the one that best describes the verses in "Never Knew Love", the LAST word on my list would be "chewy". The second to last word would be "raging".

Using a heavy guitar pick on your guitar does not make a "raging rock moment".

Live drums playing a 4/4 beat does not make a "raging rock moment".

Crooning in falsetto does not make a "raging rock moment".

Second thing: these are the words to the first verse of "Never Knew Love":

 

"Cartography/ Is not my métier/ And the mountainsides of daydreams/ Too steep for me today/ Lovers lost before us/ And most did not return/ The few so hale and hearty/ Now broken down and burned"

 

These are the words to the second, and final, verse of "Never Knew Love":

 

"Biography/ Is all they understand/ No semaphore or secrets/ Or just good old pretend/ And now they all are sleeping/ But this keeps us awake/ These words, they need safekeeping/ A promise not to break"

 

Now, I'll concede that there are words and ideas here, but I'll fight you if you argue that the verse is dense with them.

And crazy and compressed thoughts?

Que?

Anyway, the thing I've stumbled onto: They Might Be Giants seem to think they are still making great music filled with "raging rock moments", "crazy, compressed thoughts" and "dense with words and ideas".

Just because a song has the words "secrets", "métier", "semaphore" and "daydreams" in its lyrics, it doesn't make it interesting.

And I believe that TMBG has forgotten that basic fact.

It's along the lines of the song "Experimental Film" from The Spine.

It's about the idea of an experimental film, not an actual experimental film.

Okay, let me put it like this...if I'm hungry, I don't want to see a picture of a delicious meal, I want to eat the delicious meal.

They Might Be Giants, I feel, has been showing us a picture of a delicious meal for almost a decade.

There have been notable exceptions, some songs here and there and the majority of The Else, but, for the most part, they're selling us the shadow of their true selves, their old selves.

Or young selves, I suppose.

Just take a listen to virtually anything from their first four albums and you'll see what I mean.

I hate to be among Those Fans, the "their earlier stuff was better" fans, but...well...their earlier stuff was better.

Rather than puzzling listeners and making us feel like they were the only two people who truly knew what the fuck they were talking about, they're crafting things to be willfully incomprehensible.

"Hey Linnell, does this assembly of words sound random enough for you?"

That kind of thing.

Oh well.

Preaching to the choir, cursing the darkness etc.

 

On another, slightly more devastating note: I just received an e-mail from the head of the facility...apparently, my place of work has just received a deficiency-free report from the Department of Health's recent survey.

Folks, I've said it before and I will continue to say it until it happens: we are gonna fuckin' DIE.

((((((((((((((((((((((((

With further regards to my shitty, shitty hospital receiving a blemish-free review, and the celebratory attitude that's been floating around since the e-mail went out, I'd like to paraphrase Chris Rock, if I may...

"You know the worst thing about (employees at this hospital)? (Employees at this hospital) always want credit for some shit they supposed to do. An.(employee at this hospital) will brag about some shit an (employee at) normal (hospital) just does. An (employees at this hospital) will say some shit like, "(I didn't neglect a resident today." You're supposed to, you dumb motherfucker! What kind of ignorant shit is that? "(I didn't misplace a resident's earthly remains)" What do you want, a cookie?! You're not supposed to (misplace a resident's earthly remains), you low-expectation-having motherfucker!"

Yes.
Thank you, Chris.
All these dumb motherfuckers are going to want cookies now.
And they'll keep wanting cookies the next time they fuck up royally.
Why?
"Because remember that time we didn't fuck up royally?"
A sad state if affairs, my friends...a sad, motherfucking state of affairs.