Scars (The Last Word)
"Scars" is the fourth instalment of the blog The Last Word, authored by Will Rothers (better known as Big Brother, the former webmaster of The Residents' official website). It was published on February 3rd 2008 in the website's Historical sub-section.
The blog
Scars
- A few days ago, somebody on the chat made the statement that all Residents albums sounded alike after Mark of the Mole. Now obviously a statement like that is designed to just stir up shit, but it did make me pause for a moment to think about what have been the, well, I guess most jarring albums by The Residents. Pretty much every Residents album has something unique about it. I am thinking of it like fingerprints. Every fingerprint is unique as we know, but step back a bit and you can also say every fingerprint is exactly the same. Well, not EVERY fingerprint. There are the ones that have scars, burns and punctures. So for Residents albums, I am looking for the ones with scars.
In chronological order:
The Third Reich 'N' Roll (1976)
The idea for this album is so foreign to anything that was being done at the time that it could have come from a different planet. Stringing hooks from 1960s bubblegum music together to form side-long suites was revolutionary. Having the entire thing played by people who were musically challenged took it totally to another level. Even the package with its controversial swastikas and dancing Hitlers ran so far ahead of "punk" trends that it could have been the thing that started it all. Of course it bombed when it was released, and only over time did people manage to start appreciating this album. It is still considered controversial.
Eskimo (1979)
"Tapping your foot to wind" as stated by Penn Jillette really sums up this wildly innovative and potentially disastrous album. To even have this album described to you could only make you think that it is both highly pretentious and tediously boring. Certainly, many people found that to be true, but lots of people did see this as a work of great intelligence and imagination. It actually was a sizable hit when it was released and even charted in Greece.
The Big Bubble (1985)
This album is so radical that, in a similar way that Residents fans are a sub-set of music fans, Big Bubble fans are a sub-set of Residents fans. The Residents assuming the persona and name of an imaginary band only has one precedent that I can think of, and it is a good one. The Mothers of Invention recorded an album pretending to be a doo-wop group known as Reuben and the Jets. In a fashion similar to Residents fans, Mothers fans split between lovers and haters of the radical album. The Residents one-upped the Mothers by creating a band that didn't speak English too well and sung mostly in a made up language called Molemot. It also featured a fake album cover with a hilarious picture so the band. Certainly this is one of The Residents most original (and confusing) undertakings.
God in 3 Persons (1988)
Without any previous album hinting at it, The Residents recorded an album that centered on an hour-long text written in rhyme and cadence that can only be compared to the epic poems of Byron or Keats. It’s like an epic, esoteric rap album. Even rappers today would have a difficult time with a story like this that goes on for an hour and still delivers at the end. In an additional bold touch, the first track of the album has the album title and credits all sung as part of the music. List your other artists that have even gotten close to this level of imagination.
The CD-ROMs Freak Show (1994) and Bad Day on the Midway (1995)
Maybe they should not be listed because, as albums, they are so radical that they defy the very definition of an album. If you are talking standout different projects, they have to be mentioned at least.
To properly view uniquely "scarred fingerprint" albums takes distance. The next album does not yet have the distance but I think it will easily make this list in ten years’ time.
The Voice of Midnight (2007)
The elements of "radio drama" acting and classic story by ETA Hoffman certainly differentiate this from other Residents albums as well as your usual "alternative" bands of 2007. These are not the radical elements that make me put this album in the list. It is the music, the real "voice" of the album. God in 3 Persons had the story line but only used music to support the mood and cadence. The Voice of Midnight integrates the music into the story in radically new ways. The most surprising of these is the attempt to capture the schizophrenic nature of the story. Some people may see this as a lack of a cohesive sound, but it is far more calculated than that. The music is perhaps their boldest step away from 20th Century structure since Eskimo. Recorded at a time when music is dominated by the downloading of MP3 singles from the internet, The Voice of Midnight flies directly in the face of this trend by offering no songs, nothing to hum. It denounces the “trivial” in music in a way that is both a part of the story as well as a reflection of The Residents themselves leaping from the tower. One never knows where the Residents may go next, but this album, to me, says it is the end of something important, and says it with such depth that I have not been able to decipher all the implications. It is indeed the "voice of midnight."
BTW, for those of you who see patterns, the next album that belongs on this list should be released in the year 2010.
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