TMBG's Upcoming 24th Album
 |
Studio album by They Might Be Giants | |||||
| First released | 2024 | Tracks | TBA | Last album | BOOK | |
| Label | Idlewild Recordings | Length | TBA | |||
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The 24th studio album by They Might Be Giants is currently in production. According to the TMBG Instant Fan Club signup page for 2024, the album "will land later in 2024."[1]
Contents
Background[edit]
John Flansburgh and John Linnell began mentioning their work on the next album in interviews during BOOK's press cycle, such as this quote from John Flansburgh in an October 18, 2021 Stereogum interview:
Writing and recording and doing this stuff, it's such a strange compulsion for us, and it's something that we do whether we're prompted to or not. I mean, we're actually working in earnest right now on the next album, and this album [BOOK] hasn't even come out yet. So it is something that we just do. But that's healthy. I think having a laboratory environment for your songwriting and whatever your creative process is, treating it like it's just one big experiment is a great way to work, and it's a great way to feel.
In April 2024, signups began for the year's edition of the TMBG Instant Fan Club, with the upcoming album included as one of the main perks, to be delivered later in 2024.
Sessions[edit]
The first studio photos and clips from the album's production were posted on the @tmbgofficial Instagram on October 2 & 3, 2021[2][3][4][5][6][7], with more six months later on April 12, 2022[8]. On the November 18, 2022 edition of the annual They Might Be Playing They Might Be Giants radio show, John Flansburgh mentioned during a call-in interview that he had to finish a song that night called "You Heart Your Bad Attitude,"[9] though he did not mention if it was an album-bound track.
The next studio session days referenced on TMBG's social media came in early 2023, with photos and posts on February 15, 16, 23, 28 and March 1.[10][11][12][13][14] In an interview published March 8, John Linnell mentioned that they were making progress on recording the next album:
I think we've got about ten tracks that are done, or tracked anyway. But ideally, we get like, 20 or 30 songs together before we even decide what the album should be made up of. In the past, I think the best albums we've made, we got like, 30 songs finished, and then we picked the best ones to put on the album. Or the ones that go together as an album, I guess is a better way of putting it. We're not even halfway through that process, but we are busy. We’re very busy working on stuff, and I'm pretty happy with what we've got so far.
In November 2023, the band returned to the studio to "continue our musical efforts for 2024's release schedule," according to their email newsletter. A photo featuring a miniature figure of Linnell behind a studio microphone was posted to Instagram on November 14.[15] On December 7, Mark Pender posted a photograph of himself, Stan Harrison and Dan Levine in the studio recording for TMBG.[16]
Build-Up[edit]
A new song titled "The Glamour Of Rock" debuted at a concert on May 9th, 2024 at Mr. Smalls Theater in Pittsburgh, with Flansburgh confirming that it would be included on the upcoming album. It had previously been previewed by Flansburgh on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter videos uploaded on September 24, 2022 and January 15, 2023.
They Might Be Giants confirmed in a June 2024 radio interview that they hope to release the album by the end of the year, likely around the holiday season. In a July 2024 interview, Linnell said the band has "an entire, pretty much, finished album in the can now [and] people can look out for that at the end of this year. We spent a couple years working on it 'cause everything has kind of slowed down in terms of our touring, so we've had lots of time in the studio writing and recording."
In an August 2024 interview, Linnell revealed the potential number of tracks for the album:
I just got an email from Flansburgh. He's proposing a sequence for it, and his proposal is for an 18-song album, [which] is a very They Might Be Giants length of album. I'm very happy with what we've got so far, and there's time to record any last-minute entries as well. That'll be out at the end of this year or beginning of next year, something like that.
Confirmed songs for inclusion[edit]
Potential songs for inclusion[edit]
- Track with "Attention" in the title[17]
- "The Blob"[18] (cover of a Bacharach & Mack David song originally recorded by The Five Blobs)
- "Killing"[19]
- "Tan Minivans"[20]
- "You Heart Your Bad Attitude"[21]
Other recent studio recordings (less likely)[edit]
- "Feel Good Sublet"
- "Lazy"
- "stelluB"
