The Shortest Album Ever
1. The Power of Dial-a-Song
2. Dallas (The Trees)
3. Number Three
4. Till My Head Falls Off
5. Sleep
6. Meet James Ensor
7. Fingertips #1 (Everything Is Catching On Fire)
8. Aaa
9. Token Back to Brooklyn
10. Dark and Metric
11. Why Did You Grow a Beard?
12. Fingertips #7 (Come On and Wreck My Car)
13. Can't Keep Johnny Down
14. Minimum Wage
15. Fingertips #13 (What's that Blue Thing Doing Here?)
16. For Science
17. Sold My Mind to the Kremlin
18. Hive Mind
19. I'm Impressed
20. Fingertips #22 ( I Found A New Friend Underneath My Pillow)
21. Chip the CHiP
22. Fingertips #9 (Please Pass the Milk)
23. Stalk of Wheat
24. Which Describes How You're Feeling
25. Older
26. Shoehorn With Teeth
27. By the Time You Get This
28. Fingertips #20 (Fingertips (Whispered))
29. 200 Sbemails (For Homestar Runner)
30. Destroy the Past
31. Synopsis for the Latecomers
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Tracks selected by r/tmbg via poll by u/roamingshemnon
Sequencing, mastering and art by Frankie Vallium
The Shortest Album Ever is the result of a month-long poll u/roamingshemnon ran on r/tmbg in 2023 to determine the sub's favorite of the shortest tracks on each of They Might Be Giants' major adult releases. The results (and vote breakdown) in chronological order can be found here: tinyurl.com/2mdnw5dd . At 31-tracks and about 37 minutes, its a whirlwind collection of pocket compositions, and its thematic focus on brevity allows for every era to be represented equally in a way other compilations haven't -- highlighting a compact sensibility that's stayed stalwart from Pink to BOOK.

Since the final tracklist was presented by song release (ie: "Number Three"" first) and none of the playlists made on streaming services could compile all of of the tracks (TMBG store exclusives, no "Fingertips" bits), I decided to make a complete playlist on YouTube, and subsequently reordered the tracks for better flow. After listening to this arrangement/enjoying it for a while (and getting positive feedback on the sequencing from u/roamingshemmon), I thought it would be fun to assemble this into its own little compilation for ease of listening and share it with others!. That process more or less involved doing a quick master pass to ensure there's no major volume discrepancies song-to-song, smoothing out some of the transitions between tracks, and of course, making a cover fitting for the material. I'm really happy with how this turned out, and find it to be a cool reflection of the fanbase's taste, as well as all the ways the Johns have both evolved and stayed very much the same. Happy listening!

-SGE