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PHONING IT IN

Phoning It In: “Daylight”

TMBG

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.

“Daylight” sounds like a tribute, in miniature, to Roxy Music’s dream of synth-rock balladry. This mission is at stylistic odds with They Might Be Giants’ strong suit of post-punk guitars, vintage adornment and catchy choruses, but the effort is respectable, and the track doesn’t overstay its welcome at a shade under two minutes.

Friday marks the arrival of new TMBG full-length Why?. Phoning It In beta-tested the album with a seven-year-old and recommends it. It doesn’t take much to top the primary-colored shit buffet that is the genre of children’s music, so consider Why? in the context of TMBG’s previous children’s albums: It’s not the babyish fare of  Here Come The ABCs/123s, nor does it have the tad-too-educational tone of Here Comes Science. Why? takes a kid’s point of view that makes it imaginative and mischievous.

File-A-Song: 6/10