They Might Be Giants

Long the darlings of music critics and college radio DJs, They Might Be Giants found a wider audience in 1990 with their third album, Flood. "Birdhouse in Your Soul" reached No. 3 on the US Modern Rock charts, while their version of the tin-pan alley standard "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" became an instant cult classic. The album would eventually be certified Gold, proving that even in an era when grunge guitars were king there was room for a little zany wit and irony.

Because they're such hip, zany absurdists, They Might Be Giants open their first major-label
album with a wacky fanfare. "It's a brand new record for 1990!" goes the
twenty-nine-second "Theme From Flood," sung as if it were a rejected Sixties-TV theme
song. Yes, it's zany, but the joke backfires: In fact, Flood defines the self-satisfied
smugness and proudly disposable pop culture of the Eighties. It's an album that,... More >