I think because it is such a simple song that they’ve played so much, they can easily play around with it. They usually have Dan Miller play a semi-improvised acoustic guitar intro (Miller Time), and they add an extended outro.

Fingertips live, eg the one on the Gigantic DVD.

And most live versions of Istanbul - recent versions with Curt Ramm were fantastic.

I agree - their first few albums used some wonderful and wacky sound choices when it was just the two of them messing around, and their post-90s albums rely a lot more on the band.

I also listened to the albums in order recently and noticed the same. The first album is the most creative and eclectic in many ways, and each album loses a little of that essence but the production values get noticeably better.

That said, my favourite is probably Lincoln which is nearly as crazy as the first, but with slightly better songwriting IMO.

I also love John Henry in a different way; the songwriting and production is as good as TMBG gets, but it definitely has a different vibe to the first two albums.

I find most post-90s TMBG albums get very much slept-on. I also love The Else and Glean, but again they have an entirely different vibe to the first couple of albums.

Unpopular opinion incoming… I was listening to the albums in order recently. I love the first three from start to end, but I couldn’t get through Apollo 18 without having the urge to skip Mammal and Dinner Bell - I find the vocal melodies really grating in those tracks.

Having Fingertips shuffled around the album almost makes up for it, if you’re listening to a proper version which doesn’t have them bundled into one track.