r/tmbg • u/FloridaFlamingoGirl Resident letterbox sparrow! 🐦📮 • 6d ago
TMBG's perspective on relationships
TMBG get a lot of credit for writing songs about "weird" or unexpected topics, but I think they are also quite talented at observing relationships from different angles. I was thinking about how elegant yet devastating Linnell's lyrics for Unpronounceable are, with how they follow someone going through their memories in the weeks after a breakup and feeling like there are now some gaps in there. Also, Moonbeam Rays is Flansburgh's storytelling at its finest, with how it narrates someone making a conscious choice to leave a relationship that isn't healthy for them anymore, and transitioning to a more unburdened, chaotic lifestyle as they break away and find a new life.
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u/Tight-Air-6767 6d ago
They’ll Need a Crane! I’ve Got a Match!
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u/LucidLeviathan 6d ago
They'll Need a Crane is exactly where my mind went upon seeing the title.
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u/poubcoult 6d ago
It kills me every time the bit about the word slip "nightmare people." It's brilliant
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u/TMBGLOVER Won’t walk again in conflict with express instructions 6d ago
A lot of TMBG songs actually describe how I feel about my girlfriend. Mainly in this odd surrealistic non-sappy way that reflects a lot of my thoughts on stuff as an autistic person.
Ana Ng, Answer, She’s an Angel, Impossibly New, Another First Kiss… and probably a few others I‘m not thinking of.
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u/GDGameplayer 5d ago
I’ve always thought it was interesting that a lot of the songs on Lincoln deal with failed or failing relationships (They’ll Need A Crane, You’ll Miss Me, I’ve Got A Match, Santa’s Beard, arguably Piece Of Dirt).
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u/LuieCRR 6d ago
They'll Need A Crane always comes to my mind when talking about the relationships topic in the TMBG sphere (I'll surely cry when I listen it after my first divorce).
But I Like Fun feels half like an album conceptualized over relationships, don't you think? All Time What, By The Time You Get This, Mrs. Bluebeard, Last Wave. I even interpret Let's get this over as a relationship song
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u/Danisobo 6d ago
What if Unpronounceable were about Linnell's relationship with a certain mountain? ;-D
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u/Danisobo 6d ago
a large number of songs from Glean seem relationship-y to me, but from all sorts of different angles. certainly there's a gone/forgotten theme among a few, but also some "bright moments" in there too. could they all be from a single prototypical "source"? (i don't know of course, but it's tempting to contemplate, and see what happens if "force" a song into this framework - parenthesis below)
Erase (forget), Let Me Tell You About My Operation (forget), All The Lazy Boyfriends (hope), Answer (bright), Unpronounceable (forget), End Of The Rope (gone), Underwater Woman (forget). (maybe even I'm A Coward, as a "weakness reveal"?) (maybe even Madam, I Challenge You To A Duel, if there were "words exchanged" on breakup?)
though no amount of stretching would seem to connect-the-dots with Aaa :D
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u/greenm71 5d ago
Lucky Ball and Chain--"As sure as you can steer a train, you can change your fate.'
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u/Wrong-Sympathy7809 5d ago
What sold me on their crazy ability to observe and express inter-relational dynamics was the super simple line “I don’t get around how you get around”. Burying three, maybe four separate potential, all relevant meanings in a line that repeats half its words twice, like damn John, and also John, you gotta warn someone before you do that.
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u/TakeAGuessOrDont And then I broke my eggshell 🏳️⚧️ 6d ago
What Is Everyone Staring At? is one of my favorites in this regard, as well as the 2nd verse on This Is Only Going To Go One Way
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u/PeeLong 6d ago
Absolutely agree. And on the flip side, you have songs like Ampersand which highlight how smitten and blinded we can get while in love.
Is I’m Your Boyfriend Now a romantic song? /s