An Album For Every Year I've Been Alive: 1986

The Full Roster

Billy Bragg, Talking With the Taxman About Poetry
The Kinks, Think Visual
They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants
Toy Dolls, Idle Gossip

A measly four albums to choose from in 1986. No prizes for the person who guesses my favorite out of this group; it should be pretty obvious, if one knows my musical tastes at all. I am a bit surprised that the Kinks were still plugging away this late into the '80s. Also, Billy Bragg shows up; I think for the only time, at least in solo form.

Favorite Album: They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants

Well, it should have been obvious, especially given the lack of competition. Even with a full slate of competitors, though, They Might Be Giants' self-titled debut would likely win out. They Might Be Giants is not the first TMBG (yeah, that's how the fans do it) album I ever heard--that would be Flood. It wasn't their first album I ever purchased--that would be Miscellaneous T. But They Might Be Giants were certainly the first band I could rightly call my favorite, and are the only band from my childhood that I still listen to today (oh, where have you gone, Def Leppard?).

They Might Be Giants is more synthesizer and drum-machine reliant than the band's later albums would be, which does give it a dated sound, but the songs are just as quirky and clever as they ever were, and in places sneakily witty and rousing. "Don't Let's Start" is an early alternative-rock classic, and "(She Was A) Hotel Detective" is both a parody and well-executed homage to the kind of driving rock songs with which the Kinks were concurrently failing to convince. Wordplay has always been a hallmark of TMBG songs; "Hide Away Folk Family" includes one of my all-time favorite lines: "Sadly the cross-eyed bear's / been put to sleep behind the stairs / and his shoes are laced with irony." The album-closing "Rhythm Section Want Ad" engages in a bit of self-mockery: "Do you sing like Olive Oyl on purpose? / You guys must be into the Eurythmics." It also features the line "Laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank," which would later be borrowed by noted fan Isaac Brock on Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica. And "Don't Let's Start" features perhaps the most pitch-perfect two lines in all of music: "No one in the world ever gets what they want, and that is beautiful / Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful."

I'll probably get plenty of chances to say this in this project, but I'll say it now anyway: I have long loved, currently do love, and almost certainly will forever love They Might Be Giants.



Honorable Mention: Toy Dolls, Idle Gossip

Idle Gossip is a far superior album to 'A Far Out Disc', so it's a tad unfortunate for the Toy Dolls that it had to contend with They Might Be Giants this year. Toning back on the goofiness a bit, and fine-tuning the production, Idle Gossip finds the Toy Dolls sounding just the slightest bit more professional...except for the increased emphasis on football-style chanting, especially in the choruses. Meanwhile, Olga Algar's lyrics address a few more traditional punk rock tropes, such as girl troubles ("I Tried to Trust Tracy," "Silly Billy") and troubles with the law ("PC Stoker," "Geordie's Gone to Jail"), but always with his distinctive sense of humor and high-pitched whine. All of this makes the album a bit tighter and more cohesive than its predecessor, but it's on the more carefree tracks that the band shines best. "Idle Gossip" is a lament of the titular vice, while "You Won't Be Merry On a North Sea Ferry" details the particular pleasures of that particular mode of transport. With, of course, a football-chant chorus.



Most Ridiculous Song: They Might Be Giants, "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head," from the album They Might Be Giants

There's plenty of odd to go around on They Might Be Giants' debut, but this song--released with a promotional music video shot on a 16mm Bolex camera--perhaps encapsulates it best. Love it as I might, even I find the bridge of the song ("Memo to myself / Do the dumb things I gotta do / Touch the puppet head") giggle-inducingly weird.



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