Phone Power (album)

This article is about the They Might Be Giants album. For the VoIP company, see Phone Power.

Phone Power
Studio album by They Might Be Giants
Released	March 8, 2016 (online), June 10, 2016 (CD)
Recorded	December 2014; April–June and September–December 2015
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	45:05[1]
Label	Idlewild, Megaforce, Lojinx
Producer	They Might Be Giants, Pat Dillett
They Might Be Giants chronology
Why? (2015) Phone Power (2016) I Like Fun (2018)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]

Phone Power is the nineteenth studio album from New York City-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, released digitally on March 8, 2016. It is the third and final album containing songs from the band's 2015 Dial-A-Song service. British label Lojinx announced a physical release in Europe, on CD, for June 10.^[3]

Background

In late 2014 They Might Be Giants announced they would be reviving their Dial-A-Song service, with a new track released every week of 2015.^[4] The songs would be released as three separate studio albums (the first two, Glean and Why?, were released in 2015) as part of a "Dial-A-Song compilation" which would be included as benefits in the 2015 They Might Be Giants Instant Fan Club.

Release

Phone Power was released digitally on March 8, 2016 for the public (and one day earlier for Instant Fan Club members), and the first They Might Be Giants release to feature a pay-what-you-want model.^[5][6] This was discontinued on June 10, 2016, switching to a traditional flat payment model.^[7][8]

Track listing

All tracks are written by They Might Be Giants, except as noted

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Apophenia"	2:33
2.	"I Love You For Psychological Reasons"	3:01
3.	"To A Forest"	2:10
4.	"I Am Alone"	2:29
5.	"Say Nice Things About Detroit"	2:42
6.	"Trouble Awful Devil Evil"	3:29
7.	"ECNALUBMA"	2:56
8.	"Daylight"	1:52
9.	"Sold My Mind to the Kremlin"	2:03
10.	"It Said Something"	3:13
11.	"Impossibly New"	2:07
12.	"I'll Be Haunting You"	2:48
13.	"Got Getting Up So Down"	1:42
14.	"What Did I Do to You?"	1:29
15.	"Shape Shifter"	3:12
16.	"Bills, Bills, Bills" (E. Phillips, K. Briggs, Kandi, B. Knowles, L. Luckett, K. Rowland, L. Roberson)	3:16
17.	"Black Ops (Alternative Version)"	2:31
18.	"I Wasn't Listening"	1:31
Total length:		44:04

Personnel

They Might Be Giants

• John Flansburgh – vocals, guitars, etc.
• John Linnell – vocals, keyboards, woodwinds, etc.

are joined by

• Marty Beller – drums, percussion
• Danny Weinkauf – bass
• Dan Miller – guitars

Production

• Pat Dillett – co-producer, mixing
• Jon Altschuler – engineer
• David Groener Jr. – engineer
• Andre Kelman – engineer
• James York – engineer
• UE Nastasi – mastering
• Paul Sahre – design

Charts

Chart (2016)	Peak position
US Billboard 200[9]	122

References

1. "Phone Power".
2. Phares, Heather. "Phone Power – They Might Be Giants". Allmusic. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
3. "They Might be Giants – Phone Power (Lojinx)". 10 June 2016.
4. "Instant Fan Club returns". They Might Be Giants.
5. "They Might Be Giants' Phone Power". Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
6. "They Might Be Giants' New Surprise Album, 'Phone Power,' Is Available Now". Spin. 8 March 2016.
7. "They Might Be Giants release pay-what-you-want album". The A.V. Club.
8. Chaligne, Craig (2016-06-05). "They Might Be Giants to release new album Phone Power on 10th June 2016". Louder Than War. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
9. "They Might Be Giants Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 26, 2016.