10 all-time favorite albums (as if I could limit it to ten), in no particular order. Albums that really made an impact and are still on your rotation list, even if only now and then.
Oh, They Might Be Giants. What would I do without you? I’ve seen TMBG 14 times so far (I think), and they never fail to delight. I was already a fan when this album came out. Both They Might Be Giants and Lincoln were in heavy rotation on my cassette player, but it was Flood that turned the band into a life-long obsession for me.
The first two records were quirky, awkward, and not quite fully-formed. Flood was a silly masterpiece from start to finish. It’s a confident album, with some of the rough edges of their earlier work smoothed out, but with just as much (if not more) giddy glee.
Fandom was weird back in those pre-internet days. The only way to find out which songs would be fan favorites was to go to the shows and see what the fans reacted to. “Particle Man” was a huge favorite of mine, but I had no idea how loved that song was until I saw the Arcadia Theater bouncing up and down to it back in 1990.
There’s a personal reason for loving this album, too: My mother used to sing a silly song to me before bed when I was a wee one. The song was “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, so when I first heard it on Flood, I couldn’t believe it. I love this band, and this album in particular, so, so very much.