They Might Be Giants have resurrected their ingenious Dial-A-Song concept by streaming a new song each week of 2015 at www.dialasong.com. MAGNET’s Matthew Fritch reviews them all.
Customer service never sounded so much like a ‘70s porn soundtrack. However, the various elements of “I Can Help The Next In Line” add up to much more than just its squiggly, wah-wah-like sounds. There’s John Linnell’s perfectly bored, resigned singing and an unexpectedly great string-section break that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Plus, songs involving the theme of terrible jobs are usually pretty great vehicles for catharsis or, in this case, some passive-aggressive behavior. It’s a worthy descendent of “Minimum Wage” from Flood, a song whose only lyric is the shouting of its title followed by the crack of a whip.
File-A-Song: 7/10
