The Residents
Meet the Residents

I stumbled upon the Residents in the mid-'80s, reading a critic describe them as practitioners of "organized musical disservice".  Adding to this was their way of presenting themselves, dressed in tails, complete with a top hat but with an eyeball instead of a head. That was enough to pique my curiosity.

In the fall of 1986, taking advantage of being in New York for a friend's Irish wedding, I went to a record store, Tower Records I believe, and bought three LPs of the group: “Meet the Residents” specifically, “Not Available” and “The Third Reich 'n ‘Roll”.

Once back in Italy, at first listen I felt prompted to define the Residents' music as “strange”, in the sense that I had never listened to anything like it before. My wife, on the other hand, uses an English term, with a slightly negative connotation, “bizarre”, in the sense that the sounds make the listener somewhat uncomfortable (and I can partially understand her).

The album cover also contributes to this feeling. “Meet the Residents” features on the album cover I have four figures, named Paul McCrawfish, John Crawfish, George Crawfish, Ringo Starfish, again with human-like features but heads of crawfish and a starfish.

This cover is actually a second edition, as the original depicted the Fab Four from their first album "Meet the Beatles" with some irreverent graphic additions, a bit like a child would do when jokingly altering a portrait, drawing horns on the head, adding black teeth and similar things. Capitol, the American record label, didn’t like this very much, and, as far as I know, there was a lengthy legal dispute which led, at that time, to the reissue of the LP, with the cover in my possession.

As for the music, I will not dwell on describing each track in detail, also because I always feel a subtle annoyance when reading attempts to translate into writing the emotions that music gives to the listener. However, I must emphasize the wild “cover” that opens the record. "Boots" is a remake of the famous "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by Nancy Sinatra: try listening to both tracks, and then let me know...

Finally, a piece of advice: try to listen to this album (but it also applies to music of a certain level) in peace, possibly in single-task mode. This means not doing other things simultaneously, as we typically do nowadays: so, no eating, drinking, checking email on your smartphone, playing on the PS or Xbox, making phone calls, watching TV (all activities we often do concurrently).

Instead, try to be alone, without wife/husband/partner/children and the like, perhaps in the evening, when it's already dark outside and the external noises have decreased a bit, turn on your stereo, preferably with separate components and active speakers, turn off all the lights, settle down on the sofa, and let yourself be enveloped by these new sounds, these distorted voices, these dissonant arrangements.

I assure you that you will experience a physical as well as psychological well-being. Try to carve out this space at least once a week, for an hour, just to start.

If you have reached this point in the reading, I thank you very much: this is my very first review ever.