They Might Be Giants: The World Is To Dig Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This Idlewild LP is a 180g pressing in a gatefold jacket with a printed inner sleeve. The World Is to Dig is the band's 24th studio album and their first full-length since Book in 2021, previewed by four singles.

This edition

180g vinyl
Gatefold jacket
Printed inner sleeve
Stereo mix

About the album

The title nods to A Hole Is to Dig, Ruth Krauss's 1952 children's book illustrated by Maurice Sendak, though John Flansburgh and John Linnell mean dig in the beatnik sense. The cover pairs a Hudson River School painting of Yosemite Valley with an acorn drawn by cartoonist Tony Millionaire.

True to form, the band recorded far more songs than they needed, started some of them before Book was even out, and spent a year swapping slower takes for livelier ones until the album was done in late 2025. Patrick Dillett co-produced. The result skips between styles at a brisk clip: "Back In Los Angeles" opens warmly, "Wu-Tang" and "Outside Brain" bounce, "Let's Fall In Lava" and "New Wave Will Never Die" are classic TMBG oddities, and "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" covers Eric Carmen's Raspberries power-pop gem. "They Might Be Feral" brings it home.

The leftovers became the Eyeball EP, a warm-up that arrived in January 2026. Eighteen songs on one LP is quite a lot of band per square inch, but they've been doing this for over forty years and nobody has asked them to slow down yet.

Also at Kops: more They Might Be Giants on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Side A
1. Back In Los Angeles
2. Wu-Tang
3. Sleep's Older Sister
4. Je N'en Ai Pas
5. Outside Brain
6. Let's Fall In Lava
7. Telescope
8. Garbage In
9. Get Down

Side B
1. New Wave Will Never Die
2. Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)
3. Character Flaw
4. Hit The Ground
5. What You Get
6. Slow
7. In The Dead Mall
8. What The Cat Dragged In
9. They Might Be Feral