Longevity and consistency are words that are gradually disappearing, within the music business, even with some of the biggest names in contemporary music, who often sacrifice the quality of their material to the demands of record labels and fans, compromising, in this way, their own artistry and the quality of their material.
Fortunately for us music lovers, though, there are still artists out there like the American Avant-Garde Rock band They Might Be Giants that are not yet prepared to throw in the towel and surrender to commercialism, not even after 40 years in the business and having released, a few weeks ago, their 24th studio album, called The World Is To Dig.
The story behind the making of The World Is To Dig goes back to almost 6 years ago, with most of the album's songs being written even before the 2021 Book album was released, with They Might Be Giant then reprising those songs at a later stage and re-working on some of them, while the rest of the material that completed the new record was in the process to be written by this highly eclectic collective at the same time.
Earlier this year, TMBG (aka vocalist and guitarist John Flansburgh and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist John Linnell) had an EP released and called Eyeball (reviewed by our website too), a record that was announced as a teaser for a complete studio album to be released at a later stage (The World Is To Dig) but was, in reality, a record containing material that TMBG had decided as not fitting in the overall context of their brand new album to be.
Whilst Eyeball was and remain an interesting little body of work, it also threw, in true TMBG spirit, a bit of a curved ball on what was the content of the new material released through The World Is To Dig, a record containing 18 marvellous, eclectic and electrifying sonic shards of music reflecting aptly the vision and the forward-thinking mindset of a band like They Might Be Giants.
In truth, The World Is To Dig is one of the most thrilling and exciting records ever released by the American collective to date, possibly comparable only, in terms of musical and lyrics intricacy and overall musicianship, to albums like Flood (1990) and Factory Showroom (1996), the latter also being the starting point of TMBG's long term working relationship with producer Patrick Dillett, a partnership that continues still to these days, as The World Is To Dig confirms.
They Might Be Giants are and always have been an instinctive collective, when it comes to writing and recording new songs and the choice of different styles expressed on each song part of The World Is To Dig, it reflects very much the spur of their constantly creative flow in a total uncompromising way, in true TMBG's fashion.
Linnell and Flansburgh have such a special way, with songs, where they are able to create strong melodic textures and piece them together under different shapes that can move from anthemic 60's flavoured pop songs (Wu-Tang, Character Flow, What You Get) to Retro Rock'N'Roll (Sensation (Hit Record), In the Dead Mall and the closing They Might Be Feral), taking risks along the way, like on the very abstract and inventive Slow or on the R&B infused track called Get Down; but their artistic risks arecalways calculated ones, knowing that they can rely not only to their own talent and creativity, but also to the high skills of musicians playing on the album that have also been playing live with them for quite some time, like Dan Miller on guitar or Danny Weinkauf on bass, among others.
Polichromatic and sometimes exhilarating in its lyrics, TMBG's new album expresses so many highs and shows a band in a stratospheric form throughout the whole record. To wait 5 years for a brand-new album was worth all along for fans and music press, given the breathtaking outcome of quality exuding from a record like The World Is To Dig, another massive sonic and lyrical landmark in the career of an inspired band such as They Might Be Giants truly are.
The World Is To Dig is out now and can be purchased via They Might Be Giants' Official Website
