Factory Showroom

Digging through the lyrics of a They Might Be Giants album involves making your own meanings from the often stream-of-consciousness styles of the two Johns. And yet 1996’s Factory Showroom feels like an outlier, in that while the music is as eclectic as ever the lyrics deal more clearly with topics of gender and sexuality (70’s spy-funk “S-E-X-X-Y” and the Brian Wilsonesque “How Can I Sing Like A Girl?”), drug abuse (“Spiraling Shape”), and good ol fashioned Giants-brand anxiety and paranoia (“Till My Head Falls Off”, “The Bells Are Ringing”). Sometimes seen as a lesser entry, Factory Showroom is actually more of an emotionally fulfilling album from TMBG than we’re used to.