John Henry (album)

John Henry is the name of They Might Be Giants' fifth original album, although it is the sixth disc in their discography. It was released in 1994 (see 1994 in music). It is the first album in which John Linnell and John Flansburgh utilized a full band, as opposed to playing most or all of the instruments themselves.

Related Topics:
They Might Be Giants - Discography - 1994 - 1994 in music - John Linnell - John Flansburgh

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John Henry is both TMBG's longest record (twenty tracks clocking it at about a full hour) and their most divisive: the hard-rocking live sound, abundance of guitar solos, and unrelenting dreariness was almost entirely unexpected by fans, panned by critics, and rarely revisited in the group's future recordings.

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The album's name is roughly an allusion to the band's fundamental switch over to more conventional instrumentation, especially the newly-established use of a human drummer instead of a drum machine, which had been a staple of their prior four albums.

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