It's no secret that the American eclectic collective They Might Be Giants have followed their own path without having to compromise with anything and anybody, throughout their longstanding career, as they do still in these days. It would be also a bit unfair to call the band only as an Alternative Rock one, because their music is much more than that.
Since their early days in the 80's as a collective, TMBG, a.k.a. John Flansburgh and John Linnell, have always loved to create music pastiches that take inspiration from the spur of the moment, rather than planning ahead records that could be of a conceptual nature or a more pidgeonholed one, by privileging instead what it spoke to them instinctively, throughout all the different decades that Linnell and Flansburgh have been making music together.
A band whose name was inspired by a 1971 movie of the same name, They Might Be Giants have gone, throughout their career to date, through commercial highs (one of those being their 1990 album called Flood, which went Platinum, at the time of its release) and little lows, but always maintaining a coherent approach to their idea of making music, remaining one of the most innovative, inspired and inspiring bands worldwide.
With something like 23 studio albums on their belt and a new album in the making, due to be released in Spring 2026, TMBG have decided to give a sort of sonic "premiere" of what the next album may sound like, through an EP called Eyeball, which includes, together with its title-track and a remixed version of said track, two more tunes that couldn't have been more dissimilar from one another and from the EP's title-track itself too.
Eyeball is a classic TMBG kind of 90's pop/rock tune, containing that unmistakable John Linnel's vocal approach, in a song that has got all the credential to become a single on the band's forthcoming studio album, thanks also to a well structured melody that could be highly suitable for radio airplay.
The remaining two tracks are symptomatic of the TMBG's wonderful way to embrace music at 360 degrees; Glamour Of Rock has got a little Chicano soundscape, something that makes the tune sound like a sort of Mariachi ballad, where John Flansburgh's vocals fit very aptly to the mood of the song.
Another surprise arrives soon after, thanks to the instrumental tune Peggy Guggenheim, where Flansburgh and Linnell embark a wonderful mash-up journey of Drum'N'Bass and 70's Detroit sound, shaping a very cinematic tune that incorporates the complete philosophy of the American collective about embracing different genres, through their extemporaneity and creativity, mixing them with the band's superb forward-thinking attitude in making music.
If Eyeball represents the shape of things to come, old and new fans of They Might Be Giants can be in for a real treat, next spring, for the band's next record. This EP, although lasting less than 10 minutes, it displays in its entirety the talent of a band able to move ahead musically in such effortless style and still be able to maintain a very distinctive signature sound. Might They Be Giants? They surely are....
Eyeball is out now and it is available to be purchased via TMBG's Official Website
