Music / I Like Fun

I like fun/and so do you.

And when you wake up you can feel your hair grow
Crawl out of your cave and you can watch your shadow
Creep across the ground until the day is done
All the while the planet circles 'round the sun
Everybody knows how this goes so let's get over it
And let's get this over with

—Let's Get This Over With

I Like Fun is the twentieth studio album by They Might Be Giants, released in 2018 by Idlewild Recordings. Noted for being Darker and Edgier than much of their recent work, it was nearly named My Murdered Remains after a line from the song "Mrs. Bluebeard", but they saved the name for a follow-up companion album released later that year.

Tracklist

1. "Let's Get This Over With" (3:07)
2. "I Left My Body" (2:36)
3. "All Time What" (2:29)
4. "By The Time You Get This" (2:17)
5. "An Insult To The Fact Checkers" (2:34)
6. "Mrs. Bluebeard" (2:43)
7. "I Like Fun" (3:00)
8. "Push Back The Hands" (3:01)
9. "This Microphone" (2:36)
10. "The Bright Side" (2:29)
11. "When The Lights Come On" (3:17)
12. "Lake Monsters" (2:56)
13. "Mc Cafferty's Bib" (2:35)
14. "The Greatest" (1:48)
15. "Last Wave" (3:24)

By The Time You Read These Tropes, We'll No Longer Be Alive:

• Apocalyptic Log: "By The Time You Get This" is an uncharacteristically cheery one that reassures the listener that whatever horrific thing happened to the long-dead generation was for a good cause.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The narrator of "Mrs. Bluebeard" reflects on the things that should have tipped her off that her husband was a Serial Killer.
  Nervous tics that I pretended not to see...
  Warning signs, death metal albums
  'Hang In There, Baby' poster
• Call-Back: "McCafferty's Bib" references the same performance piece that inspired the group to make William Allen White their unofficial mascot in their early years.
• Cool Old Guy: Verse 2 of "I Like Fun":^note John Flansburgh has clarified that he did not write the song about 58-year-old bandmember John Linnell; he only chose 58 because it was easier to sing than 57, and he'll "be 58 soon enough anyways". Even if Linnell would like you to think he's a master of parkour.
  My excellence at parkour might be unexpected
  At the age of fifty-eight
• Descent into Addiction: (possibly) the main theme of "Mc Cafferty's Bib" and also the title track, “I Like Fun”.
• Domestic Abuse: Arguably the theme of "Mrs. Bluebeard", in which a woman is murdered by her husband; it's heavily implied that she willfully ignored numerous red flags.
• Gag Dub: "Last Wave" was originally written to sync up with the music video to "Walk This Way" by Run–D.M.C. and Aerosmith - on the tour supporting I Like Fun, the band's second set always started with the "Walk This Way" video being projected on a screen, synced to a recording of the original demo. They reworked it musically for the album but kept the Word Salad Lyrics, some of which originally made more sense in the context of a gag dub: For instance, the lyric "now you gotta buy me some antlers" synced up to a scene where Steven Tyler was holding his hands over his head like antlers.
• Ironic Nickname: "The Greatest"
  They call me the greatest
  'Cause I'm not very good
  And they're being sarcastic
  They're being sarcastic
• Is This Thing Still On?: The refrain of "This Microphone" uses it as a metaphor for trying (and failing) to keep one's feelings to themselves.
  Hey, this microphone was turned on all along
• Longest Song Goes Last: "Last Wave" marks the first time they've done this in their career, but it's still only 3:24.
• Lyrical Dissonance: All over the damn place, somehow more than They Might Be Giants' usual.
  • "When The Lights Come On" is an upbeat song about surviving some horrible, possibly-apocalyptic disaster.
  • The title track "I Like Fun" is a goofy-sounding, jaunty tune about prescription drug abuse.
  • "Push Back the Hands" is an up-tempo song about regret and having to face your mistakes, however much you might wish you could "push back the hands of time".
  • "All Time What" is a fun power pop tune with a lot of horns. Lyrically, though, it's a fairly straightforward and sad breakup song.
  • And the album closer "Last Wave" has these lyrics for its upbeat chorus:
    We die alone
    We die afraid
    We live in terror
    We're naked and alone
    And the grave is the loneliest place
• Mood Whiplash: "Last Wave", lyrically. Probably because it began as an extremely dark Gag Dub (see above).
• Non-Appearing Title: "Mrs. Bluebeard.”
• Posthumous Collaboration: Cream's Jack Bruce, who died in 2014, is credited with guest vocals on the title track. This is because the song's wordless hook is taken from a series of vocal samples Bruce recorded for use on a Mellotron.
• Self-Deprecation: Naming the first track on an album "Let's Get This Over With" shows a willingness to get a laugh at their own expense.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Mrs Bluebeard" as a modern retelling of Bluebeard from the dead wife's perspective
  • "McCafferty's Bib" mentions crowds waving signs of Bob Hope, inspired by a real piece of performance art by Brazilian artist Öyvind Fahlström.
  • "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here" in "Let's Get This Over With" is an old phrase, but is most-famously remembered as the key line in Semisonic's 1998 hit "Closing Time".
  • At one point in the video for "Push Back The Hands", the Time Traveler runs into one of the Morlocks from The Time Machine (1960).

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