Consumer Guide Album

They Might Be Giants: Book [Idlewild, 2021]
I was pleased to learn that the superfacile duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell had regrouped and not especially surprised to determine that they were as catchy now as they were as young wiseasses 25 years ago. What did surprise me when I went poking around for lyrics was that this was their sixth album since I gave 2013's Nanobots a B plus--and that they hadn't crossed my mind since. But I read along indefatigably till I got to track 11 of 15, when "Part of You Wants to Believe Me" inspired me to jot down the phrase "suspension of disbelief," an aesthetic ploy I realized isn't an issue with these guys because they make sure belief is out of the question. And damn it, I miss it--miss being able to pretend that the relationship blips and socio-existential anxieties addressed in their songs, like the relationship blips and socio-existential anxieties addressed in other people's songs, have a biographical correlative I can care about. But no--whether they address 20-car collisions and container ships crawling with snakes in the sand or abandonment by every friend and needing you the most, their hooky concoctions remain formal exercises by definition, a dubious achievement that renders them a quintessential cult band for better but also worse. B+