Track Listings

1	S-E-X-X-Y
2	Till My Head Falls Off
3	How Can I Sing Like A Girl?
4	Exquisite Dead Guy
5	Metal Detector
6	New York City
7	Your Own Worst Enemy
8	XTC Vs. Adam Ant
9	Spiraling Shape
10	James K. Polk
11	Pet Name
12	I Can Hear You
13	The Bells Are Ringing

Editorial Reviews

Product description

They Might Be Giants ~ Factory Showroom

Amazon.com

Factory Showroom is the second They Might Be Giants album to feature the Brooklyn duo backed by a full band. The band allows John Linnell and John Flansburgh to parody the pop music of their late '70s and early '80s youth more accurately, and thus, more wittily. On the disco parody, "S-E-X-X-Y," for example, Iggy Pop bassist Hal Cragin supplies a vintage funk bottom, while arranger Kurt Hoffman contributes a Chic-like string chart. When they follow with the new-wave parody, "Till My Head Falls Off," Graham Maby's staccato bass line, Eric Schermerhorn's jittery guitar chords, and Linnell's bleating organ sound just like the Cars. Of course, this raises the question of whether we really need parodies of Chic and the Cars at this late date, especially when the satires resemble the targets too much to be irreverent, but not enough to be their equal. --Geoffrey Himes

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 4.94 x 0.45 inches; 3.35 Ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Elektra / Wea
Item model number ‏ : ‎ 618622
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ July 27, 2006
Label ‏ : ‎ Elektra / Wea
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000002HKS
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #162,866 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #3,340 in Indie Rock
- #14,593 in Alternative Rock (CDs & Vinyl)
- #72,169 in Rock (CDs & Vinyl)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 58 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

58 global ratings

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Kyle

Almost pure gold

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2014

Verified Purchase

This album is home to two of TMBG's Grammy-worthy songs: Metal Detector and Spiraling Shape. Among these two you'll find other fantastic tracks like Till My Head Falls Off, How Can I Sing Like A Girl?, and The Bells Are Ringing. It seems like there is just a bit of filler on this CD (though it's TMBG so it's the good kind of filler). I still find myself jamming to tracks like S-E-X-X-Y, Exquisite Dead Guy, and James K. Polk. As a die hard TMBG fan, I am quite pleased with this purchase.

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Andrew Robins

my favorite They Might Be Giants album

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2019

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"Putting all reason aside, you exchange what you've got for a thing that's exotic and strange."--the song "Spiraling Shape" brings back fond memories of my former home, Hoboken, New Jersey (where I lived when I first bought this album).

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M@

The Spiraling Shape Will Make You Go Insane!

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2020

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Short but sweet. One of TMBG's better albums.

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Julie Schuler

If you love TMBG you will love this album

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2019

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Spiraling Shape and Til My Head Falls Off are two of our favorites from this album.

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2015

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My favorite song on this album is "Metal Detector!" I bought it after hearing a YouTube channel play the song. If you like quirky, fun music, this is it. "Come on, get in!"

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

Nice pressing of a classic album.

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

Did not work when I tried to play it.

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S.W.

TMBG's 2nd "full" band album; not as good as their 1st but still worthy

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2018

Released in 1996, this was TMBG's second album with a "full" band, rather than mainly as a duo consisting of two guys named John. While I don't think it's as good as their full-band "debut," John Henry, I think it's still quite a worthy album. Some people may have been alienated and offended by TMBG's decision to "scale up," but I think it has made for a lot of very fine music ever since then. Unlike John Henry, which was almost an hour in length with 20 tracks (one or two were very short --- not surprising, considering that this is TMBG we're talking about), this album has only 13 songs (not counting the "hidden" one, which I didn't even know about until recently!) and clocks in at, I think, a little under 45 minutes. (In fact, I believe John Henry remains TMBG's longest [studio] album.) While I don't find it overall as impressive as J.H., it does have a number of tracks that I really like. I certainly don't think it's the dog that other people have said it is.
As is usually the case with TMBG albums, most of the tracks here that I like most are sung by Mr. Linnell. In fact, I really enjoy MOST of the "Linnell" songs here, although I don't care too much for "Exquisite Dead Guy" (which I wouldn't even really classify as a song) or "Your Own Worst Enemy." (I think the guys had about half of what could potentially have been a really good song with the latter!) Also, while I'm not big on songs about Presidents (not that I've heard many of them!), I think "James K. Polk" is fun to listen to! (How often do you hear "singing saws" on music recordings?)
Of the six songs on which Mr. Flansburgh sings lead, I think "New York City" (which is the only song here that no one in the band had a hand in writing) is easily the best, although I would place "Pet Name" as a close second. I like the "old-timey" (VERY old-timey!) wax cylinder recording "I Can Hear You," but it's just the novelty of having those lyrics on that type of recording that makes it any good at all. I guess that makes this the most clever track here, really! The other "Flansburgh" tracks are all right, but not great, in my opinion.
"How Can I Sing Like A Girl?" is the song that I would place at the end of my list of favorite-to-least-favorite tracks on the album (even below "Dead Guy" and "Worst Enemy"!); I'm not quite sure which one I would put at the top, but it may just be "Till My Head Falls Off."
Overall, I like this album, and I don't really see why it has been treated so badly by critics; it may not be the greatest album ever, but it certainly isn't the worst (not in my opinion)!
However, this album may have had (to some people, anyway) a feeling of "finality" to it, at least after it had been out for a few years. Except for the online-only (through eMusic) release Long Tall Weekend in '99, this would be TMBG's last studio album for five years. (There was the live album Severe Tire Damage in '98.) From their eponymous "debut" album (in '86) to this album, Factory Showroom (a decade later), they had put out a studio album every two years --- a pattern that (whether it was an intentional pattern or not) was very "regular" and detectible, at least to those who paid attention to the dates on the albums and/or otherwise followed TMBG closely. By the time of Mink Car in '01, some people (such as ones who might not have been aware of LTW, which wasn't that readily available) might have thought that TMBG were through, at least with studio albums. (Some might have thought in '98 that they would still get one that year after the live album --- which itself did follow the "two years" rhythm ---but they were left empty-handed.) Happily, that turned out not to be the case, although in my opinion at the moment, TMBG STILL haven't topped or even matched John Henry, even with a "full" band. Still, they have proceeded to put out some very good stuff!

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Peter

Einfach schöne Musik!

Reviewed in Germany on March 22, 2009

Verified Purchase

Von TMBG hatte ich bislang nie was gehört, erst durch ihren Song "New York City", den ich in einem Schulbuch gesehen hatte und mir im Netz angehört habe, bin ich auf sie aufmerksam geworden und habe mir gleich diese CD gekauft. Einfach klasse! Unverständlich, warum diese Band so ein Schattendasein (zumindest in Deutschland) führt! Es ist einfach nur schöne Popmusik, flüssig, plätschernd, tolle Melodien und Rhythmen. Viel Pop im Stil der 70er/frühen 80er, ein bisschen Country-Einfluss. Mir gefallen fast alle Songs auf dieser Scheibe total. Sehr zu empfehlen!

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