They Might Be Giants were one of the late 1980s success stories. With a drum machine, synthesizers, accordion, guitar and seemingly endless imagination, TMBG captured the hearts of thousands, and helped spawn a new genre of quirky alternative rock.
Now, more than ten years later, we see the issuance of Then: The Earlier Years. A compilation of the first three They Might Be Giants albums (_They Might Be Giants, Lincoln, and Miscellaneous T, in itself a B-side/remix compilation) plus 19 previously unreleased tracks, Then serves as an ideal main course for They Might Be Giants completists as well as fans of their later, major label (Elektra) works.
Purists might complain of the "repackage, repurchase" policy which is employed here; after all, with the exception of the "single version" of two tracks ("Don't Let's Start", "Hotel Detective"), much of the good tracks have already been issued on disc. According to a January issue of ICE, TMBG have slightly tinkered with many of the songs on Then, to make them sound clearer to the listener. In fact, the group compared it to the upgrading of certain Frank Zappa albums - not a distortion of the songs, but cleaning them up. And with the inclusion of the original EP covers, as well as extensive liner notes from the Johns, the duo take great care to "complete" the original process.
The 19 "new" tracks are an assortment of outtakes, genuinely interesting demos, and some trash. "Kitten Intro" is based on a car commercial, nearly two minutes of what could have been an introduction for the band at a concert - and "Critic Intro" is a 90 second tape which *was* used as an early introduction to the band. "Greek #3" is simply a (bad) Greek version of "Number Three", while "Doris Cunningham" is a 12 second soundbite which sounds like the twitching nose from "Bewitched". The bouncy "Now That I Have Everything", from a 1985 demo, stands out as the best of the new tracks - not only by its quality, but from the fact that it lasts more than 30 seconds.
Although uncredited as such, some of the tracks were clearly inspiration for future They Might Be Giants songs. The slow "Fake Out In Buenos Aires" might have evolved into a Sleepy Paco version of "Rabid Child". "Weep Day" also has a South American feel to it while utilizing a bassline similar to "The World's Address", and "Become A Robot" seemingly opens with the introduction from "Hope That I Get Old Before I Die".
Alternate versions of bona-fide They Might Be Giants hits help complete this collection. In addition to variants of "Kiss Me, Son Of God" and "The World's Address" (both of which appeared on Miscellaneous T), there are original or demo versions of "Hope That I Get Old Before I Die", "Don't Let's Start" and "Which Describes How You're Feeling". "Children Singing Particle Man", while cute in concept (a grade-school class singing "Particle Man", recorded by their schoolteacher), doesn't have the novelty appeal which one might expect - and since "Particle Man" doesn't appear until the post-Bar/None / Restless period (on Flood), it seems quite out of place on Then.
For those who haven't purchased all 3 of the first TMBG discs, this compilation offers an opportunity to pick them up, along with a sample of earlier They Might Be Giants works, for less than the cost of two of those discs. Some things truly are better the second time around.
