They Might Be Giants Pack Mini-Jams Into ‘Nanobots’ – Album Premiere

They Might Be Giants are ready to release their new record, Nanobots, and the title couldn’t be more appropriate for the quirky alt-rockers’ 16th studio album. Nanobots is stuffed with 25 short morsels of power-pop, and no track even approaches the 3:30 mark. But there are still plenty of meaty hooks and memorable melodies, from the peppy power chords and vocal harmonies of “Circular Karate Chop” to the gently drifting melancholy on “Sometimes a Lonely Way.”

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They Might Be Giants take the succinct idea even further, though, packing the album with mini-jams that sometimes top out at under 10 seconds. “Hive Mind” is a six-second ditty that chimes its title, while “There” sounds lifted from a They Might Be Giants stage musical. “[It] sounds like we might need a refill on some Ritalin, but those 25-second songs really offset the longer ones,” member John Flansburgh told Rolling Stone in December. “While it will be released early in the year, I think it is safe to say there is more bass clarinet on this album than any other rock album of 2013.”

Nanobots will be out on March 5th on Idlewild Recordings.