This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
They Might Be Giants: John Flansburgh (vocals, guitar); John Linnell (vocals, keyboards).
Additional personnel: Danny Weinkauf (vocals, bass); Robin "Goldie" Goldwasser, Nicholas Hill, (vocals); Dan Miller (guitar); Krystof Witek (violin); Garo Yellin (cello); Dan Levine (trombone); Dan Hickey (drums).
Recorded at Coyote Studio, Brooklyn, New York.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
They Might Be Giants's first children's album, NO!, is remarkably similar to their albums for adults. Characterized by irrepressibly catchy melodies, witty lyrics, and an overall sense of irreverent playfulness, NO! is business-as-usual for the dynamic duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, and fits perfectly within their discography. In fact, in inventiveness, songwriting, and pure crazy pleasure, NO! may be the best Giants album since FLOOD. Musically, the Giants are all over the map here with funky grooves ("Clap Your Hands"), wistful lullabies ("Sleepwalkers") and avant experimentalism ("Violin").
While whimsy is a given for Flansburgh and Linnell, there is a sense that they've tailored their songwriting for a younger set on this release. "In the Middle, In the Middle, In the Middle" is a public service announcement about crossing the street safely, while the loopy, building narrative of "The House at the Top of the Tree" belongs to the category of smile-inducing tongue-twisters like "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." As freewheeling, clever, and appealing as anything they've done, NO! reminds all of us--kids and the kids inside us--how much fun life can be.
