Talk:With The Dark

This very much reminds me of Spin The Dial. Anybody else think so? --Valerie 22:38, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Snail Shell

Does anyone think that the trumpet sorta sounds like its playing Snail Shell? -Goodtimes2 (wasn't logged in when i posted)

Oh, wow, I see what you mean... yeah, it does kind of sound like it, but it's not. The melody's a little different. I doubt that it was intentional. Akagi 17:05, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

heh, my mom noticed the similarity while i was playing this in the car. surprised me, since she isn't too big a tmbg fan, but she apparently remembered hearing snail shell on the radio a little bit back in '94. i was but a three year old when john henry came out...--Ehsteve14 04:53, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh dear. The only real clunker of the album. Not as bad as the Guitar or Spy, but bad enough. Lyrically lazy and oblique it's more a musical workout than a song, with a weak acoustic strum morphing in a horn break ect ect and then continues to lurch from one style. Similiar, but inferior to the funky stuff of Mono Puff. Linnell apparently loves it, but it demonstates the Giants at their muso worst. (Mr Tuck)

Ouch. ~ magbatz

I completely disagree with you about this song, probably more than most disagreements I've had with your opinions. Ouch, indeed. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 20:14, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I'll say this, I love the intro. If the rest of the song had been like that, it'd probably be among my top favorite TMBG songs. Franky

Video

THAT is the official video? Pardon my French, but...what the hell? Spiraling Shape 00:43, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what you're talkin' aboot, I LOVED the video. Akagi 01:11, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I loved it too! I practically worhip the album cover of Apollo 18 (I draw whales fighting squids everywhere), and the video made me think of it and smile. And I love puppet Johns :D Jade

I actually set a cropped version of the puppet Johns as my picture for IMing and stuff. Stalefries 04:13, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Separate Live Version?

Should we make a separate page for the live version that TDK recorded? It has different lyrics and it sticks to the same theme from the intro. --WhatIsThatThing 03:14, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

It's completely different from the album version, so my vote is yes. Akagi 03:18, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and made it. If anyone has any objections, feel free to raise them.

Am I the Only One?

I agree with Magbatz that this is probably the worst song TMBG has done in many years. It sounds like they were trying to recreate the success of fingertips but it ends up being a complete mess. The real problem with this song is that is has absolutely no substance. It's just weird for weirdness' sake and that's not TMBG's style. They've certainly been weirder in the past but at least they had some sort of message to justify it.

This song definitely supports my theory that TMBG are not TMBG anymore so much as they are Linnell doing state songs-esque music and Flans doing Mono Puff. They don't sound cohesive anymore to me.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if TMBG had never tried to do rock music and instead had stuck with doing strange semi-electronic pop music. I'm totally fine with bands changing over the years but they should have just moved on after discovering they don't do rock instead of pathetically clinging to it after so many years.

I don't really care if a lot of you die-hard fans vehemently disagree with me. I'd rather not be an apologist, pretending that every single thing TMBG has ever done has been gold. I'm willing to admit that quite a bit of their music sucks.

/vent over.

Well, first off, Magbatz never hated the song. It looks like it was "Mr. Tuck" that disliked it. But I love it. It has the same random style I'm familiar with. But that's my opinion. AND IT SHOULD BE YOURS TOO. You can have your own. Personally this is one of my favorite songs from The Else. Especially the opening/ending. --WhatIsThatThing 06:05, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

You think this sounds like Mono Puff? I don't get it. This is probably one of the most eclectic and diverse pieces that the band has ever recorded without sounding overly wacky (a la Fingertips). It's not just some random little snippets glued together; each of the FOUR (not twenty-one) pieces builds off the previous piece, which is how they're interweaved so nicely, unlike a jumbled mess. The three-minute long song has plenty of substance, especially when you can try to grasp the whole thing (with an open mind?). -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 11:31, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah to me this is a really cool TMBG track, and the disparate sections go together as seamlessly as the parts to "Band On the Run" or "Live and Let Die". -Oddjob 15:37, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Can not understand the hate for this song. --༺𝄞𝄆Ⓠⓤⓔⓛ⎈Ⓓⓞⓜⓜⓐⓖⓔ𝄇༻ 02:55, 15 February 2012 (EST)

It's a terrible song. So bad that I think I only ever made it through twice. I think the idea above is half right is very interesting! Linnell does far more songs that seem to be just him. (Mr Tuck)

Honestly it's just as catchy and fun as Fingertips to me. One of the better songs on what I consider their best album. Harkens back to the Pink Album and Lincoln.--Pittsburghmuggle (talk) 02:13, 5 February 2015 (EST)

:|

It really seems like people hate this song because it ignores normal song structure. I honestly think it's what makes it brilliant. --ZippZapp 17:00, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Mr. Bungle style

Did this song remind anyone else of Mr. Bungle? The genre shifts inside the song seem very reminiscent of their work, especially on the album California. ~bowser724 16:49, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

A Day in the Dark

It has occurred to me that perhaps TMBG were inspired by the Beatles' "A Day in the Life", itself a multi-part epic with grand ambitions that is little more than stream-of-consciousness when you try to dig into it. Exactly 40 years separate the songs. I really like both of them, incidentally. :-) --MisterMe (talk) 23:00, 15 July 2016 (EDT)