I won't pretend to know everything about this band, other than I've heard only about half the songs on this live "best of" collection, including "Birdhouse in Your Soul," "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," "Ana Ng," "Particle Man" and "She's an Angel." It's no surprise that all of the above-mentioned come from the band's first three albums, recorded in the late '80s. Back in their day, everyone got a kick out of a clever They Might Be Giants' song when it spun on MTV, but no matter how hard you tried, you could never convince yourself to buy an entire album's worth of their stuff. For the uninitiated, TMBG is quirky, off-beat, sometimes funny, sometimes annoying alterna-music that leans more toward new wave than rock, thanks to reliance on accordion, drum machines and altogether sparse arrangements (being a duo, they had little choice). It was sort of hip art-school music, enjoyed mostly by really smart people who couldn't find an ounce of funk in their bloodstreams if they siphoned themselves dry. As their careers moved forward, TMBG's songs came closer and closer to novelty (where many already had classified them). Some might argue that these live versions are inferior to the originals, and some might be right. With a full band behind them, these original skeletons turn into full-blown swing numbers (just in time for the trend?). A nice compilation, but you might want to wait until a "greatest hits" package comes along. Especially when you consider the seven awful "hidden" bonus tracks "inspired by the Planet of the Apes" that, unfortunatly, close out the CD.

-- Tim McMahan

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Copyright © 1998 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Rating: Yes