So You Stopped at "Flood": 5-Song Playlists for Every Post-"Flood" TMBG Album

Whenever I read about They Might Be Giants online, just as often as I run across effusive praise from superfans (like myself, natch), I run into the inevitable "I listened to Flood, but never anything after that." Some folks acknowledge the subsequent catalog of Johns Flansburgh & Linnell is daunting to dive into--and it is, as they put out 21 albums *after* Flood--while others were wary of how the Johns' sound would or wouldn't evolve.

Thus, here's a primer for every "proper adult" post-Flood album by TMBG for those curious of dipping into their vast catalog. I've created 5-song playlists from each album that, in my humble and obsessive opinion, are both the best a given album has to offer, but also capture the vibe and tone of the album in miniature. A YouTube link is included for each song for your perusal and consideration.

Before diving in, note that I'm excluding their children's albums, compilations, live albums, concept albums, bonus albums or EPs--or else this post would be triple the length! Without further ado...



Part 1: The 1990s

Apollo 18 (1992)

There's a fair chance you may have seen a video or two on MTV (back when it was relevant) from this album! Though the Johns didn't yet have a dedicated backing band yet, they continued to feature several guest performers and vocalists with their follow-up to Flood--most notably Robin Goldwasser's vocals on "The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)" and the handful of non-John singers featured throughout the tour de force "Fingertips".

I Palindrome I

The Statue Got Me High

The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)

See the Constellation

Fingertips

John Henry (1994)

The first TMBG album to feature a full-backing band. Despite the shift away from heavy reliance on synths and drum machines, John Henry was absolutely bursting to fresh ideas and explorations of musical styles (e.g., the super-dark tragedy of "Why Must I Be Sad?", the a capella gravitas of "O Do Not Forsake Me"). This one features what's become my all-time favorite song of theirs, "AKA Driver" (aka "NyQuil Driver," renamed due to legal reasons).

AKA Driver

Sleeping in the Flowers

No One Knows My Plan

A Self Called Nowhere

The End of the Tour

Factory Showroom (1996)

The Johns got even more experimental with his album, opening with a legit ode to gettin' it on ("S-E-X-X-Y"), a song entirely recorded on an Edison Laboratory wax cylinder recorder ("I Can Hear You,") and flirtations with "normal-sounding" blues-inspired songs of love gone wrong (the excellent and featured "Pet Name").

Till My Head Falls Off

How Can I Sing Like a Girl?

Spiraling Shape

Pet Name

The Bells are Ringing

Long Tall Weekend (1999)

The two most notable things about this album: it's the only TMBG album to open with an instrumental track ("Drinkin'"), and even crazier, it was the first album by a major recording artist released entirely online. 'Tis a shame, then, that this is easily their weakest album. The following are handily the five best tracks--legitimately great and would slot in nicely with any of their stronger efforts. (My personal fave is the darkly funny "Certain People I Could Name.")

Drinkin'

Certain People I Could Name

Maybe I Know

Lullaby to Nightmares

They Got Lost

Part 2: The 2000s

Mink Car (2001)

Plenty of solid tracks on this one, but continued a trend of not quite reaching the highs of their albums of the '80s and '90s. The absolute highlight is the pulse-pounding Pet Shop Boys-esque techno homage/parody "Man, It's So Loud in Here." Also the first album of theirs to have a proper "title track" (the evocative piano-driven "Mink Car"). This album also has the unfortunate distinction of releasing on 9/11/2001; I remember buying the CD of this that day in sort of a fugue state. It definitely helped me through that period in time.

Man, It's So Loud In Here

Cyclops Rock

Hovering Sombrero

My Man

Mink Car

The Spine (2004)

It's the "That Homestar Runner video" album! Another decent album with a handful of total bangers (aka the 5 listed below), surrounded by lots of OK ones. The first time one of their albums dabbled in a "mini concept" tucked into a "regular" album (featuring the super-short thematic tracks "Spine" and "Spines"). Features maybe one of their catchiest, bounciest songs every, "Damn Good Times."

Experimental Film

Bastard Wants to Hit Me

It's Kickin' In

Thunderbird

Damn Good Times

The Else (2007)

For me personally, this felt like a massive course correction for the Johns. This in my top 3 albums of theirs, and one of the few with "no skips". Fun fact: it was produced by The Dust Brothers, who also worked with the Beastie Boys, Beck, and the Rolling Stones, to name a few.

Mighty hard to pick a top 5 from this one. Includes one of my all-time fave songs of theirs, "Climbing the Walls." "With the Dark" is a rollercoaster of a song, whipsawing between what sounds like 5 different songs, while "The Mesopotamians" the Johns' oblique commentary on the Iraq War disguised as a goof on the Monkees' theme song.

Climbing the Walls

The Cap'm

With the Dark

Withered Hope

The Mesopotamians

Part 3: The 2010s

Join Us (2011)

This one came after what felt like quite a long between albums (at the time, the longest between releases). It built on the strengths of The Else, pushing more envelopes and trying new musical styles (the Johnny Cash-esque bumpin' "In Fact," the breezy sunny-day '70s pop vibe of "Let Your Hair Hang Down," and the uncategorizable myth-building of "Three Might Be Duende", featured below). Since 2016, their track "When Will You Die?" has become quite popular and timely. I leave it to you to sort out why.

Also the first in a string of albums with videos created as part of fan contests. Check out the absurdly clever (and very "cheeky") backwards-style video for "Can't Keep Johnny Down".

Can't Keep Johnny Down

Canajoharie

When Will You Die?

Judy is Your Viet Nam

Three Might Be Duende

Nanobots (2013)

A curious one. Overall really solid, and one of the longest by track length, but for me, very uniformly "pretty good"--no clunkers, but not a ton of top-tier songs either. Notable for being as close to a concept album as one of their regular albums get: Not only is there a title track called (and about) "Nanobots," but the album has several "Fingertips"-style mini-songs peppered throughout the album... to varying degrees of success. The best of which is the 45-second mindbender "Sleep," which will have you questioning the very nature of your existence in less than a minute.

It's also curious, for me anyway, that it's the only album of theirs I felt has the songs "in the wrong order." Hit me up if you ever would like my suggested reshuffling of the tracks ;)

Nanobots

Circular Karate Chop

Lost My Mind

Sleep

The Darlings of Lumberland

Glean (2015)

Another top-tier album IMO, and save for one or two, a virtual "no skips" one for me. This was one of 3 albums they put out in 2015 (!!!) as part of their first "Dial-A-Song" revival projects, where they released a video *every week* of 2015, with 2 "proper adult" albums and a children's album coming out of it.

Despite the potential for there being a lot of middling stuff, this one ended up being one of their best. Also continued the trend of a fan-made video contest; see my favorite from the contest for "Erase" below.

Erase

Music Jail, Pt. 1 & 2

Answer

All the Lazy Boyfriends

Unpronounceable

Phone Power (2015)

... Remember what I said about their big 2015 project? This is the other "proper adult" album that came out of it... and it admittedly feels like a bunch of leftovers. Some absolute gems (some with truly memorable videos--check the "adorable lab mice" one for "I Love You for Psychological Reasons," and the "guy beats the Grim Reaper at ping-pong" epic for "I'll Be Haunting You")--but much of it was basically what they didn't think was strong enough for "Glean," and it kind of shows. (One unexpected highlight: their AV Club Undercover take on Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills," which has rightly become a staple of their live shows.)

I Love You For Psychological Reasons

I'll Be Haunting You

ECNALUBMA

Daylight

Bills, Bills, Bills

I Like Fun (2018)

Because doing a song a week for 2015 simply wasn't ambitious enough, they did it again in 2018 for their 2nd Dial-A-Song project, again yielding three albums (two for adults, one concept album for a one-off comic book). And, as with Glean and Phone Power in 2015, so were this album and its follow-up (more on that later).

Strong album--not quite top-tier, but better than their '99-'04 stretch. (The cover continued a curious trend of ever-more-minimialistic album covers, sort of starting with "Glean." Just you wait for the next few album covers... there's so little to see! ;) This was notably released a few years after the 2016 US Presidential election, and you can tell a lot of the tracks are informed by the general vibes of the time--some more oblique, others far more on the nose (like the well-intentioned but awkward "Lake Monsters," about swamp creatures voting to save the nation). Definitely a darker edge overall, but nonetheless top-shelf stuff.

Re: the videos--check out the brilliant POV-warping "I Left My Body," as well as the "apocalypse on a farm" "By the Time You Get This"--featuring the Johns themselves!)

I Left My Body

By the Time You Get This

An Insult to the Fact Checkers

When the Lights Come On

Last Wave

My Murdered Remains (2018)

As Phone Power was to Glean, so was this to I Like Fun--a handful of solid gems padded with what was very obviously filler. (They had so many leftovers, there was a bonus album accompanying this one called More Murdered Remains).

Speaking of which, it of course has the most off-putting title of any TMBG album (it is taken directly from song "Mrs. Bluebeard," which appears on "I Like Fun," but still...yeesh.)

A lot that's average, but still plenty to like, and what's there is fabulous. And if you're looking for a clear-throated anti-fascist pro-music anthem, look no further than "The Communists Have the Music."

The Communists Have the Music

I've Been Seeing Things

Gudetama's Busy Days

Selectionist

The Neck Rolls Aren't Working

Part 4: 2020s

BOOK (2021)

TMBG now in its 5th decade! An improvement over the last album, with a cover (which is pretty cool) that's the apex of minimalist TMBG covers. Notably titled in all caps, it's sort of a "concept album by proximity"--the album's song aren't themed, but it was available for purchase with a hefty (and also pretty cool) coffee-table book full of artsy photography paired with typographic art of the lyrics from this and the last few albums of theirs.

This album came out in the early days of the COVID pandemic, and there are definitely songs in here reflecting their mindset (the "increasingly worse press conference" madness of "Synopsis for Latecomers", and the "losing all track of time" disorientation of "I Lost Thursday"). And it features one of my favorite songs of theirs of the last 10 years, the breathless "I can't do the math of life to save myself" frantic bop "Less Than One."

Synopsis for Latecomers

Moonbeam Rays

Brontosaurus

Part of You Wants to Believe Me

Less Than One

The World is To Dig (2026)

Preceded by the longest gap between albums to date, due to reasons ranging from COVID to Flans healing from a car accident. A solid effort, made all the more impressive considering the Johns are in their mid-60s at this point and cranking out anthems praising the Wu-Tang Clan, funk jams warning about alien invasions, and punk-pop ditties sung entirely in French. Like I Like Fun, many tracks on these were responses to the many stresses of the mid-2020s. (The peppy "Character Flaw," for example, sure sounds like it's from the POV of someone strong-arming folks at the government's behest). Packaged with a gorgeous (and an actual, not-AI) painting of Yosemite, it's a miracle TMBG is still going strong.

Wu-Tang

Sleep's Older Sister

Outside Brain

Get Down

Character Flaw