Customer Reviews

Animal Lover

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After 35 years of a career with better and worse moments, The Residents are one of the few musical groups which can keep surprising their audiences, even if the main core of their audiences is formed by those, like me, who are listening to the group for several decades. Always swimming against the tide, they are one of the few bands -maybe with Zappa and some others- in constant criticism of the western culture, and more exactly, of the north american way of thinking: from their first albums, musically distorted and conceptually agressive ("The third reich & roll") to the latest ("Wormwood", centered on the most dark and cruel stories from the bible), passing through their 70's and 80's covers of other musicians from John Philip Sousa to Elvis Presley, The Residents have been a group very different from the rest. Their albums focused on a single concept, their few performances with an extensive use of theatrical resorts, their unkown identities, the use of the fan clubs as a way of distribute their music and paraphernalia, their incredible lp and cd covers, those 3 cdrom "games", way beyond everything ever made to play with on computers... maybe The Residents are not the best group on earth but they are quite different... and very interesting.

"Animal Lover" is, as far as today, their last cd. One of the things that I have always found on cd format is that they are too long. On the lp format, with 40-45 min. recordings, there was space enough for a concept album to be developed. In the rare cases when more playing time was needed, the double lp was perfect. But cd's offer 80 minutes of music, and no group would keep the 40 minutes length, because all the reviews would say "too short". Thus, most musicians fill their cd's with more music than needed. "Animal Lover" would have been a complete masterpiece if you didn't find some of the tracks as superfluous. Most of them are pure gold: dense, sad, sinister, perfectly recorded, telling disturbing stories. A few of them are less focused, less understandable, less attractive, lower level.

The wonderful package that the disk comes with -when did you buy your last cd with a 52 page booklet, original illustrations, careful design and a free second cd with remixes?- explains a little the plot: Every song has a short introductory tale about an animal -chicken, bat, dog, cat, monkey, etc- on the main role. Then, the song itself tells the same story from a totally different point of view, that of the human on the same tale. We know then the story of the mouse who lives at the hospital where the girl goes to see her dying father; the cat who loves the son of its master, and misses his voice after he returns from war and never say a word; the ant living on a garden where a man is so obsessed by his tulips that he forgets everything else in life. Strange stories indeed, strange music too. Not for everybody, but give it a try, and maybe you'll be caught.

As I recall, back in the early eighties when I first heard my first Residents album,I sat listening to "The mark of the mole" with my eyes wide and my mouth dropped to the floor. It was obvious that these highly creative artists had tapped into the same netherdepths that I had always assumed existed, but could never convince others of its reality. It seemed that someone else had experienced the same oddball childhood fantasies.
All subsequent albums left the same mark. Though the quality of the work waned and waxed, all their ideas of musical simplicity involving the use of childlike tunes with an edge of insanity remained absorbing.
"Animal Lover" after a few listenings comes across as one of the great ones. The haunting and mesmerizing tunes roll out like vivid feverish dreams. This CD is extremely well conceived. I must say also that it is one of the strangest, even for the Residents, I have ever heard. Has anyone else figured out what the old woman and the chicken song is about? I have, and its not pretty!

If anyone is reading this that doesnt know the Residents already (which I think is an irregularity... that is looking up Residents music) then let me tell you I am a complete, 100% new listener to this band. The first time I even became aware of this band is a memory that that i had of MTV, in the late eighties, giving some wierd tribute to them as being the band that had no faces but changed the way music was played/watched. I remember MTV saying that they were the "great unknowns", or something equally mysterious like that. And in the video/documetary, the last scene on MTV, after they had made such a hullabulloo about these artists, they just walked away, into the black and white sunset. That was like '88.
Recently, within the last year I had been fighting with this memory. I got back into the eighties, the synth, the one hit wonders, the songs and bands I loved, but always there was that memory of this group with four members, dressed in penguin suits and wearing eyeball heads and top hats. The band that MTV hailed as great innovators.
Seriuosly... Until three weeks ago I thought they were the originators of cool ass eighties synth and dance like OMD, New Order, etc.
I was so wrong.
After trying to find a vinyl album of theirs from my local stores, to no avail, I went to the CDs. This album was there.
The Residents are true underground artists. Operating under the Theory of Obscurity (and various other life theories I'm sure) they are truer to their personal musical foundations then ANY other bands in America. Avant Garde Musicians is there true genre. Artists like Beck, They Might Be Giants, Gwar, Slipknot... all imitators. The Residents are an enigma when it comes to the band itself. You just have to trust they are who they are... and they are, but you will never know that, cause they wont ever tell you.
I couldnt find an album of theirs cause their history is one of minimal production. Checking up on their history I found the largest production was like 1000-2000 albums. In many cases these were only given to those who were in their fan clubs.
After reading reviews from many different sites, including the reviews from this website, I realized I had stepped into another world of music.
This album, from what Ive read does not display the totality of the Residents musical background. But from what Ive read nothing can. They are avant garde synth artistes.
This album is nothing like Ive ever heard period. Its like what Radiohead tried to do with Kid A, unfortunately The Residents were doing it since 1972. This album, from my limited research, is actually one of their more recent full albums that they have done, meaning a full amount of songs (15) that are cohesive and have a running theme.
My first impression of listening to this album, and reading the intricate and beautiful CD package (which I get the impression they are known for), is one of distress, unsettledness, discomfort, amazement, wonder. If this album was like the old Residents, which if you read the comments from the other commentators on Amazon they will tell you they were crazier, then yikes.
Of course they are also highly regarded as the contempory originators of the "concept album", from what I have read, so this album seems to be a great addition to their thirty + years of work.
Like I said I'm a complete newcomer to them, and I feel like when you get a Residents album its like musical homework. Mainly because you cant stop listening to them. And the Residents in particular have such a rich history.
Their car broke down in San Mateo in 69', where I live for God Sakes, and stayed in the area to start their career.
You cant understand them unless you read about them. The songs on this album are nothing like you ever heard, unless you have been listening to the Residents for a while, of course.
The most notable references to those who would like the musical originality of The Residents are Sun Ra, Frank Zappa as those are the common references made, but also if you like Kool Keith, aka Dr Doom, aka Dr Otcogon, Black Elvis. Keith would dig this.
Straight up, buy this album. Dive deep into musical lore to find more work. Enjoy sounds, musical compositions that no artists would ever attempt, and forget trying to discover who the members of the band actually are. You'll never know until they're dead... if they havent already.

This album is amazing, in fact I would have to say one of their best! Don't listen to the "Tunes of Two Cities" guy, he obviously doesn't know good music...Tunes of Two Cities was a bad ass record. This album actualy has a secret CD with none of the tracks listed so it's well worth the money. An absolute master piece! You don't need to be a fan to get into this!

Who could've guessed that if The Residents made an album of pretty, delicate sounding music, and largely replaced Homer's shout-singing with equally pretty guest female vocals that I would like the result so very much? Well hey-- I do! Like it! Very much! The lyrics are still as odd and obtuse as ever, which sometimes leaves me a bit cold, but the music (largely inspired by traditional folk music, ranging from gamelan to klezmer) dots my eye like gangbusters.! ! I didn't even know that the album's 1st pressing (or whatever) came with a whole bonus disc, too! I got my hands on a used copy of that, and find it to be quite a pleasant expansion on the Animal Lover lp. 30 odd years in, glad to find The Residents still on top of their game. Whatever the hell their game is.

When I got this Residential ditty from Amazon, I was first disappointed in it. It seemed a bit repetitious of their other work. I then gave it a scathing review here.

However, I loaded it into my iPod and did several 90 mile truck commutes with it on. Thats when things changed and my attitude changed!

The Residents haven't lost their atonal singing qualities or out of tune instruments. they are now just choreographed in a professional manner!

I still don't understand the concept of this album. Much like you wont understand the concept of my favorite Residential album "The Big Bubble" unless you read and re read the liner inserts as you hear Kulla Bocca whine and spout his gibberish! The Residents are permanently WEIRD, even after 35 years as an entity. Zeus help us if they ever go mainstream or ever get "popular!"

Not as beautiful as "Demons Dance Alone," yet this album stands in it's own right as both beautiful and dark- perfect music to play at Timothy leary's funeral! It is pure Residents, no doubt about it! And after repeated listenings, it grows on you to the point that you will LOVE it!

Ahh, the wonderfully weird Residents. First of all, I couldn't be happier that this group continues to anonymously weave their tangled web of sonic strangeness... but let's be honest, most of their material from the past 10 years is awfully unmemorable... Take the lavishly packaged Animal Lover -- lots of odd, bleak synthesizers and strange voices... a pointless "remix disc" (I guess?) with more of the same... very disturbing (and not in a good way) computer generated artwork in the booklet... It's sadly starting to seem like God in Three Persons from 1988 will stand as the last Residents masterwork... I sincerely hope not, though... maybe they should lose the computers and samplers and try an acoustic album next for a change of pace... I'd love to re-Meet The Residents I once knew and loved so long ago...

The 'Same Old' Residents, as they brand themselves on the inlet of their latest enigmatic album, Animal Lover, come at us with new and old atmospheres. This brand may be necessary for them as they are known for recreating themselves. But more than ever, Animal Lover uses the strengths of their most recent albums such as Wormwood, Icky Flix, 12 Days of Brumalia, and continues a placid style developed in the 2002 album Demons Dance Alone. Over their 30 years The Residents, more a mystic movement than what we call a band, have taken advantage of dormant powers in music provoking character, but done far more than infuse differing styles and genres with theatrics and visual art. Their albums, videos, multimedia, soundtracks, singles and endless miscellany are of a fast-changing nature that comforts eccentricity in an all-inclusive manner. It's plausible that their arts attempt to be in between all others because their axis of their albums, which admittedly are the bulk of their work, is usually concept, journey or story. Though admittedly and exaggeratedly zany, probably no other band works this hard at taking so many forms. That's why they can't compare with those that are strict of style, for they have a different role, with spades to show for it. They are a force less about having a backlog of secular successful works and more about variety in experience and broadness of range in creations.

This is clearly illustrated in their countless remaking of their own music including Icky Flix (2000), a collective of selected works over 30 years. Diskomo 2000 is some sort of version of widely recognized Eskimo (1979), which is rather some kind of parallel universe to Eskimo rather than a remix. They have remixed their very first demo album into something else altogether. Their latest release, The Way We Were is of a concert in Australia where they remade more old favourites never before remade. They have a wide variety of strangely conclusive offerings worth exploring, a band that is worth many second chances. But out of all this randomness which was no doubt all fun to produce, Animal Lover (2005) is more a sum of it all than any other, even than Icky Flix. Their style was a jump from 1998's Wormwood, though slightly familiar, and showed a renewed effort to produce wholesome albums. The dominant summoning aspect of their creativity is not limited by the audiences need for familiarity or consistency, and even in the less serious designs or even vignettes, there is a distinct mark of craftiness only attached to its inception.

Animal Lover is no Commercial Album for it is more involved in long-term feelings like the new songs My Window, The Whispering Boys, Mother No More, Burn My Bones. It is no Duck Stab/Buster & Glen for it's more matured and less playful. They come dark and deceptively personal, well aware, as they are, of impersonal meaning. Compared not only with their impacting works it is fresh and terribly grasping if allowed. Compared with Demons Dance Alone, perhaps their poppiest and saddest album thus far, it goes melancholic again with more nourishing music and less repressed pain. Animal Lovers' instrumentation and production are just more human than Demons Dance Alone. Compare the range of instruments, the organic sounds kin to the notes playing melodies whose parts intertwine in less strict patterns. From Hunter Felt of Popmatters: "On Animal Lover, the Residents show, as always, a lot of heart and thought in the lyrics and ideas and even in their theatrical vocal performances, but that effort only sporadically shows up in the music itself."

Something must be said for the music of Animal Lover here. More open audiences need only listen to the many sides of the albums musicality. It takes great musical steps for the Residents but certainly more than meets their `heart and thought in the lyrics and ideas.' Compositionally, these songs reveal something of the theme within them, and where they don't they present mystery. In the preliminary notes it was said that the "...rhythm tracks are based entirely on animal noise mating patterns generated primarily by cicadas and frogs." I don't doubt that rhythms in this album were actually taken from cicadas and frogs. These are densely layered recordings; it takes a few listens to spot technicalities amidst all the gimmicks and images. Those of us that make music know what is possible these days, and how quickly samples can be manipulated and varied, and one has a staggering choice of devices to use. And those of us that have really listened to the intricacies of The Residents progression musically know that they are not only open to a huge range of sounds but have developed their own systems of selecting them. They have been doing this for over 30 years. This should encourage listening because Animal Lovers' production is more specific than any of their work so far.

The premise for the album is stated to be "...a soundtrack that relate[s] directly to `animal love.'" The Residents have a history of being either ambiguous or vague with explanations without even showing whether it is intentional or not. On a more general note it seems that everything the Residents do is a joke, but at the same time it is a sincere philosophy. A balance is being sought, and it is rare for a `band' to be so involved and open to the contradictions/mysteries of what they do. It would seem plausible that in their disguises, their lack of conventional titles and interviews, their gifts of totally unreasonable mockery of all they please, that they are asking us to trust them with this information about their release. They have before displayed some facility for quite organized thought like their philosophy for Commercial Album, a formula for writing pop songs, 40 of them, each one minute long. It is satire done constructively and freely representing so many concepts within the album, one minute at a time. The liner notes state a very plausible formula for pop songs.

The Theory at Blogcritics.org wrote a review that was very enlightening, but said one a thing that needs to be commented on. The Animal Lover song Mr Bee's Bumble is the first and most rhythmic song. It is not impossible to get a feeling for it progressing the album. The Theory said: "...it could have been whipped up during the dance remixing of the WB demos." I was surprised at this in the carefully written review. They were right that it "signals a change in direction," as it certainly shakes up the album as the most fast-paced and the most danceable. It is strange how it ends, though, on the decisive root note. The harder song to me so far is working wonderfully on the album, yet that note at the end doesn't allow the song to fit into the softer, longer mysteries of Animal Lover.

Compare Demons Dance Alones' title track with Animal Lovers' central dirge, `My Window' and you hear another countless example of the bands' art of specifying their albums' character. Though these songs share a lot of the same blue qualities, they reflect this. Listen and see what you think, for it is not easy to keep up with this most eccentric band of closeted intuition, journeys beyond taboos, analysis of how we see, or just childish dressing-up and stripping gone mad.

Animal Lover may be a bit more considerate to conventional ears than others. The production uses a depth and range of orchestral, vocal, electronic, clean, organic, and traditional instruments set to a tired or gloomy disposition, and with far more controlled discordance than fans are used to. From the process of 'On the Way to Oklahoma' to the well-timed calming instrumental `Dreaming of an Anthill (teeming)', there is a mood that sustains it, though challenging. There seems no end to the instrumentation they have constructed up to now, and perhaps with more layers than ever. Experimentation was more deliberate in most of their work, whereas now they advance composition and use chaos with more timing, creating, much more strictly, pieces of music utilizing noise and sound rather than the reverse or near to it. For those that know the latter works, more clean musical composition is not new. Animal Lover compared with Wormwood compositionally is more undressed and personal, using more comfortable key changes, rhythms that are easier to take for their lack of need to shift and surprise. But when you really compare these two spectacular albums, it all boils down to theme and direction. Wormwood has the hollow fear of God through and through. It touches the atmosphere of modern church and the ancient confusion of man's worship and devices. Animal Lover comes of a different need altogether, and is more broad than Wormwood, covering rawness with a deeper resonance of weathered musical parts, and generally leaning towards the soothing. One suspects the band is starting to put therapy into their music rather than strictly theme.

The Residents are closer to attracting recognition from a wider audience, but still far from right-field. Their themes and lyrics point to unresolved psychosis and differing natures of corruption with humour, though not all certain as ever, but are by far not as self-satisfied (though one still tends to get transported into their world without a map). Their push toward mass appeal seems to be trying to alter mass appeal itself throughout their history. And though this album is no exception, it does seem to utter some mass appeal qualities like the broad theme of animal nature in humans. Without the preliminary notes about the philosophy of "Food goes in one end and sh*t comes out the other. Sperm goes in and babies come out. It's all we've got, that and love," they have created a rather imposing album, including the attractive cover, between rock and samba and horror-show score. But there is an indescribable quality.

Inner conflict seems to be a theme. The Animal Lover bonus CD has no title except for two passages in opposite colours. One gives an account of an experience which can't be taken as much more than a joke due to its incoherence. The other passage explains that experience more practically, emphasizing time running out and the importance of remembering what had happened before the memories were `absorbed by my Imaginary Jack.' That CD reinterprets the original Animal Lover songs with intensified imagination in what is at some times like a river-ride through sensory overloads. It seems carefully constructed, considering their style of quick and impulsive compositions and arrangements, and veers from their new cohesiveness. By the end, if the listener is still at attention, they may sense disturbance and sickness. It is the escape from Animal Lover songs taken to extremes and overdone on purpose [For a schizophrenic it could have twisted effects, even for Residents music].

By its urgency one is reminded of the 2003-4 album 12 Days of Brumalia that sneaked at us effortlessly with its disguised and hot electric energy (with the use of royalty-free samples), as if aimed at to the night-life of very affluent politicians. These mostly instrumental tracks are very un-self-conscious, urgent and drive with American or consumer traditions; themes of Thanksgiving `turkey-day', the tune of `Partridge in a Pear Tree', greed, pity, and an exaggerated revamp of Jello Jack the Boneless Boy. The track Day 12 musically dramatizes a heated political rally with such fullness, using car horns, crowd rages and tinkling cocktails, that plays a scene of ceremonious distraction in the face of crisis brilliantly and manipulatively. Many of the sampling, hot tones and honestly straight guitars are used similarly in Animal Lover. 12 Days probably stands alone a sharper work than the bonus `Imaginary Jack' CD, but like all their work, they have given each a special gift that cannot compare with the rest in at least one way. But while Animal Lover is more accessible, longer, and more whole than 12 Days, it is yet another take, partly, on popular music. 12 Days is more of a semi-dance album. You wonder how or how much farther into pop they will go. You wonder what they won't do. Listening to them progress through Wormwood, Icky Flix, Demons Dance Alone, 12 Days of Brumalia and Animal Lover, these are serious works of reckoning with the masses (who are mostly not listening), a struggle which could be taking away their faces in the music market.

Animal Lover the album is a more connective, more collected part of the Residents' journey than others, and though you wonder whether you'll learn something more from it in 3 years' time, it has some sincerely well written songs like `Burn My Bones' `Monkey Man' `Dead Men', or `Elmer's Song'. Upon first hearing Elmer's Song I was stunned into thinking it was the first religious or sincere thing they had put out. The lyric `God is waiting for you' was believable and curious at first. But then it falls into mockery with Elmer's opinion of `White people should remain in bed.' Elusive again, and more conniving than ever I've heard them before, it is so beautifully played, a tempo of baptism in a river, that steel guitar rocking you to sleep, hypnotizing, clean and chiming, and against a huge regal chorus that calls you from the inside. That's a first. I don't know who engineered the album but that guitar has more qualities than it seems it could. I think it's one aspect of the well-crafted balance of the album, an example of the conducive production which has improved almost every release.

In this album the Residents have been patient: they have stayed familiar (with the flexibility that will always allow them), and kept sight of so many more varieties of mood, colour (though often melancholic), arranged plainly beautiful parts for classical instruments, and done some self analysis as well. The theme of creating ones' own world occurs. `On the Way to Oklahoma' is about becoming your own fantasy, told by a man-turned-cat. Whether the rest of the album continues this idea, aside from the bonus CD, begs more investigation. They typically aim at the nature of things, so a song like `Olive and Grey', referring to the hue of a stolen penis, is probably based on someone's personal views. There is for each song a story of an animals' (except the Monkey Man) account of the songs event. These give enlightening ideas and play on words at times in pleasing ways. But whether they offer themselves towards an overall theme of the album I have yet to understand.

It is good to have a different point of view for each song, especially when they are character driven. The Monkey Man's story and song is about societies' restrictions on communication, clearly, but with plenty of room for the mysteries of the Monkey Man, who just stares at people, to be re-evaluated. The song itself must be noted for its extremely good timing of murky, chiming and summoning fear. The use of the dog bark is especially evocative at the last change. It's really a shocking song.

Two Lips is a wonderful materialistic rampage in the mind of the consumer. The parallel story is of the ant, who cannot learn to understand why the man, who has mounds of possessions, sells everything he has to buys tulips which are so impractical. It's cleverly ironic how greed of image drives the man to sell his life to tulips, because losing everything for beauty is not the answer either. It is based on the tulip craze of Holland.

The bridge the Residents are building from the `cavernous' world as Michael Osborn aptly put it, to the brave expense of the outer could be called brave, or laborious. If only they would be clearer and simpler with their ideas. They are so very indulgent with expressing the urgent that their message may be lost. Not enough have heard of `America's most eccentric band', or `The world's most famous unknown band.' Listeners have to volunteer to be taken in to their world. And after going the stretch, it doesn't resemble reality too often. Of course that's a good thing, just not always accessible. It is my hypothesis, therefore, that the whole business of memories being absorbed by this Imaginary Jack is a cry for help or a warning against the powers of imagination (from utmost, overt trip-heads). Just listen to them spin out of control and lead into madness, giving us permission to go bonkers for over 30 years.

I think that the truth is somewhere in the middle.
I don't agree that the "Animal Lover" is a masterpiece and also I don't agree that "Tunes Of Two Cities" was a bad record.
It's two completely different albums with completely different musical structure and sound.
It's wrong to compare these albums.
Personally I consider "Tunes Of Two Cities" as masterpiece.
In whom that didn't like this record probably he didn't understand of Resident's music.

The "Animal Lover" is a good album that you can hear it pleasently but nothing more beyond that.
It has nothing to do with the "old" Residents that we grow up and fell in love with their sound.
The sound in all Resident's album (before 90') was full of the famous "Theory Of Obscurity".
But unfortunatelly this theory starts to fade after 90's.
Where this theory gone ?

"Animal Lover" it's not a bad record but I strongly prefer their fisrt albums that they has nothing to do with their latest works.

I've seen the Globural headed ones twice in concert, One the "old" Resident's and the second was the "new & Improved" bunch. I'm not really one to differ between the two. I love their old and new stuff about equally. They have made logical progressions as a band, and all bands worth their salt do that. You don't hear Pink Floyd performing songs off the first LP do you? But there is a huge amount of people that swear that was the best thing they ever did...

To the new CD.

I've listened three times now. And have to agree with an earlier reviewer...forget the hype and just enjoy the music. It does harken back to an earlier age in spots, I even felt a spot that reminded me of The Big Bubble.

Unlike an earlier reviewer, I REALLY liked Demons Dance alone, and while this CD is nothing like that one, they do share some elements. But for all you Resident's lovers who would like to turn the clock back twenty or thirty years...It is not going to happen. You can always go back and listen to the old stuff and enjoy it, just like you can the Rolling Stones. But I can guarentee you that the last 4 Residents CDS have blown the last 4 Stones CDs off the map.

So out with old and in with the new...well worth the price! The packaging is very interesting and while my CD lists 15 songs, there is an entire bonus CD of 5 tracks that runs almost 30 minutes..And it is great as well...I ALMOST like it as much as INTERMISSION (the break music from the mole show).

Long Live Snakefinger!