They Might Be Giants-Performing Their Platinum Record, Flood

Following the resounding success of "Here Come theABCs: Original Songs about the Alphabet," the Disney Sound/Walt DisneyRecords 2005 debut of They Might Be Giants, the New York duo of John Flansburghand John Linnell have released a successor CD/DVD collection entitled"Here Come the 123s."

Crafted with the same kinetic mesh of colorful smarts andplain magic that characterized the earlier work, "Here Come the 123s"pairs tightly focused, sometimes dance-inflected pop based in folk-rock claritywith fresh animation, cool graphics, winning puppetry, and more. It assumesthat kids more or less have absorbed the basic Arabic number system, thenoffers little and big new worlds for experiencing and contemplating them thatThey Might Be Giants alone can provide.

They bolster songs about numbers that please as theyinstruct. As awesome as the animation is these tunes about sixes and ninesmasquerading as one another, about the kick of knowing how to add, aboutmonkeys that come by the dozens, about sevens that stage home and desserttake-overs would never fly so high without the melodic light and rhythmic pluckof the music; the funky "Seven," a definite highlight, was producedby The Dust Brothers, with whom They Might Be Giants worked on "TheElse," their current adult album.

"When we do these recordings," Flansburgh says,"the rhythms are as full-blown as they are on our rock albums. We can'tcontrol the volume knob, of course, but these records are for active listening.They're good for kids who are into dancing and into being physical."

The spoon-fed, on 'Here Comes the 123s," goes right outthe window.