*** John Linnell

STATE SONGS

(Zoë)

They Might Be Giants principal John Linnell isn't the first songwriter to pen his own odes to America's individual states -- Boston's Dambuilders pledged to complete one song for each of the 50 states in the early '90s, and they managed to deliver around a dozen of them before breaking up. But it's no surprise to find a member of TMBG, who made a shtick out of being prolific, surpassing that mark in one fell swoop with State Songs, a 16-track collection of tunes named after and/or dedicated to various American states, including a catchy theme song for the project titled "The Songs of the 50 States." In fact, it's hard to think of anyone better suited to such a task than Linnell except perhaps his TMBG partner John Flansburgh, who spends his spare time these days with his own solo project, Mono Puff.

State Songs sticks mainly to the kind of short, sweet, wry, quirky drums-bass-guitar-accordion/keyboard compositions that defined TMBG's early work, though at the risk of piling gimmick atop gimmick, Linnell did get his hands on a couple of old self-playing Wurlitzer Band Organs, a 103 and a 165 (like a player piano, they're "programmed" using specially cut paper rolls) for a few instrumental tracks ("Illinois," "New Hampshire," and "Utah"). The consistently solid results would seem to suggest that Linnell works well under pressure, even if it's self-imposed. That's 15 down, 35 more to go.

-- Matt Ashare