The Spine

1	Experimental Film 2:56
2	Spine 0:33
3	Memo to Human Resources 2:02
4	Wearing a Raincoat 3:10
5	Prevenge 2:44
6	Thunderbird 2:38
7	Bastard Wants to Hit Me 2:14
8	The World Before Later On 1:52
9	Museum of Idiots 3:02
10	It's Kickin' In 2:01
11	Spines 0:30
12	Au Contraire 2:26
13	Damn Good Times 2:38
14	Broke in Two 2:59
15	Stalk of Wheat 1:27
16	I Can't Hide from My Mind 2:43

Barnes & Noble

It'd be stretching things to say that They Might Be Giants are still finding ways to break new ground after two decades together, but Johns Flansburgh and Linnell do have an astounding knack for coaxing new sonic crops from the territory they've been tilling for years. This disc, their first since 2002's outstanding kiddie collection, No!, lights on just about all of the duo's touchstones -- the tongue-in-cheek tortured artistry of "Experimental Film," the nerdy psychedelic spelunking of "Wearing a Raincoat" -- producing knowing smiles and occasional outright belly laughs. Office Space devotees will no doubt get plenty of the latter from the deceptively mellow "Memo to Human Resources," one of the wittier modern odes to going postal. As for the sonics, TMBG try on some interesting guises this time around, notably the loopy techno-jazz of "The Bastard Wants to Hit Me," which gets an added boost from a woozy, distorted vocal, and the bouncy, Monkees-like bubblegum vibe of "Damn Good Times." And while The Spine has enough insider wit to satisfy diehard Giant-philes, as with all of the duo's discs, no secret knock is needed to access the party inside. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Arriving just a few months after their very enjoyable Indestructible Object EP, They Might Be Giants' The Spine is relatively disappointing, with fewer memorable moments spread out over its 16 songs. Perhaps tellingly, two of the album's best moments already appeared on Indestructible Object: "Memo to Human Resources" is a brief, bittersweet tune from John Flansburgh that, with witty lyrics like "then the people came to talk me down/but I don't need advice/I'm down" and gently weary harmonies, really captures the feeling of being a perpetual underdog. "Au Contraire," by contrast, finds a who's who of history and pop culture ranging from FDR to David Bowie getting a comeuppance. Unfortunately, most of The Spine's other songs just aren't as memorable or fully developed as these tracks; while "Prevenge" has a clever name and "Damn Good Times" is a fun, bouncy throwaway, they sound more like B-sides or more fully developed Dial-A-Songs than album tracks. Though the album has been touted as one of They Might Be Giants more rock-oriented albums, The Spine doesn't really rock out any more than previous releases such as Apollo 18. Indeed, the album has a few other similarities to Apollo 18: the short, snippet-like songs "Spine" and "Spines" (which finds the band subverting the tight, dry production style of contemporary R&B for their own warped purposes) feel a little bit like an update of Apollo 18's "Fingerprints" tracks. "Experimental Film," meanwhile, is one of John Linnell's typically circular riddle songs à la "I Palindrome I." The vaguely psychedelic "Wearing a Raincoat" is similarly loopy, both in its backwards guitars and brain-twisting turns of phrase like "Sleeping is a gateway drug to being awake again." But references to drugs and "Thunderbird"'s homage to dirt-cheap wine aside, a good portion of The Spine sounds like it was fueled by pop rocks and Kool-Aid, particularly the merry, brassy waltz of "Museum of Idiots" and "It's Kickin' In," one of the band's best rock songs in quite a while. Still, many of the album's high points are on the mellow side, such as Flansburgh's oddly poignant "The World Before Later On," a lament for the flying-car, food-pill future that we've been promised since the Jetsons and still hasn't arrived yet. Because many of The Spine's most interesting moments are also its quietest, the album has an off-kilter feel that goes beyond They Might Be Giants' usual quirkiness. The album's penultimate track, "Stalk of Wheat," is a song about being out of ideas, an idea they already covered on They Might Be Giants' "Number Three"; however, they've never written a song about a creative drought that's sounded so much like a creative drought before. Nevertheless,They Might Be Giants have bounced back from worse dry spells, and even if The Spine is decidedly uneven, it still has enough good songs to please diehard fans and keep them around for the next album. Heather Phares