They Might Be Giants – The Spine

For over 20 years now, John Linnell and John Flansburgh?here reunited with Flood producer Pat Dillett? have been reliably ploughing their idiosyncratic furrow. Lyrically, the territory they cover is still perversely eclectic: paranoia, Thunderbird wine, nervous collapse (in the touching “Memo To Human Resources”) and giving Bowie a cheekily bad review (in “Au Contraire”). But their five-piece instrumentation is restricting, things shifting up a gear on the few tracks where they add brass. Roll on the concept album, with full orchestra.