Flood

The world is a better place for having They Might be Giants in it.

A BRAND NEW ALBUM? FOR 1990? IN THIS ECONOMY? One of my all time faves from my all time faves. Minimum Wage is low key my favorite song here.

On the other TMBG album I said that this is the one that should have been submitted. They deserve a spot on the list for their niche they've carved out. Glad someone submitted it. My personal rating: 5/5 My rating relative to the list: 5/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Yes.

Blessed every time a TMBG album comes up because it reminds me I in fact love this stuff and should really go Through the whole discography

This album was a staple of my 90s music experience. It was great to visit it again. They Might Be Giants are definitely worth a listen before you die!

Album perfection. This was everything when it came out. I was already a fan but this one showed everyone else. I could and can and surely always will be able to sing along knowing every word to every song. This is foundational stuff to me -- I see that I mentioned TMBG in five other reviews, that's what a touchstone this stuff is. I saw them live in LoDo in Denver, where they starting singing "Everybody conga, I'm not fucking kidding, EVERYBODY conga" until the whole crowd was in one big conga line. Which is to say they are just as fun live as you would hope they would be. I also got them to sign my TMBG shirt after a show in WV and I wore that thing to tatters. Charles Cornell did an amazing musical breakdown of Birdhouse in Your Soul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg2CkEgFgXk Absolutely should have been on the main list and a great share.

The accordion is a vastly underrated badass instrument. I hadn't heard "Birdhouse In Your Soul" in a thousand years (yes I travel through time) and had forgotten the existence of this song - I like it infinitely more than I used to. An album packed with clever melodies that are at the same time both easily-accessible and complex - that's a tough trick to pull off well and they do; I think part of it is keeping the songs tight and short. I have to think Barenaked Ladies were totally influenced by this, especially on "Snacktime" - shut up it's awesome. I was definitely interested to hear this today as back when it was released I was *very much* not into this kind of music (but either way how was no TMBG album in the book??), but again I used to be stupid. Excellent work and a worthy addition. 8/10 4 stars IMO: Belonged in the book? Yes.

The release of this album coincided with my entry into college and the college radio scene so, it was already ubiquitous, and then I had a friend and housemate who played it incessantly for a while, which did not endear it to me at the time. The upshots being I hadn't intentionally listened to any of this in decades, but found I was still pretty much note for note familiar with it. Really, I like these guys - there is a ton of intelligence and intent and talent behind this. We had some of the kids' albums when my lad was a tot and listened to them a ton. I will allow that the almost aggressive quirk can outstay its welcome. But revisiting this classic was fun. On its own terms its a great album.

How in the world is this album not on the original list? I have a deep love for this album, my wife and I even played Birdhouse in Your Soul to start the recessional at our wedding. 5 stars.

Very eclectic and happy sounding. A fun listen

I was nervous going into this one. TMBG is one of the major fathers of quirky nerd music, and I’ve been lukewarm at best on most of the other quirky nerd music that people have been sending in. It's actually a pretty big nostalgia album from my youth, but I hadn't put it on in over 15 years. I think ultimately it’s held up pretty well, but I can sort of feel the strain of how my taste has changed over the years. There’s a handful of all-time great songs on here, but they’re separated by deserts of throwaway tracks, and it feels like there’s not a ton of intention or craft in the sequencing. Fun trip down memory lane, though.

These guys are usually a tad too folksy/quirky for my taste but this LP hit a great middle-ground. The more idiosyncratic songwriting had its time to shine without being overly annoying, and the instrumentals felt more rock-focused and memorable. The album as a whole did feel somewhat disjoint and lacking in a stronger thematic thread, but it was still a solid listen at the end of the day.

Fun

This was just really funny actually it made me laugh. Good comical relief and honestly a lot better than like half of the other albums.

This really is a good fun rock album, deserves to be on the list.

Rockin'

Bizarre but strangely enjoyable

Ah, I was wondering if there'd be a second TMBG album on the list. I'll not delve into my feelings about TMBG again in this review - it's easy enough to look up that agajst my review of the other album - but what I will say is that broadly speaking, this is a much better album than the other one. It does, unfortunately, have too much accordion in it, but it also has probably all (not counting tv theme songs) of TMBGs best-known tracks. Some of those are genuinely good. Others lean heavy into the nerdiness that we closely associate with the band. In my other review I seem to recall saying that you should definitely listen to some TMBG, and I genuinely believe that you should. And I think it should be this one.

They Might Be Giants is a band that makes great and smart songs. If it works the lyrics are great and funny and all the complexity in the melodic and rhythm structure adds another layer. If it does not work, the complexity of the songs is annoying and the lyrics are pretentious and boring. It has great tracks in "Birdhouse in Your Soul", "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and "Whistling in the Dark". The other tracks work most of the time, but not all, resulting in another TMBG album leaving me with mixed feelings.

I'm really surprised this album is not on the list. I think I said that when a different TMBG album came on here. Regardless, I love this album. I know most people think of this album when they hear of TMBG, but they have a lot more in their catalog. But obviously, this is the one you want to start with. Great, great album.

Birdhouse in your Soul is always such an earworm for me....great song. While I don't love TMBG the same as many others of my age, I have grown to appreciate them more in recent years. 4/5

Came just a week after I listened to this album the first time! I was thinking about how of there was one TMBG album here it should be this one. A creative showcase if there ever was one

Hey, this is definitely more deserving than Join Us being on here, no diss to that album of course, but this is just iconic. I think Lincoln is still their best, but this is the album that's obviously missing from the OG list, especially considering it actually had hits, and good ones at that! Still can't tell the Johns apart, though. Oh, how I've tried... anyway, good pick!

Rock alternativo. Ni fu ni fa.

Why did they change it? 3

They might be giants is the perfect band for the oddities. They have serious musical talent while also singing about some off the wall topics. Istanbul is an entertaining song and I’ve heard it many times from a friend who’s rather quirky. I’m sure he fits well into many other people who enjoy this album. Overall it’s good and has solid experimentation while still being enjoyable and cohesive. 6.5/10

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Istanbul

Upon its release, one enjoyed Flood at the precisely correct trajectory and with the appropriate intensity – which is to say, wryly and not too much because there was a perfect song ("Birdhouse") or two ("Istanbul/Constantinople"), indelibly distinct, and not much else beyond gimmickry, willful obscurity, and too many silly set-ups masquerading as songs. Earlier records had much the same effect. Some smart friends liked it, which was good (as TMBG were a distninctly no-musclehead sorta band), but not ideal (because most of the young women one wanted to impress with one's exquisite cultural taste didn't). They were college radio darlings – obviously – when that phase of one's life was wrapping up, too and this sort of record made it seem as if the whole business was getting a bit too baroque, too clever, too lucrative and thus too often over-engineered for one's normie musical tendencies and independent inclinations. The nerdiness and eccentricity seemed authentic, but rather exhbitionistically presented (as bad as the Beastie Boys in that regard). Even then, they seemed a bit one-note and the jokes got tired after only a few listens. Today, the grating factor is higher and the expiry minute comes even sooner. One's resolved to think that "Don't Let's Start" remains the best thing they ever did and that the "novelty act" charge is fully defensible, setting them up as filler for mid-afternoon slots at Gen X-directed festivals forevermore. (One knows they did better; their having prospered by doing TV soundtracks and kids' music (though at least more quietly than Randy Newman) is the tell about how seriously to take their "real" output. Overall, one prefers them to Devo, but has come to like Magnetic Fields more. Dead Milkmen and Mojo Nixon seem criminally overlooked compared to what notoriety TBMG achieved (were those cats any less funny or just less-bizarre-o?) and Camper Van Beethoven come off like the Beatles in comparison. Good for TMBG for opening doors for the likes of Ween, Weezer and other geek rockers, but one also holds them at least somewhat responsible for the precious pretentiousness of The Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel and the like. Thanks for the memories, recommender, but those never are as good as our faulty remembrances would have us believe. Being fair minded, however, one believes that the list proper would be improved by replacing any of following artists' 1990 outputs with this: Megadeth, The Shamen, Deee-Lite, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and maybe even George Michael.

Birdhouse In Your Soul is brilliant, but it also kinda gets on yet tits. A bit like much of this album tbh. It's US college goof. I wonder if the Americans view Ian Dury through a similar cultural lens?

Very feel-good album by TMBG. Never been much of a fan of the second half, but this could have just been "Birdhouse in Your Soul" followed by 40 minutes of fart sounds and it would still be a 3/5 in my book.

This album was a tad stupid. Fun, you know, but in a stupid way.