Customer Reviews

Commercial Album: 25th Anniversary Special Edition

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Many listeners got their first taste of the Residents on the "Dr. Demento" radio program back in late 1979 or 1980. The song was "The Laughing Song" and I never forgot how wonderfully bizarre it was.
Louisiana swamp rats who relocated to San Francisco (a good choice, given the musical tolerance the Bay Area has boasted over the years) and created a stir with never revealing their identities and making head size eyeballs famous, the Residents specialized in proto-synth programming that predated Devo and just about every cutting edge artist, with the possible exception of Can, the German experimental legends. While comedy is the main focal point of these twisted genius' work, they also experiment with sounds and textures never before attempted or replicated. In fact, "Eskimo", their biggest selling album, is somewhat serious, a five part soundscape that defies description in print.
For those not quite ready to take the plunge with "Eskimo", "The Commercial Album" is a good starting point as each selection is exactly one minute long, making up forty snippets of amazing hooks, noises, and even the occasional pretty tune. Fans of electronic music like NIN, meet your roots. Reznor could never have created his work without these pioneers. As so often is the case, some of the world's most obscure artists also act as the most influential. Laugh along, but don't forget the new ground that is constantly being broken as you listen to "The Commercial Album". Also, pick up "Duck Stab/Buster & Glen", the other Residents' masterwork.

There are plenty of reviews that will tell you why you should or shouldn't buy this album, but it frustrates me that so few reviewers on Amazon mention the actual version of the product at hand. I would think that many if not most of the potential buyers of this disc are already familiar with The Residents, if not this album itself, but what is seldom (if ever) mentioned is that this is a fantastic 'pressing' packaged very handsomely in a CD-sized, glossy hardcover book. I first dicovered that Residents albums were being packaged this way when I recently picked up the two double-album discs comprising the so-called 'Mole Trilogy.' I decided to take a chance on this disc (as well as Duck Stab) and was very happily surprised to see that these, too, had been released in these wonderful packages, with booklets containing artwork and lyrics.

As for the music, what can I say? The "Commercial Album," a 'reaction' of sorts to their own magnum opus "Eskimo," is a late-70s avant garde classic, a kind of satire of a culture of sound bites. There are 40 1-minute tracks (as opposed to the single 40-minute track on "Eskimo") that sound like an alien child's attempt to recreate the experience of having heard Earth music, and in particular, music from TV & radio ads (in my opinion).

Are all the tracks great? No, you have to absorb them more as a collection, but it's still a clever concept album, and some of these tunes will have you laughing at their absurdity (like "The Act of Being Polite"); others may have you pondering the meanings behind their short lyrics for hours to come ("Easter Woman"). A few are actually pretty ("Amber"). If you're looking for originality, you've come to the right place. You may not play this album every day, but it's worth having in your collection, especially this well-packaged edition.

The Residents are one of the stranger, most obscure bands ever, but whoever has heard of them usually adores them. They have never been identified by name, even today. In the age of dead privacy, they still manage to keep themselves hidden. I have 2 of their albums, God In Three Persons and this one. This is one of the most unique albums that I own (and one of the most unique in rock history). It is comprised of 40 one minute songs, like commercials. Most of them are quite strange, sounding like demented commercials from a nuclear mutated planet light years away. But when you play the songs in shuttle play (the liner notes suggests that you programme your CD player to play each song 3 times), the songs like a pop song. It's quite strange and unique, just like this band. Needless to say, this album never ran up to the top of the charts, but maybe someday, it might, when the world catches up to The Residents.

If you enjoy weird and crazy synth. sounds and quick commercial style pop songs encapsuled in 1 minute, than this album is definitely for you. The songs are very enjoyable and come in quick succession and before you know it you have listened to the whole cd.
From a documentary I saw on the Residents, which was hosted by Penn and Teller from 1990, this album was created to show how a pop song is really akin to a commercial jingle; having a couple of versus and than a chorus or refrain and just repeated several times within the 1 minute span. Suprisingly this is tame from their other material which at times can sound punk to a person whose never heard of them. In my opinion, their one of the greatest performance artists that came out of the 70's. Their music at times sounds destructured or disjointed or even chaotic. There are music videos to several of these tracks that are very enjoyable.


Julius-Allan H.
Chicago,Il.

Take the concept of TV commercials and how we define pop music as " commercial " and marry the two of them together. It's a very shrewd idea, even ballsy. Is it any good though? Surprisingly so. The songs or, since we're talking of The Commercial Album, commercials barely last a minute long, a near ideal length for a commercial. But if you want to take it in a pop context the songs are not long enough to guarantee memorability. But that is only on first listen. They can be extremely memorable. Like my father used to say " Short. Sharp. Concise. And to the point." This is what this album is. It displays some cutting ideas on love and life which can be thought provoking. Take Love Is for example, the lyrics to which are;

"Love is only loneliness divided by another
Love is only living for the lonely
Love is only loneliness divided by another
And I know that life is lonely"

Some may find that stupid but I think it's a pretty interesting thought and indeed it could be more truthful then anyone of us will care to admit.

However, this album is worthwhile if you want to see these eyeballed men work at their most shrewdly inspired. Now I'd like to see how those video commercials worked on that DVD.......

what a delight! over 40 little snippets of Residential atonal ditties! Each one with the carnival like weird space cadet like ditties of ear candy! Each is one minute long, all the "fat" has been cut from each one.

Never boring, cause each piece is completely different from the other! Except for the Pee Wee herman quality of each, these toe tappers are not to be played to a date, she or he will forever think you are weird after hearing these!

SO WHAT?!

Join the United Mutations! Baptize thyself in the world of our eyeball buddies!

And if you like these, be sure to get the DVD- Resident's Commercial DVD! SEE interpretations of these ditties by spacy artists, and get on a "Natural Fry!"

I think of this album alongside the Clash's "Sandinista!"- Like that sprawling Clash album, the Residents have absorbed a bewildering array of music forms. But whereas the Clash celebrates those forms more or less intact, the Residents completely deconstruct them. Nothing is recognizable. Yet, the rudiments of music form and structure are here: melody, rhythm, texture. They also perform a experiment on this album that is time-honored in the annals of pop music: just how far can you strip a song down and retain its essence? Every one of the forty songs here are completely idiosyncratic and recognizable, yet pared down so far they could almost be considered snippets if they didn't lack recognizable structure (which they have).

Ok, sounds pretty freaky. But really, I think this is one of the Residents most accessible albums. For one thing, their strange ideas are delivered in compact units. For another, conventional structure dominates. Verse-chorus-verse. Compared to the Commercial album, Eskimo is a terrifying exercise in formlessness. So some might enjoy this as a "gateway" album to the truly deep weirdness of their other albums.

I first bought this album when I was in high school. Zappa's Freak Out and Uncle Meat were already in my collection, so this album has never seemed all that ominous. It even seems quaint and- dare I say it- cute at times. If you have been there, done that, you make think the same. If not, this album would be a great introduction to a pretty interesting corner of the popular music landscape.

This album is a strange one. I would recommend it only to people who like avant-garde and experimental music as thats what it is. With all songs being only 1 minute long it can be hard to "get into" this album but if you like the weird and wacky this one is for you. A great CD.

actually petting zoo is better as a starter maybe the icky flix dvd should be the perfect introduction to the residents
this album you never get tired of
buy the original 40 track release
the residents are one of the greatest bands of all time
concept behind album is deconstructing pop music
buy or die
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