Okay, but what about the other 16 songs on the album? Well, they're, for the most part, great songs too. The band starts out with a very brief song unlike anything they had put on their previous albums: a song that tells the name of the album, and when the album was released. It's strange but, at the same time, hilarious in that unique TMBG way. The real songs begin with "Birdhouse in your Soul" and, overall, the songs on the album seem better polished than the songs on TMBG's. That's likely because they are better polished. Flood is TMBG's first album with a major studio: Elektra. As a result, the drum machine that was prevalent on the previous two albums is toned down in favor of, well, real drums. Violins are heard, trumpets, etc. And these are all played by real people. But TMBG is still, at this point, a 2-man band. These other instruments are played by "guest artists."

As for the songs themselves, there are some really excellent ones in "Women and Men," "Twisting," "Lucky Ball and Chain," and "We Want a Rock." The rest of the songs on the album are quite good themselves. Notable exceptions are "Your Racist Friend," in which TMBG tries to hard to make a "message" song; "Hearing Aid," which gets tiresome very quickly; and "They Might Be Giants," which I have never been a fan of. I've never liked songs in which bands reference themselves, and while the song has its moments, there just aren't enough good points about it to recommend it. One song that I haven't mentioned: "Minimum Wage," which is not really a song but a hilarious and wonderful track on the CD. There seems to be a lot of fan backlash against Flood, but I still highly recommend the album. Is it my favorite? No. I don't know if I have a favorite. If I did, though, it probably would be Lincoln. But you should still get this album.

Now, as I said, this is TMBG's most successful album to date. In fact, the album was certified Gold by the Record Industry Association of America on December 22, 1990. "Birdhouse in your Soul" was one of the top singles in the UK in 1990. And while that single was a smash here in the states too, a lot of Flood's success here is due to a cartoon show called Tiny Toon Adventures. In 1990, the producers of TTA concocted animated videos for "Istanbul" and "Particle Man," sprinkled them heavily with TTA characters (most notably Plucky Duck), and put them on the show. As a result, TMBG was exposed to millions of kids (and their parents) nationwide, and this exposure helped "Istanbul" and "Particle Man" become big hits, and it no doubt helped Flood do so well. It sure inspired me to become a fan of TMBG. And while they had no input on the TTA videos, the two Johns recognized how important the videos were, and included them on their excellent 1998 video compilation called Direct From Brooklyn.