The World Is To Dig
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Studio album by They Might Be Giants | |||||
| First released | April 14, 2026 | Tracks | 18 | Last album | BOOK | |
| Label | Idlewild Recordings <IDLE 200> | Length | 44:54 | |||
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The World Is to Dig is the 24th studio album by They Might Be Giants, set to release on April 14, 2026.
Purchase[edit]
| Seller | Format | Price | Link |
| Download | 
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| Translucent Red Vinyl |
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| CD |
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| Cassette |
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Background[edit]
John Flansburgh and John Linnell began mentioning that they were working on their next album in interviews during BOOK's press cycle. In October 2021, John Flansburgh said in a Stereogum interview:
Writing and recording and doing this stuff, it's such a strange compulsion for us, and it's something that we do whether we're prompted to or not. I mean, we're actually working in earnest right now on the next album, and [BOOK] hasn't even come out yet. So it is something that we just do. But that's healthy. I think having a laboratory environment for your songwriting and whatever your creative process is, treating it like it's just one big experiment is a great way to work, and it's a great way to feel.
The band's work on recording the album continued over the next few years, with occasional updates in interviews and on social media, including photos and clips from the recording studio. In April 2024, signups began for the year's edition of the TMBG Instant Fan Club, with the upcoming album included as one of the main perks, initially said to be delivered later in 2024. After missing the initial 2024 release window, and later a holiday 2025 release window, the album's details were announced in February 2026.
The album's official press description reads:[1]
They Might Be Giants treat the entire history of popular music as a trampoline rather than a rulebook. Like two pinballs pinging off of each other through musical murals stretching into a giddy ether, TMBG moves by ricochet. On their upcoming album The World Is to Dig (due April 14th, 2026 from Idlewild Recordings), the multi-Grammy-winning duo continue bouncing through the pop multiverse, digging into whatever they find with playful zeal. John Linnell and John Flansburgh continue to fire ideas off one another like particles in a perpetual motion experiment, each collision producing a new angle, a new melodic left turn, resulting in tracks packed with esoteric references, mischievous details, and left-field detours. Untethered from trends, immune to nostalgia, and equally ready to draw from Tin Pan Alley theatrics and contemporary pop culture references, The World Is to Dig is the sound of a band very much in motion; not chasing relevance, but generating it on their own terms.
Title and Artwork[edit]
The album's title was first publicly revealed via TMBG's social pages on February 9, 2026, a few hours ahead of preorders for the album. It references the 1952 children's book A Hole Is to Dig by author Ruth Krauss, which was the first of many of her books illustrated by Maurice Sendak. This was not the first time the band had paid homage to the book, as around 35 years earlier in the band's career John and John had posed with it for a promotional shoot.
The day after the title was publicly revealed, Flansburgh said on Tumblr, "I was meditating on the children's book A Hole is To Dig, and twisted it. I just thought it was an unlikely, positive phrase. A bit beatnik-y for sure with the 'dig' being used the other way, but hey daddy-o. That's me."[2] Flansburgh, perhaps as a cryptic tease, had previously posted a photo of the book to his Instagram account in September 2025 with the caption, "Quality literature."[3] A few weeks earlier, Flansburgh had mentioned on an August 27 TikTok Live that the album's name had just been selected, but he chose not to reveal it on the stream.
Preorders for the album were originally accompanied for the first week by placeholder graphics which said "FINAL COVER TO COME," with Flansburgh mentioning on Tumblr that the band was waiting on permissions to clear, signaling that pre-existing artwork would be a part of the album's packaging.[4][5]
The cover artwork was first revealed on February 17 via the TMBG Shop and the band's social pages. It features a period reproduction of the painting A View of Yosemite Valley, after Mary Park Seavey Benton, circa 1855. An overlaid badge includes the album title and band name in Futura font, as well as an illustration of an acorn by Drinky Crow creator and returning TMBG collaborator Tony Millionaire.[6] The badge is also featured on the disc art and LP and cassette labels, as well as T-shirts that went up for preorder alongside the album.
On the day of the cover's reveal, Flansburgh elaborated on Tumblr about how the painting featured on the album cover was by an anonymous painter rather than the originally credited artist:[7]
"After" is a high falootin’ [sic] way of saying it is a very close copy of another painting. Back in 1880 painters would have assistants and students who might copy their work for various patrons or galleries overseas or as examples for reproduction (like if a lithographer was reproducing a famous painting they’d need a really good example, and since photography might not be available, these highly accurate copies were the source material). It is very typical for paintings “After” an artist not to have another name attached, and sometimes they are even signed by the original artist (crazy right?) but copying in this manner was a recognized part of the academic world of the arts. For a long time in the last century if a painting was on a board, it was a clear indication it was a student copy, and if you went to a museum like the Met in NYC it was not uncommon to see art students working on boards making close copies of the great masters.
Though the painting is modeled after Benton's original, the band licensed the artwork through a stock image library that appears to have misattributed the originally referenced work to a different 19th century painter, Thomas Hill, who was known to have created a series of similar paintings also featuring Yosemite Valley starting a few years after Benton's piece.[8] As such, the band's initial announcement stated that the cover artwork was from a painting "after Thomas Hill." After fans pointed out the discrepancy, Flansburgh responded on Bluesky agreeing that Benton appeared to be the original artist who inspired the reproduction, but stated that the artwork had been sent to the printers one night earlier on February 16 and that while it may be too late to change anything, the band would "try our best [to] stop the presses."
Regarding the selection of the painting, Flansburgh stated (referring to Thomas Hill), "I have been fascinated by Hudson Valley painters for a long time, and actually thought of a very similar painting for a cover years back. When going about the research, there were a bunch that were relatively easy to sort out the rights for, and I ran a bunch of ideas by John L. and our management, and this one got the biggest reaction."
Fans quickly noticed image filenames in TMBG's merch store included the label "planB", potentially implying that another cover had been designed and completed prior to this one. Flansburgh confirmed this a few hours after the reveal on Tumblr, saying "This album cover has been a very long trial for me, as a number of things didn't come together as planned. Can't really talk about it now but someday when I've fully recovered I bet it will sound close to a funny story."
Earlier, in October 2025 Flansburgh had mentioned that Paul Sahre was set to design the album's cover and packaging,[9] though the extent of his involvement with the final packaging is currently unclear.
Recording[edit]
The principal recording sessions for the album were held at Reservoir Studios in Manhattan, with longtime producer Pat Dillett. Sessions began in late 2021 and continued until late 2025, resulting in the longest gap of time between any two They Might Be Giants studio albums, with BOOK having been released five years earlier.
Some studio dates are known thanks to the band posting photos and clips from the album's production to social media, beginning with Instagram posts on October 2 & 3, 2021,[10][11][12][13][14][15] with more six months later on April 12, 2022.[16] The next studio session days referenced on TMBG's social media came in early 2023, with photos and posts on February 15, 16, 23, 28 and March 1.[17][18][19][20][21]
In an interview published March 8, John Linnell mentioned that they were making progress on recording the album:
I think we've got about ten tracks that are done, or tracked anyway. But ideally, we get like, 20 or 30 songs together before we even decide what the album should be made up of. In the past, I think the best albums we've made, we got like, 30 songs finished, and then we picked the best ones to put on the album. Or the ones that go together as an album, I guess is a better way of putting it. We're not even halfway through that process, but we are busy. We’re very busy working on stuff, and I'm pretty happy with what we've got so far.
In November 2023, the band returned to the studio to "continue our musical efforts for 2024's release schedule," according to their email newsletter. A photo featuring a miniature figure of Linnell behind a studio microphone was posted to Instagram on November 14.[22] On December 7, Mark Pender posted a photograph of himself, Stan Harrison and Dan Levine in the studio recording for TMBG.[23]
On the November 15, 2024 annual They Might Be Playing They Might Be Giants radio show, John Flansburgh mentioned during an interview that the album had been almost entirely mixed aside from one track which needed string parts to be recorded when the band returned from their November 2024 UK tour dates. Despite this, at some point in the months that followed, the band decided to write and record additional songs to swap into the album. In May 2025, Flansburgh revealed, "We have one final round of sessions booked for September and then it will be done. So that's what we'll do with our summer vacations."[24]
On September 8, 2025, Flansburgh posted a clip on his Instagram story of the band practicing a previously unheard song at their Brooklyn rehearsal space, which began with the lyric, "This is what you get."[25] The band headed to Reservoir Studios the next day to finish recording the album on September 9, 10, and 11. During the sessions, Dan Miller posted photos to Instagram,[26] one of which included a barely legible sheet of notes from which ravenous fans were able to decipher then-unknown titles including "Garbage In", "Overnight Sensation", "Hit the Ground" and "What You Get". Flansburgh confirmed on Tumblr the band was tracking at least five songs,[27][28] and a short clip was uploaded of Linnell playing a Jenco celesta,[29] most likely during the recording of "Overnight Sensation".
With the recordings finalized, Flansburgh posted the next week that the band was in the studio mixing, mentioning that "Album 24 is coming into focus."[30][31]
Build-Up[edit]
A new song titled "The Glamour Of Rock" debuted at a concert on May 9th, 2024 at Mr. Smalls Theater in Pittsburgh, with Flansburgh stating that it would be included on the upcoming album. It had previously been previewed by Flansburgh on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter videos uploaded on September 24, 2022 and January 15, 2023. This song ended up being included on the Eyeball EP instead, which was released shortly before the album.
The band confirmed in a June 2024 radio interview that they hoped to release the album by the end of the year, likely around the holiday season. In a July 2024 interview, Linnell said the band had "an entire, pretty much, finished album in the can now [and] people can look out for that at the end of this year. We spent a couple years working on it 'cause everything has kind of slowed down in terms of our touring, so we've had lots of time in the studio writing and recording." In an August 2024 interview, Linnell revealed the potential number of tracks for the album:
I just got an email from Flansburgh. He's proposing a sequence for it, and his proposal is for an 18-song album, [which] is a very They Might Be Giants length of album. I'm very happy with what we've got so far, and there's time to record any last-minute entries as well. That'll be out at the end of this year or beginning of next year, something like that.
As the year drew to a close, it became apparent that the initial release window of late 2024 mentioned on the Instant Fan Club signup page would be missed. In a February 2025 interview, Flansburgh spoke more about the state of the album:
We are essentially done, unless we're not. It doesn't have a firm release date, and it doesn't have a cover. I can tell you both of those things are happening, but you know, maybe there'll be some last-minute adjustments. It'll be out sometime relatively soon, and it's a very strong record. I'm into it. But again, you know, only time will tell. There's a song with strings, and there's a bunch of songs with horns. It's like a big production.
Updates about the album came sparingly in the months that followed. When asked by a fan at the TMBG Q&A on JoCo Cruise in March 2025 for a tease about the band's upcoming 24th album, Flansburgh only replied, "Why so long?"[32] This fueled fan speculation, which only increased throughout the year as updates came sparsely, and as the album had already earned the title of having the longest wait between They Might Be Giants releases. In fan communities, the long-awaited "A24" had earned meme status, at one point culminating in a fan zine which was, coincidentally, released on April 14, 2025, exactly one year prior to the album's eventual 2026 release date.
In May, when asked on Tumblr when to expect the next album, Flansburgh replied, "Before Christmas!"[33] In a June radio appearance on KEXP, Flansburgh was asked what was next for TMBG and mentioned, "In the very beginning of September, we've got to record a hit song, and then we'll be done. We're going to write a hit song that changes everything and makes everyone go like, 'I don't know about those guys.'"[34]
Over the following months, Flansburgh began to drop occasional teases about the album, such as a September 26 Instagram livestream where played very brief instrumental clips from two new songs, one from the album and "Peggy Guggenheim."[35]
Flansburgh provided another update in an interview in December:
We thought it was finished and then we worked on it a little more, and then we thought it was finished and we worked on it a little more. We're trying to sort of perfect it a little bit. There might even be a really radical change right at the last minute that's so out of left field. I think it's a good idea, our manager thinks it's a good idea. Our producer, and maybe John Linnell, think it's a crazy idea. We're playing fast and loose with the possibilities. But it's a really solid record and I'm really proud of it. There's just a ton of good songs, so I think it'll be well received. And it's got some pretty left field stuff on it as well.
Release[edit]
On January 5, 2026, it was confirmed by TMBG on social media that a four-track EP called Eyeball would be released on January 15, and that the "all new, all banger LP" would follow in early spring.[36] In the store description for the EP, Linnell described the album recording process:
Our favorite way of making albums is to write and record too many songs and then arrange the ones that work together as an album. We always have a bunch of good tracks left over to make an EP. I’m sure there's some exact equivalent process that goes on in the kitchen of a fancy restaurant but I'm just guessing here. Anyway these are the "amuse-bouche" or perhaps "amuse-oreille" tracks that we hope will be an enticing appetizer before the next album emerges from the oven.
A few weeks later in early February, the album's title was announced, with the artwork and track list officially revealed the week after. Alongside the title reveal, the album's lead single,[37] "Wu-Tang" was released as a free download and the first full song previewed from the album.
The World Is to Dig is set to release on April 14, 2026 on CD, vinyl, cassette, download and streaming. The vinyl release will come in multiple variants including black, translucent red, a to-be-announced retail-exclusive color for indie record stores, and an exclusive clear pressing for IFC 2024 members who preordered the LP when signing up. The band will go on tour to promote the new album the same week as its release.
Track listing[edit]
| # | Title | Length | Lyrics | Guitar Tab |
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| 1 | Back In Los Angeles | 2:41 | N/A
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N/A |
| 2 | Wu-Tang | 3:09
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| 3 | Sleep's Older Sister | 2:29 | N/A
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N/A |
| 4 | Je N'en Ai Pas | 2:13 | N/A
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N/A |
| 5 | Outside Brain | 2:01 | N/A
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N/A |
| 6 | Let's Fall In Lava | 2:06 | N/A
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N/A |
| 7 | Telescope | 0:59 | N/A
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N/A |
| 8 | Garbage In | 2:39 | N/A
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N/A |
| 9 | Get Down | 2:47 | N/A
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N/A |
| 10 | New Wave Will Never Die | 2:36 | N/A
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N/A |
| 11 | Overnight Sensation (Hit Record) | 3:30
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N/A
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N/A |
| 12 | Character Flaw | 2:51 | N/A
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N/A |
| 13 | Hit The Ground | 2:30 | N/A
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N/A |
| 14 | What You Get | 2:48
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N/A
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N/A |
| 15 | Slow | 2:21
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N/A
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N/A |
| 16 | In The Dead Mall | 2:07 | N/A
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N/A |
| 17 | What The Cat Dragged In | 2:05 | N/A
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N/A |
| 18 | They Might Be Feral | 2:36
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N/A
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N/A |