Apollo 18 by They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants
Apollo 18
1992
Alternative
Elektra

1. Dig My Grave
2. I Palindrome I
3. She's Actual Size
4. My Evil Twin
5. Mammal
6. The Statue Got Me High
7. Spider
8. The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)
9. Dinner Bell
10. Narrow Your Eyes
11. Hall Of Heads
12. Which Describes How You're Feeling
13. See The Constellation
14. If I Wasn't Shy
15. Turn Around
16. Hypnotist Of Ladies
17. Catching On Fire
18. Fingertips (Banjo)
19. I Hear The Wind Blow
20. Hey Now Everybody
21. Who's That Standing Out The Window
22. I Found A New Friend
23. Wreck My Car
24. Aren't You The Guy Who Hit Me In The Eye?
25. Please Pass The Milk
26. Leave Me Alone
27. Who's Knocking On The Wall?
28. All Alone All By Myself
29. What's That Blue Thing Doing Here?
30. Something Grabbed A Hold Of My Hand
31. I Don't Understand You
32. I Heard A Sound
33. Mysterious Whisper
34. They Day That Love Came To Play
33. I'm Having A Heart Attack
34. Fingertips (Reprise)
35. I Walk Along Darkened Corridors
36. Space Suit
(Also included is a 400x400 album cover .jpeg)

"Son, I am able," she said, "though you scare me."
"Watch," said I.
"Beloved," I said "watch me scare you though." Said she
"Able am I, Son."

"I Palindrome I"

They Might Be Giants usually get's pigeonholed into some obscure category of music, usually "nerd rock," "intellectual rock," or "college rock." Personally, I consider them a comedy band. But few people find them funny, so I just decided to label this album genre-wise by whatever was most popular on Last.FM. Alternative is what I got, and I guess that's a fair statement as well. The truth is, the music isn't really what matters when it comes to listening to They Might Be Giants. I never all of a sudden think to myself, "I really want to listen to that accordion part in 'The Statue Got Me High'!" Sure, the music of Apollo 18 is great, and it really adds to the experience, but They Might Be Giants has always been about the lyrics, and this one is no exception.

They get called "nerd rock," and "intellectual rock," because of their songs' odd subject matter. Most songs are usually a reference to ancient history, science, films, or literature. The lyrics of the second track, "I Palindrome I," consist entirely of clever wordplay about palindromes, which are words and phrases that can be repeated both forwards and backwards. "Mammal" sounds more like an old elementary school tune like "the leg bone's connected to the--hip bone!" The song is about different examples of mammals, what makes them mammals, and how they function. The strange thing is that lyrics like this work surprisingly well.

But don't get me wrong. The instrumentals in Apollo 18 are also fantastic. The band is consists mainly of John Linnell and John Flansburgh , who together play all of the many instruments featured on the album (and harmonize vocals with each other a good deal of the time). It's mostly made up of your standard guitar/bass/drums rock band, but most songs also feature less conventional instruments, like accordion, saxophone, clarinet, and more. Because of these unique instruments, the music of They Might Be Giants can span genres almost as broadly as bands like Gorillaz. The song "Hypnotist" is a psychadelic jam based around electric guitars with all pedals blazing and reverb-soaked vocals, while the song "Dinner Bell" might as well be sung by a barbershop quartet.

But what you're probably still scratching your head about is the fact that this album has a whopping 36 tracks. The simple way to explain it is that all the songs listed in blue are actually one song. It's called "Fingertips," and it's made up of 18 super short songs that range in length from 4 seconds to a minute and 1. The album was released when the shuffle function on "modern" CD players had just become popular, and was designed to be listened to that way. The Johns put so many songs into "Fingertips" so that if you listened to the album on shuffle, you would mathematically have good odds of having one "Fingertips" track play in between each full length song. I encourage you to both listen to the album on shuffle, and then straight through, to hear "Fingertips" in it's entirety, from start to finish. The last track, "Space Suit," is also a great way to close Apollo 18 after the long, jumbled mess of "Fingertips".

Click here to download (92.44 MB)

This album contains exactly one breif instance of mild profanity. Be aware, but don't let that stop you from downloading if you're offended by things of that nature. It's really not that big a deal on this one.

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