A new They Might Be Giants album has been nearly released under my radar! Actually it slipped in well under my radar, as it seems to have been available via iTunes since May 16th. And indeed, nearly released — as it doesn't actually come out for real until July 10th. I guess the iTunes artist alert feature doesn't apply to pre-release items. As one who prides himself on purchasing the previous 9 TMBG albums on or slightly before their release dates, I still feel okay about being a bit tardy to the pre-release.

How it is? Better. Better than The Spine–at least so far I think. Perhaps it could be the newness, but I actually liked The Spine a whole lot, and this one has been looping non-stop for three days now in more than one of my Macs and my truck.

If you tend to lean towards the Linnell tunes like I do, The Else will rock your socks off. Lyrics and harmonies are as mind-blowing if not more so than you might hope. And that goes for the Flans songs too. Big–neigh, HUGE sound abounds! I'm all a-twitter with a whole new slew of cryptic lyrics to decipher and melodies to harmonize along with on my commute.

The not-as-good parts would be the super short play time. 13 tracks is above bare minimum for my personal full-length album standard, but not even clearing the 40 minute mark puts it in EP status as far as I'm concerned. Especially with the reputation they have for cranking out huge amounts of songs. Such was the same for The Spine.

The other thing that has mildly bummed me out about TMBG songs as long as I can remember, is that the Johns don't sing harmony in each others songs. They sing great together live. On the records, though, I always get a weird vibe that they might not really get along too well in real life. It adds an ominous separation to the songs that I think has always detracted from their studio recordings.

Those pseudo negatives aside, I give this album a full three out of three stars. It's a must have for any TMBG or general nerd-rock fan. New legendary tracks to pay attention to:

1. Take Out The Trash
2. Climbing The Walls
3. The Cap'm
4. The Mesopotamians

Ladies and gentlemen, this is such a good record. Keep your eyes peeled for a refresh to tmbg.com possibly showing up sometime around the real release date, July 10, 2007.