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PHONING IT IN

Phoning It In: “Got Getting Up So Down”

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.

What’s up, music website readers? This is the exposition. Please refer to the exposition before commenting in October 2015 that I don’t know Flansburgh from Linnell, Flood from Lincoln. Actually, I do know those things, but my point is that I am not a They Might Be Giants superfan. More on that in later posts. A few years ago on this site, I wrote 120 posts about music videos from the golden era of MTV’s 120 Minutes; before that, I wrote a weekly series of posts about The Best Show On WFMU that didn’t last too long because it was killing the thing that I loved; and more recently I attempted a year-long, multi-part review of a depressing Flaming Lips album that I felt was misunderstood. I’m Sarah Koenig, and this is Serial.

Some housekeeping items before we begin. Item number one: Just because we’re entering a long-term relationship with TMBG’s music, these will be objective, critical reviews. Item number two: As far as I can tell, all the songs will be streaming and archived for free at www.dialasong.com. Go make your own opinions. I cannot help you download a Flash update.

OK, enough of that. On to the review. Wakeup anthem “Got Getting Up So Down” might be the music in a commercial for Papa John’s Kale-n-Chorizo Breakfast Jammers. It might be running through my head on future mornings while my fingers try to separate a coffee filter from the impossible stack of stuck-together coffee filters. Flansburgh recites some morning-routine lyrics over a spy-movie synth-bass line. This song is too literal and purposeful. I wonder if these are all going to be two-minute ditties, in which case I’m not sure that will create the requisite emotional resonance for long-term listening investment. It’s early. This is only 1.9 percent of the year’s projected output, or one playing card in a game of solitaire. In the just-invented Solitaire-Based Music Rating System, we deal “Got Getting Up So Down” a six of clubs.