They Might Be Giants - No!

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Free Music Notes for No!

Free Music Review: Juices, muffins, pasta and cheese.
Hit: 5 Stars

The album touches on all the points that kids songs usually touches on. "Fibber Island," the first song, teaches the joys of imagination, or lying, to be more exact. Flansburgh comes up with off-the-top-of-my-head rhymes like "Here on Fibber Island / No one sings along / We just ride giraffes / And wear bicycles for hats." They cut the last minute off the original version of the song, so that kind of annoys me, but oh well. "Four of Two" is a wackier-sounding version of the old Dial-A-Song favorite. Also, all the morbid stuff about John's dying and his lifeless eyes still staring at that clock were taken out for the kiddies in this version though.

Danny Weinkauf brings his bass guitar over to the mic to take a stab at singing "Where Do They Make Balloons?" the song for that age when kids start wondering where everything comes from. "Hungary isn't hungry and french fries aren't from France / Turkeys aren't from Turkey, they can't fly but they can dance / But where do they make balloons?" This one, with Dan's voice especially, sounds like it could've come off a much older record. After this is safety-teaching song for the album, "In The Middle," which is actually an old New York City Transportation Authority song to teach kids where to cross the street. Robin Goldwasser sings it here. Then Linnell teaches kids about how the joys of language with a song of him singing fun to say words like "hippo" and "mop."

Another oldie, "The Edison Museum" sung by Nicholas Hill, teaches kids about the greatest inventor in history, Thomas Edison. One of my favorites on the record is called "The House At The Top of the Tree," which is one of those classic kids songs like "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly" where on each verse another line is added to the existing verse, until the whole story becomes clear. Since this is a still They Might Be Giants album, it's some inexplicable story about a dog feeding potato chips to a mouse so he doesn't eat you and your house. "Clap Your Hands" is a funky little song that calls for all the kids to clap, jump and stomp their feet! And it might also be a nod to Bruce Haack who made a bunch of kids' albums with songs telling them to do stuff like this, one of which also had a song called "Clap Your Hands."

The last three songs, the band warns, are designed to expedite slumber so listeners should not operate machinery while listening to them. "Lazyhead and Sleepybones" is another song that teaches language, this time synonyms and stuff like that. Then comes the rauccous "Bed Bed Bed" and "Sleepwalkers" which used to be an amazing Dial-A-Song song called "What Is Everyone Staring At." Oh, and did I mention that there's also a whole enhanced portion of the CD that you can see on your computer? The Copping Block web design team made different games you can play for most of the tracks! My favorite is the "I Am A Grocery Bag" game where you basically take all the food out and make a mess with it. You get to feed mice, pop balloons, and make human-shaped chicken dolls dance. It's a kick!

No! is one of those albums that you can just pop in your cd player when you're feeling down and it will instantly make you happy. Everyone could use more kids music in their lives, I think. Buy a copy of this for every little kid you know, and one for yourself, too.

No! Poster

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