"You're on Fire" is a song by American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a ...

. It was released on February 21, 2013 as an advance track from their album ''

Nanobots Nanoid robotics, or for short, nanorobotics or nanobotics, is an emerging technology field creating machines or robots whose components are at or near the scale of a nanometer (10−9 meters). More specifically, nanorobotics (as opposed to mi ...

'', which was released March 5, 2013. On May 24, the band performed the song on '' Late Night With Jimmy Fallon''. The song and its music video received positive attention from critics.

Release

"You're on Fire" was the fourth advance track from ''Nanobots''. It was preceded by "Call You Mom", "Black Ops", and "Lost My Mind", which appeared on ''Nanobots EP'' in January 2013. "You're on Fire" premiered on Stereogum on February 21, 2013. The music video was released on September 5, 2013.

Music video

The song's music video was directed by Hoku Uchiyama and Adam Bolt and stars actress

Lauren Lapkus Dorthea Lauren Allegra Lapkus (born September 6, 1985) is an American actress and comedian. Lapkus is known for portraying Susan Fischer in the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2014, 2019) and Jess in the HBO come ...

. The video also features puppets made from vegetables purchased at a grocery store, as well as a silicone meat puppet constructed by Sue LaPrelle. The vegetables were mobilized using puppetry. Uchiyama was selected for the project by the band's

John Flansburgh John Conant Flansburgh (born May 6, 1960) is an American musician. He is half of the long-standing Brooklyn, New York-based alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants with John Linnell, for which he writes, sings, and plays rhythm guitar. Commo ...

, who had been impressed by the work he did on a music video for

Evelyn Evelyn Evelyn Evelyn are a fictional musical duo created by Amanda Palmer (of The Dresden Dolls) and Jason Webley. According to the backstory provided by Palmer and Webley, the duo consists of conjoined twin sisters (aka "Eva" and "Lyn"), Evelyn and ...

in 2010. The music video explores the perspectives of various foods, which Lapkus's character is preparing for consumption with a

significant other The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming ...

. When they are not in human eyeshot, the raw meat and vegetables appear to be performing the song on their own. The premise has been compared to the animated film ''

Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...

'', in which a child's toys become autonomous when humans are not present.

Reception

"You're on Fire" has been fairly well received in critical reviews of ''Nanobots''. Heather Phares, in her review of the album for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, described the song as "literal-minded" and "pure comedy". A '' Paste'' review of the album written by Alex Skidmore praised the song for easily "grabbing" the attention of the listener, as the album's lead track. Eric Limer of Gizmodo speculated that the track makes an effective single-song representation of the band's music. In his explanation of this point, Limer made note of the "call-and-response" guitar parts in stereo and "predictably absurd" lyrics. The music video for the song was also lauded as innovative and playful by Hellhound Music and MTV's Buzzworthy Blog. The track became a fixture of setlists on the tour that accompanied the release of the album. In a show review, Mitch Kocen referred to a performance of the song as a "freshly-minted crowd pleaser".

Personnel

;They Might Be Giants *

John Linnell John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician, known primarily as one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to singing and songwri ...

–

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

s *

– songwriting,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, backing vocals ;Backing band *

Marty Beller Marty Beller (born July 10, 1967) is an American musician and songwriter. He is the current drummer for They Might Be Giants since Dan Hickey's departure in 2004. He has recorded two solo albums. He has contributed writing and vocals for three of ...

– drums *Robin Goldwasser – backing vocals * Dan Miller – additional guitar *

Danny Weinkauf Danny Weinkauf (born 4 December 1963) is a Grammy-winning New York-based musician and composer. He has been the longtime bassist for They Might Be Giants (TMBG). He has recorded and toured with the band since the late 1990s. Weinkauf had previou ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

;Production *

Patrick Dillett Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

– producer *They Might Be Giants – producer *Jon Altschuler – engineer

References

{{Authority control They Might Be Giants songs 2013 songs Songs written by John Linnell Songs written by John Flansburgh