I Like Fun
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Studio album by They Might Be Giants | |||||
| Release date | January 19, 2018 Release details / collectors: Show | Hide |
Tracks | 15 | Last album | Phone Power | |
| Label | Idlewild Recordings | Length | 40:58 | Next album | My Murdered Remains | |
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- This page is for the album. For the song of the same name, see I Like Fun (Song).
I Like Fun is the 20th studio album by They Might Be Giants. The band began recording on April 3, 2017,[1] using the same studio space that they did for Flood. The album was released on January 19, 2018. It features artwork by Paul Sahre, who used t-squares and X-Acto knives to create the collage. The font is Prensa.[2][3]
Purchase[edit]
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| AAC | $9.99 |
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Background[edit]
The Johns have commented that I Like Fun's lyrical content was a reflection of the times in which it was written. When asked how the album differed from previous ones, John Flansburgh replied, "In some ways I think there might be a little bit more dystopian kind of bleakness, but how that really hits the ear of the listener is hard to quantify. I think making an album in the Trump era has this — you know, something is going to be kind of baked in there that’s different than any of the other times."[4] Flansburgh also mentioned the relatively political nature of the album was in line with their previous work on The Else.[5] When asked about the album's subject matter, John Linnell said that current events affected the album "in a general way, but they're not specifically topical songs."
An early press release briefly visible on Amazon in late 2017 referred to the album by its original working title, My Murdered Remains, a lyrical quote from the album's song "Mrs. Bluebeard". According to the album's cover designer Paul Sahre, the title was changed to I Like Fun only months before release, as the original title felt insensitive following the gruesome 2017 Las Vegas shooting in October. The cover design, a literal reference to the original title featuring typewritten words depicted as being "murdered", had already been completed and needed to be redone to reflect the new title. The following year, the band repurposed the original title and artwork (with a slight reframing) for its next album, reflecting that much of its material was recorded around the same period.
When asked on Facebook on how the title of the album was decided, Flansburgh commented, "It is the name of one of the songs, and we were having a hard time coming up with something as a standalone title, so when we reviewed the songs it seemed to work. The song itself is not as happy as the title suggests, but we are a complicated band." He confirmed that the title was decided at the "very last minute".[6]
The album's track listing was revealed on October 23, alongside an early download of the track "I Left My Body".[7] Track 11 appears on many online track listings as well as the US and UK album packaging as "When The Light Comes On", which the band acknowledged was an error.[8] The error was fixed for the Australian CD packaging.
As part of their announcement for the 2018 iteration of Dial-A-Song, it was announced that music videos would be released for each song for I Like Fun, beginning with the title track on January 17, 2018, two days before the album's release. However, no video was produced for "Let's Get This Over With" or "When the Lights Come On".
Prior to the track listing announcement, TMBG had revealed on social media the name of multiple songs, many of which would later be released on the album. "Let's Get This Over With" was originally revealed as "After All the Spelling Mistakes."
Track listing[edit]
| # | Title | Length | Lyrics | Guitar Tab |
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| 1 | Let's Get This Over With | 3:07
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| 2 | I Left My Body | 2:36
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| 3 | All Time What | 2:29
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| 4 | By The Time You Get This | 2:17
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| 5 | An Insult To The Fact Checkers | 2:34
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| 6 | Mrs. Bluebeard | 2:43
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| 7 | I Like Fun | 3:00
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| 8 | Push Back The Hands | 3:01
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| 9 | This Microphone | 2:36
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| 10 | The Bright Side | 2:29
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| 11 | When The Lights Come On | 3:17
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| 12 | Lake Monsters | 2:56
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| 13 | McCafferty's Bib | 2:35
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| 14 | The Greatest | 1:48
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| 15 | Last Wave | 3:24
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Trivia[edit]
- The LP gatefold features a different photograph of birds than the CD. This alternate photo can also be found on the Australian CD release.
Gallery[edit]
CD cover art
Back cover of the CD
LP cover art
Back cover for the LP
