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Rating: The Residents are a group of intellectual freaks who, in the first half of the '70s, proposed a distorted and fundamentally "WRONG" version of everything they love (from Faust's krautrock to Beatles and Rolling Stones melodies to Stockhausen's avant-garde approach, and so on...) with little technique, zero means, lots of acids, and "the theory of obscurity" (that is, never revealing their identities, hiding under thousands of pseudonyms) as their weapon.
A weapon that proves successful, since their cult and their label (Ralph Records) become a cult worldwide, and the band acquires money, state-of-the-art equipment, compositional confidence, and a clearly recognizable image (four eyeballs in tuxedos) that becomes part of pop culture made in USA. What they always have, however, is the audacity, the desire to experiment, to derail a train full of stacked glasses one on top of the other to see what happens.
They buy advertising space on various radio stations, and during the commercial, some songs from strange products are played... otherworldly, agitated, and filled with discomfort music (a strange imprint for "a group that jokes", from this seminal 1980, is to create sad, disjointed melodies, yet always of melancholic craftsmanship) with lyrics talking about an "Eastern Woman," a "Picnic Boy"... strange advertisements... strange products, which are not found anywhere... yet, they last as long as a spot...
1980 opens like this, launching in an insolent and unexpected way one of their masterpieces, the "Commercial Album."
40 songs of a minute or slightly more each, in which themes like mental, couple, physical malaise, the afterlife, the supernatural are dissected, and in which the music scrupulously follows a scheme devised by the Residents of the structure of a song meant to be used in commercials.
The four American eyeballs unleash a domestic hell made of cold synths, otherworldly voices, various kinds of percussion, nervous electric guitars and offering us a grin that is cynical and mocking like never before in this case.
Personally one of their best outputs, we will still find restless albums like this "Commercial Album" further on (just think of "Gingerbread Man" for example, another case of a concept that's not at all cheerful despite the animations or the gingerbread man...) - but from this album, the Residents really begin to stop derailing trains and observe without doing anything, they've taken enough notes up until now in this regard, and from here they will make them pay off.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Easter Woman (01:03)
Down, down down, down down, down down...
Easter woman came today
And took away my wife
Took her to an open doorway
To the afterlife
04 End of Home (01:03)
Darkness fell upon the garden
As I sadly sat alone
Dreaming of the end of summer
And again the end of home
Our love was like a flowing river
Deeper still than what it seemed
It consumed my waking hours
Creeping deep into my dreams
05 Amber (01:03)
Life is just a situation
Life is just a game
Life is just a whirlpool
And it's calling out my name
Amber were the autumn leaves
And amber was her skin
Amber was the evening
When the whirlpool pulled her in
It was irresistible
Was what she used to say
Like the sound of running horses
Early in the day
08 Die in Terror (01:02)
She said she wished to die in terror
Screaming in the night
To feel the crawling flesh of panic
As her hair turned white
She also had a pretty little
See-through negligee
I often wonder where she went
And if she got her way
09 Red Rider (01:02)
Cellar doors were open
For the storms were out that night
The light reflected from the leaves
The sky was still too bright
I saw her passing as the wind
Was rising in the air
She rode upon a red bicycle
And she had red hair
12 Suburban Bathers (01:03)
Suburban bathers own the sea
But just between you and me
The sun has never fully set
That's seen the bathers fully wet
I see the sea,
The sea sees me
They seem to run to morning light
And crash the boards between the night
If they'd learn to love themselves
They might survive the murky depths
I see the sea,
The sea sees me
If I'd learn to love myself
I might survive the murky depths
13 Dimples and Toes (01:03)
She is unhappy and even unkind
She would not listen but I do not mind
Kissing her dimples and touching her toes
She is attractive but very restrained
Slightly because of worry and strain
I was her father a long time ago
Kissing her dimples and touching her toes
14 The Nameless Souls (01:03)
She was just uncaring
She was just untrue
She was just indifferent
What else could she do?
I was just a stranger
I was just subdued
I was just uneasy
What else could I do?
We were just the nameless
Souls that sit inside
Wishing that we were
Someone on the outside
Wishing that we were
The ones on the outside
Wishing that we weren't
The ones who were stuck
16 Act of Being Polite (01:03)
I found her crying in the morning
Sitting in a chair
She was wrapping something up
And wrapping it with care
I did not mean to hurt her
When I fell asleep last night
I was just exhausted
From the act of being polite
Yes, I was just exhausted
From the act of being polite
18 Tragic Bells (01:02)
Tragic bells are ringing for me
Tragic bells are ringing in my ear again
And I don't know why I'm going on
19 Loss of Innocence (01:03)
Amusement parks are caked with sounds
A solid hunk of meat
A barker's sweat flings from his tongue
His tattoo shines with heat
A wary stranger stands and sways
Enraptured by his stance
Two-headed goats come stumbling by
And give a troubled glance
The barker looks into the eyes
The stranger tries to bend
The barker swears to more delights
For all who seek within
The stranger enters canvas doors
And smells the fresh cut hay
The barker points to Siamese twins
The stranger looks away
The eyes of horse faced women
Watch the few who wander through
They sense the tension in the air
And smell the sweet taboo
A heart beats fast against a chest
The stranger leaves the tent
The waves of people drown the sounds
Of loss of innocence
21 Ups and Downs (01:04)
She was opening up an elevator
On a rainy day
Sitting on a little stool
And looking far away
When I asked if she would like to take me
To another floor
She laughed and said she probably would
And then she closed the door
22 Possessions (01:03)
Some are into silver
Some are into gold
Some are into having
Something nice to hold
23 Give It to Someone Else (01:03)
I wanted to give it to someone else
And hear what they would say
I wanted to give it to someone else
And watch them as they played
I left it helpless all alone
And waiting on the floor
Squirming just a little bit
And looking at the door
He would take it as he wished
And I would listen in
Documenting as I would
The sound of slapping skin
25 Less Not More (01:03)
The railings of the bridge
Were moving by the glass
The opportunity to leave
Was coming up fast
The situation passed across my
Mind once more,
And I decided that I needed
Less not more
Less not more
Less not more
26 My Work Is So Behind (01:03)
Smoke was feeling up the house
A burning yearning heat
The cats were watching through the haze
And licking at their feet
They were licking at their feet
A caller came and looked at me
And asked me if I'd mind
I said I would not normally
My work is so behind
I'm just way behind
The fire it sparkled in his smile
And then beneath his skin
And so he jumped right in right in
And so he jumped right in
27 Birds in the Trees (01:03)
Birds in the trees
Shook dust from their wings
I thought of the heartaches
That shattered our love not long ago
Birds in the trees
Now asleep
29 Moisture (01:03)
Someone saw a strange amount
Of moisture on her lips
And it was also seen upon
Her arms and on her hips
No one knows exactly who she was or how she died
But when they opened up her purse
They found a snail inside
31 Troubled Old Man (01:03)
His wife had left him long ago
For someone without skin,
And now he faced the mirror
And he saw a doubled chin
He was having trouble
And he'd had it for awhile,
His doctor died a year ago
She was his only child
32 La La (01:03)
La, la-la
La, la-la
La, la, la
La, la-la
La, la-la
La, la, la
La, la-la
La, la-la
La, la, la
33 Loneliness (01:03)
I came upon it in the night
And left it in the rain
And from that moment to today
I've never been the same
I knew not what the weather meant
When he said goodbye
I only know this loneliness
Will never make me cry
Make me cry
35 The Talk of Creatures (01:03)
Mumbling weighs upon my mind
The talk of creatures in my spine
A contest fought between two souls
To know which thought that each controls
They argue deep into the night
Displaying wrongs, inciting rights
They sing their songs with unknown tones
And keep the beat upon my bones
36 Fingertips (01:03)
Something faintly emanating
Perfume and decay
Whispered lightly in the wind
That she had got away
Longing for the touch of something
Soft upon my face
I thought about her fingertips
And not her lack of grace
38 Margaret Freeman (01:03)
Margaret Freeman had a body
Unlike any I'd seen
It seemed to drip her mental thoughts
Like much too warm ice cream
One day while she washed the dishes
In the nude I saw
How her mother's sodden ways
Had rubbed her rib cage raw
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