Customer Reviews

Mark of the Mole

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What is it? It's spooky! It's political! It's not that political! It's not that spooky! It's the Residents doing a concept album! Well. What did you expect? It tells a story, and it's fun. Unfortunately, the Intermission tracks that used be on the CD have been remastered on it's own CD and we are charged extra money for them. This CD and Intermission work well together. This album is ESSENTIAL anyway.

If you ignore the whole Mole story line, this album just sounds like a purely abstract sound painting. I like this one as much as Eskimo, and I think it is way ahead of its time.

If it weren't for their ability to make everything sound wierd, there is no doubt in my mind that this album had the potential to being a successful stage production. It has pathos in stacks that go to the ceiling of Fillmore West, and it seeths in anger. The music is listenable, and the concept is easy to understand.

In this album, the Residents tell a story of the Moles, an underground civilization, that are forced out of their caverns because of a natural catastrophy and are forced to live amongst the Chubs. As a result, tension and civil war results.

There is no resolution to this story, and that probably is reflective on the Residents alleged Louisiana background, where the civil war still rages in the blood of folks like David Duke.

If there is any criticism to this album, it is the flat sound of the music, made by moog-like instruments, and sounding as if they were filtered by an old sock.

If there is a Resident fan out there without this CD, stock up on it soon.

I have incredibly broad taste in music. I like music with an edge, sometimes with a "lot" of edge (Henry Cow improvisations, early Einsturzende Neubauten, Anthony Braxton's "For Alto"). I'm always looking for something new and different.

I just listened to "Mark of the Mole," and it is the strangest thing I have ever heard in my life. I find it almost impossible to describe.

The Residents' playing is functional, no pyrotechnics. The sythesizers sound like... well, they're not 80's cheesy. They can't be described as *anything* except subterranean, maybe. The vocals are creepy, like a children's record for a children's pageant staged by Edward Gorey. It is almost completely atonal throughout.

I think it's probably brilliant. And I enjoyed ever second. Don't ask me what I just heard, though - I'm still picking my jaw up from the floor.

I've yet to find a disk that goes better with mushrooms. Sit back,relax and enjoy the ride.

I've yet to find a disk that goes better with mushrooms. Sit back,relax and enjoy the ride.