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THE REVIEW
The Residents continue their fight against 'Nazi'* commercial music, this time going on the offensive with an album with a rather direct title: the "Commercial Album".
It's forty tracks, each one minute and three seconds long, an album that is pure mockery of commercial music from start to finish, all this in the year when pop conquered the music world: 1980. The songs are absolutely monotonous, they almost all seem to come from the same mold, they have a rather relentless rhythm but the psychedelic and crazy sounds with which the Residents accompany it make the tracks chilling and hostile.
The voices of the four big eyes are distorted and rather disjointed from each other in the phrasing, and this is perhaps what makes the 'Residents style' more terrifying and gloomy. The sampling of musical instruments makes the atmosphere even colder and makes us realize that behind the track there is no passion, no emotion, the track exists solely for itself, merely a mass of notes placed there with no pretense of ironically expressing anything else other than the nullity of commercial music, manufactured solely to be consumed.Eight years later, a series of very 'Residents-like' tracks were added to this album, which became key pieces in subsequent Residents albums. Noteworthy are especially the pseudo-commercial "Theme For An American TV Show" which, accompanied by a muffled sampled drum (which seems to come out of audio headphones), personally vaguely recalls "Sofa" by the legendary Frank Zappa for its typical pseudo-TV theme song symphony; the hysterical "We're A Happy Family" which seems like the theme song of the Happy Tree Friends but unlike the fact that in this one the hysteria of the track is clearly expressed; and especially the covers of "Jailhouse Rock", "This Is A Man's Man's Man's World", and "Hit The Road Jack" which quite explicitly recall 'The Third Reich'n'Roll', an album very much related to the one in question.
In short, this album is 'simply' an ironic interpretation of the music world: once you put on the headphones and hit play, it will automatically make you ask 'What am I listening to?' and silence will be the only objective response we will get.
*= see 'The Third Reich'n'Roll'
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Summary by Bot
The Residents' Commercial Album is a bold and ironic critique of commercial pop music, featuring 40 tracks each lasting just over one minute. The album's repetitive rhythms, distorted vocals, and psychedelic soundscapes create a chilling atmosphere that mocks mainstream music. Later additions to the album include key tracks that influenced subsequent works by the band. Overall, it challenges listeners to question the nature and value of commercial music.Tracklist Lyrics Videos
The Residents
The Residents are an American avant-garde/experimental music group known for anonymity (often associated with eyeball masks), a self-mythologized “Theory of Obscurity,” and deconstructive parodies of popular music and American culture through sound collage and treated voices.16 Reviews
