Search - They Might Be Giants :: Mink Car

Evidence of a collective TMBG fan unconscious?

Jessee J. | Cincinnati, Ohio | 11/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I took a few minutes to check out other reviewers' comments before writing my own and saw that another reviewer (hi Brian) had the same experience I did with this album: we both bought it, listened to it, hated it, hid it, dug it out a few weeks/months/years later, and suddenly loved it. Weeeeeeird.



Ultimately, though, Brian is right; you will get hit by the mink car, and in my case, plastered all over the pavement. Though at first I was turned off by the very funky, poppy, electronic sound, I realized that this was just TMBG's take on the pop music scene, conceptually not all that different from Flood and even more like Factory Showroom (which, unlike other reviewers here, I loved).



Mink Car has a lot of great tracks. It also has some...well...less great tracks. For me, the secret was to listen only to odd-numbered tracks up to "Hovering Sombrero," and to fast-forward past the oddly cacophonous endings of "Wicked Little Critta" and "She Thinks She's Edith Head."



The good tracks are, once you get to know them, some of the Johns' best. "Bangs" is an instantly lovable song that will get stuck in your head for days, and definitely the only song I know that contains the word "proscenium." "Mink Car" itself is a brilliant take on the laid-back lounge sound of a 70's TV show.



"My Man" is a treat for fans who love to tease out the strands of meaning in a good lyric; lines like "I guess my man's fallen out with my head" and the simile drawn between the body's nervous system and a transoceanic cable explore the feeling of separation of body and mind - the "ghost in the machine" concept, with a quirky underpinning suggestive of malfunctioning machinery. It seems very odd to say this about a TMBG song, but it's actually...haunting.



"Hovering Sombrero" is absolutely one of my favorite TMBG songs. The melody is unusually complex (try singing it all the way through in the shower) and the lyrics equally so: "Don't be burdened by regrets or make your failures an obsession or become embittered or possessed by ruined hopes - remember when you take yourself for granted, feel rejected and unwanted, know you're never just a hat, you're never only just a hat, you know..." I always find this an uplifting song, great for when things aren't going well and I feel like I'm just a hat.



Other songs - "Older," "Wicked Little Critta," "Man, It's So Loud in Here" - are just plain fun. I'm sure I've many times attracted the attention of fellow motorists when I cruise along the highway waving my imaginary stein to the tune of "Drink!""