Twenty years after their debut album introduced a well-read duo with a peculiar wit and a gift for contagious melodies, They Might Be Giants--a.k.a. John Linnell and John Flansburgh--still come across as exhilarating and spanking fresh as the theme song to Comedy Central'sDaily Show. (Oh yeah, that's them, too.) Fresh off the Giants' second children's record (2005'sHere Come the ABCs), the New York twosome began a production alliance with L.A.'s Dust Brothers that resulted inThe Else, another collection that ranks with any in their memorable discography. From the fast-tempo opener "I'm Impressed" through the '60s pop edge of "The Mesopotamians," endearing hooks reel you in just far enough for the humorous, often oddball lyrics to bury you. But several times the implications in the lyrics are all too real, such as the love undertones of "Contrecoup" and  "Take Out the Trash," an uncannily catchy dump-your-boyfriend song that suggests "Once you get him out, tell him not to come back again." Contradictions like these never bother to disrupt the sequencing, but rather drive home what we already know about They Might Be Giants: they already are.--Scott Holter