They Might Be Giants - Here Comes Science

In the wake of the 80s, quirky rock act They Might Be Giants began to slowly lose momentum. True, they still produced some decent songs but no one really cared anymore. Then the noughties hit and the group made a move that in retrospect made incredible sense: they decided to write music for children. The fact of the matter is that when They Might Be Giants were at their best, like with ‘Birdhouse in Your Soul’, the music was fun and used lyrics that were incredibly inventive and abstract. So now with the release of Here Comes Science, their third educational album, it is great to see this unusual group are exploiting their new found niche with all their might.

With the entire realms of science to play with, Here Comes Science is already a measurable improvement on their previous albums explaining numbers and the alphabet. After all there are only so many different songs about spelling before you begin to repeat yourself, which explains why after two listens of Here Come The ABCs the process becomes heavily laboured. Since they have afforded themselves both an older audience and a larger knowledgebase to geek out on, Here Comes Science is the first of this trilogy of albums that has supreme cross-over potential with the adult world.

Over the course of 19 songs this group touches on elements of computing, astrophysics, biology, chemistry and palaeontology without even breaking a sweat and with no real weak links in the track listing. Even the cover songs have been expertly chosen such as ‘Why Does The Sun Shine?’ where their sped up version will have the hook ‘the sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace’ reverberating around your brain whilst you’re trying to get to sleep.

The original songs have their genius moments too. ‘Speed and Velocity’ introduces basic physics in an easy to remember way. ‘Electric Car’ seamlessly bridges the gap between children’s song and the teachings of renewable energy. Then there is ‘Meet the Elements’, possibly the best on the album, which discusses how various compounds are made and imparts the knowledge that even elephants are made of elements. All of these tracks are accompanied with a complimentary music video which makes the experience so much more fun, especially in ‘How Many Planets?’ where the depiction of a toothy Jupiter is so comically weird.

Here Comes Science is, on the whole, so fun and endearing that it will be the perfect addition to anyone’s list of guilty pleasures. Despite its focus as an educational album, this power pop combined with such sublime geekery will leave you wishing that this group was your Year 7 science teacher instead of that bearded guy who drummed into you what happens when an acid and a base are combined.

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