Hello Radio: Songs of They Might Be Giants

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 11, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bar/None Records
• ASIN: B000FQVYF4
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,606 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Ana NG - Self

2. Pet Name - The Long Winters

3. Narrow Your Eyes - David Miller

4. She's an Angel - Charles Douglas

5. Road Movie to Berlin - Frank Black

6. They'll Need a Crane - The Wrens

7. Dead - Steve Burns

8. Letterbox - OK Go

9. Boat of Car - Recepter

10. Don't Let's Start - This Radiant Boy

11. Doctor Worm - Jason Trachtenburg

12. It's Not My Birthday - Fluid Ounces

13. Another First Kiss - Brett Kull

14. The End of the Tour - Hotel Lights

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Full of suprises, both good and bad, July 12, 2006

By 

Samuel W. Swanson (Fayetteville, Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hello Radio: Songs of They Might Be Giants (Audio CD)

No matter the what band you base them on, tribute albums always have the inherent quality of being both great albums and total letdowns. However, in an offhanded sort of way, that is the point of a tribute album: to show how different classic songs can be interpreted by different groups of people. With that being said, "Hello Radio: The Songs of They Might Be Giants" does exactly that. And while some of the covers do tend to fall flat, the number of good (and great) completely outweighs the bad.

While some of the more faithful covers (see: "It's Not My Birthday" and "Another First Kiss") tend to be strictly "just fine," a few of the more deviant covers are the ones that stand out the most. The Long Winters' more upbeat, somewhat racous version of "Pet Name" is terribly fun to sing along, as is David Miller's "Narrow Your Eyes" (listen for the great The Who inspired guitar solo in place of Linnell's accordion solo), and Receptor's "Boat of Car" is suprisingly well done, making the song sound much more interesting, as well as more grimm at times.

As far as the less-than-favorable tracks, This Radiant Boy's obligatory punk cover of "Don't Let's Start" is so lazily performed that it almost sounds more like a parody than a tribute (at least there's already a great cover of "Don't Let's Start" by Common Rotation on their "The Big Fear" album to make up for it). OK Go doesn't do much better either with their cover of "Letterbox." While I commend them for experimenting outside of their usual upbeat sound(the song has a very glitchy and fuzzed out distortion feeling to it, almost reminiscant to Trent Reznor's work), it fails completely engage the listener.

Overall, "Hello Radio..." does exactly what a tribute album should do, and nothing less. Still, I completely recommend that any fan of They Might Be Giants should buy it to at least view (and possibly rediscover) some of their favorite songs from a different perpective.

19 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars worth it, July 12, 2006

By 

J. House (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hello Radio: Songs of They Might Be Giants (Audio CD)

I've been waiting for this collection to be released for a while now. The easiest way to review it is just to do a track by track breakdown of the good songs. I'll pass on the ones I didn't like and let someone else savage them!

1. "Ana Ng" by Self. On first listen this sounded somewhat close to the original, mainly because of the vocals. HOWEVER, this is now my favorite track and is far better than the original. It's done with tons of guitars and layering, and sounds like Self (duh) and a little like some of Brendan Benson's more rockin' stuff. Grade: A+

2. "Pet Name" by The Long Winters. I love the Long Winters, but this track is not as good or polished as their albums/eps. The vocals sound kinda sloppy and off. But it's also much better than the original TMBG track, which I always found annoying. This sounds like some drunken garage-rock REM or Replacements b-side (in a good way). Grade: B

3. "Narrow Your Eyes" by David Miller. Very cool 60's sound on this one--made me think of classic power pop stuff (Who, Raspbberries, mid-Kinks). I've never even heard the original but this is neat, thanks to great guitars and handclappy choruses. Grade: A

4. "She's An Angel" by Charles Douglas. This one's also a really great track that I like more than the original one. Sounds like the Pixies or Lou Reed, and has Pavement-y guitars galore. Nice strange keyboards at the end too. Fantastic, weird stuff that transforms the original catchy oddity into a great spiky rock song. Grade: A

5. "Road Movie to Berlin" by Frank Black. Strange to think the previous Charles Douglas track sounds more like the Pixies than this does, but there it is. Another strong cover that reinvents the original as a country-rock stroll. Not perfect, but I love Frank Black, so this gets Grade: A-

6. "They'll Need a Crane" by The Wrens. My second personal favorite track on here. A complete deconstruction of the song. It becomes an agonizing, bizarre lament that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stick up. The Wrens are such an incredible band. This, like most of their music, gets a Grade A+

7. "Dead" by Steve Burns. The guy from Blues Clues! This one doesn't blow me away, but it's nice enough. Sticks close to the original but with a little bit of a psychedelic/laptop element, if that makes any sense. Pleasant but not essential. Grade: B-

Pass on tracks 8,9,10--none of them hooked me.

11. "Dr. Worm" by Jason Trachtenburg. This is a love-it-or-hate-it song to begin with. I personally find this version endearing and fun to listen to. It sounds folky and playful. Yet obviously some people are going to hate its silly quality... Grade: B

tracks 12 & 13 are okay, but not great.

14. "End of the Tour" by Hotel Lights. This blows the original right out of the water--completely perfect in every way. Hotel Lights have taken a great song and made it completely their own. Sounds mellow, emotional, reminds me of Hotel Lights other stuff, also Kingsbury Manx, and 70's singer-songwriter stuff. Grade: A

Thus concludes my overview of this album--hope it's useful to some of y'all.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Taking the charm out of TMBG, July 17, 2009

By 

Colin Y. (Portland, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hello Radio: Songs of They Might Be Giants (Audio CD)

It seems like such a good thing to see an album that shows other musicians recognizing the accomplishments of John Linnell and John Flansburgh as songwriters. There is, however, an extremely disappointing lack of charm in all the songs on this tribute.

I imagine that anyone who listens to They Might Be Giants listens to them in part because they don't sound like the typical band in the typical radio rotations. How many rock bands employ accordions and baritone saxes? How many rock bands have singers with the eternally boyish-sounding John Linnell or the fun guy energy of John Flansburgh? Not any that I can think of. Say anything about They Might Be Giants, but you cannot say that they are generic.

That is the problem with Hello Radio. Everything that made They Might Be Giants unique and interesting is eliminated. Almost every song on the album is given a generic late 90s era punk rock treatment. You know what I mean by that; that time when everyone was trying to sound like Blink 182. The Wrens' horrible version of They'll Need A Crane could be taught in college courses as an example of everything you should NOT do when recording a punk rock song.

I feel a bit guilty writing this review, because it seems almost like an admission that the success of They Might Be Giants is based more on personality than the quality of their output. Take away Linnell and Flansburgh, and the songs can't fend for themselves. But I guess that's just a fact of the rock band dynamic. Much of it is personality. Then again, when I listen to the original Ana Ng after listening to it on this album, I realize that something has to be said for knowing intuitively what a song should sound like. Despite what any of the artists on Hello Radio think, these songs aren't supposed to sound like typical punk rock. I think it took a lot of genius for John and John to know that an accordion would fit right in with Ana Ng, and somehow they were able to figure out that a woman recorded on a telephone would add a lot to the song.

If you buy Hello Radio and listen to it all the way through, you will find no such ingenuity. Instead you will find a dated, generic sound bolstered only by the amusing lyricism, and that nobody on Hello Radio had anything to do with.