They Might Be Giants
Nanobots

Listening notes

Released in 2013 on Idlewild Recordings (catalog number 20286-21313-3), Nanobots is a vinyl LP by They Might Be Giants catalogued under the genres of Alternative Rock and Rock. The record spreads twenty-five tracks across two sides, and the sheer count of entries is among the first things a collector will notice when examining the sleeve.

Side A carries nine tracks, most of them running between two and three minutes. The opener, "You're On Fire," clocks in at 2:42, and the title track follows at 2:46. "Black Ops" is the longest cut on the side at 3:12, while "Sleep," positioned eighth at A8, runs just 43 seconds — a notable interruption in the otherwise moderate pacing of the side. "Tesla," at 2:05, is the only other track on Side A under two minutes.

Side B is where the structural variety becomes most pronounced. Alongside full-length songs — "Replicant" at 2:56, "The Darlings Of Lumberland" at 3:22, "Icky" at 2:33, and "Too Tall Girl" at 2:35 — the side contains a cluster of tracks measured in seconds rather than minutes. "Hive Mind" at B4 lasts six seconds. "There" at B7 runs nine seconds. "Tick" at B9 is twelve seconds. "Destroy The Past" and "Decision Makers" each reach only sixteen seconds, and "Nouns" adds seventeen. These brief entries are distributed unevenly across the side rather than grouped together, giving the sequence an intermittent, interrupted character that is visible in the tracklist before the needle ever touches the groove.

The total track count of twenty-five on a single LP, combined with the prevalence of sub-minute pieces on Side B, makes the physical configuration of this release a legitimate point of consideration for anyone cataloguing it. How the label and artist chose to sequence and space that material across the two sides is a practical question the tracklist raises without answering on its own.

This is an unreviewed draft. All claims should be verified against a physical copy or authoritative documentation before publication.