Customer Reviews

Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses

5 star:		(10)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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The band has had numerous compilations over the years, but this one definitely had the most effort put into it. The songs are more or less in reverse chronological order, letting you hear how their diverse sounds have changed over the years. The first CD ("Unum") covers 1981-96, while the second CD ("Pluribus") covers the "Classic" album years of 1980-1972. One thing that makes this particlar compilations special are the several "concentrates" -- medlies created from several or all songs from a particular album. They concentrates aren't just space fillers though; they flow really well for the albums they were selected for.

Even if you do have most of the major releases from The Residents, this compilation includes a good number of rarities and general non-album songs. You don't have to get them just for the sake of completion though: in all honesty, they're really good songs! The booklet was also very well done, including an informative biography, tons of great photos, and track-by-track descriptions of the songs and their sources. The booklet has two cover photos, so you can display either one on the front by flippling the booklet over.

There was also a 4-CD version of this release, but I don't think it's still in print. It included everything from the 2-CD version, plus tons of more rarities, and more concentrates for albums not covered at all in the 2-CD release (Meet The Residents, Not Available, the albums for the Cube E and Mark of the Mole tours, the Hunters soundtrack, etc.) So for those of you wondering "why didn't they include material from album so-and-so", that's the reason why.

This is the very first release I ever bought from The Residents. Music has always been one of my passions, but just when I thought I had heard every style and genre, The Residents came into my life and turned my perceptions upside-down. They're incredibly weird and dissonant at a first listen, but once you aquire the taste...wow, you can't get enough.

There are a lot of highly talented musicians, thousands actually, in the recording industry today, posessing great gifts, skills, chops, senses of pitch, manual precision, on-tune voices, professionality ..... and we have to ask ourselves: just what are they doing with it?

Answer: pretty much what they've always done. The same as each other, with occasional attempts to do it better.

Then you have The Residents. No one knows who they are so much as what they are, a collective consciousness that produces recordings and media quite unlike anyone else. Their musical chops may not be the most highly competent, but that's not the point. The point is, once you've heard the music of The Residents, you don't forget it. They have created their own classification, one I like to call "Techno-Naiive", a very raw, phonetic, intuitive impression of the art we call "music", and have invited us to view it with all the wide-eyed wonderment of discovering it for the first time.

I haven't heard this collection, and don't really need to. Most of it I have on the albums the material is from. It seems to be a good sampling for the curious beginner - a first listening of any of their recordings should determine whether one loves or hates them. Imagine a small group of marginally talented performers producing the most determinedly disturbing recordings they can, unleashing them on an unsuspecting public, and doing it for nearly 30 years under a strict veil of anonymity, and you have The Residents. Imagine (if you can) the ultimate alternative to so-called "Alternative" music, and once again, you have The Residents.

When you are fed up with everything else .... thank God, you ALWAYS have The Residents. Help yourself to this appetizer, and if it digests well, go for the feast. Bon appetit!

i think its amazing. its great for any old residents fan or may also be a great beginning for new listeners. what i think i like most about it is that besides rare b sides and live recording, their albums are put into 'concentrated' forms, compressing whole albums into tracks that run around ten minutes each. definitly a great starting point, you get to hear what kind of stuff they have been doing all throughout their career.

The residents find themeselves 25 years in the making w/ this release. A collective work from the early seventies to the present. They work at breaking down standards of media uses and have been very important figures in the re-invention of music video, live theatre, and most recently cd-rom. The main thing I like about this band of eye-balled freaks is that their music has greatly improved with age. They are watching somewhere even now with their bulbous eye-balled heads!

This 25-year retrospective was my first exposure to The Residents other than two tracks on a sampler CD, and I was completely blown away by the depth, variety and darkness of their musical vision. Their uncanny ability to cover lighthearted tunes like "Jambalaya" and "Hit the Road Jack" and turn them into nightmares by retaining (and then disfiguring) a few key musical elements is only exceeded by the brilliant and horrible glimpses of the human psyche evident in their original compositions. Aside from rare lapses into melodrama, this music (and I use the word loosely) is very compelling if sometimes nerve-wracking. I plan on building a collection of their recordings. Note: Mariah Carey fans are unlikely to enjoy this collection (in fact I know Zappa fans who can't deal with it).

This stuff is absolutely SUBLIME!!!! We have a saying in Spanish: "Zapatero a su zapato" ("The shoemaker to his shoes") that applies to the marvelously underappreciated Residents... Radiohead should stick to their wonderfully challenging Rock 'N Roll and should leave the avant-garde deconstruction to people like The Residents. Don't buy "Kid A"...(see my review for that album)...BUY THIS, INSTEAD!!!

What's truly great about these two guys (for they are two guys), is that they are weird without being violent, angry, or in bad taste. What sets them apart from other weird-band wannabes is that once you get beyond the weirdness, it's really quite beautiful music. They aren't weird for weird sake. I listen to the Residents when I want to be rebellious and "apart", but still love life. Their music will survive the ages, while most other avant-garde pop will die out for not being musically satisfying.

It's been ten months since I bought this CD set, and I still listen to it weekly. Yes, I am the guy who used to sit in the unlit recording booth at my college radio station with Tubular Bells on the speakers, freaking out anybody who walked in, so you get an idea about my personal likes. This CD, however, still gets to me. It's disturbing, as the Residents are at their best. The concentrated versions of Gingerbread Man, Have a Bad Day and The Third Reich and Roll are enough to make me long for the full CDs, and if I have any regrets in the package, it's that there isn't music from The Mole Trilogy (uncompleted) and that Santa Dog (spoken about at great length in the liner notes) is not included. I also recommend the DVD Icky Flix by the Residents for a visual version of some of this Double CD. It's the kind of DVD I'd put on in the broadcast booth of a cable station and watch in the dark, creeping out anybody who happens to walk in.

If you are a fan of The Residents, as I am, this is an excellent compilation. If you want to meet The Residents, this might be the only compliation you'll ever need.

This is a great compilation of the Residents. It has in my opinion, a representation of a hit/s from everyone of their albums up to the point of this compilation. It includes 10 of the 1 minute jingles from the Commercial album. One of my favorites "SKINNY" from the album Duckstab is also here. Other standouts include "IT'S A MAN'S WORLD", "THIRD REICH AND ROLL", "WEED", and "CONSTANTINOPLE". The music is weird,fun,synth-laden and deconstructed 60's pop with a punk edge. The Residents sound like no other band and their the pioneers of this genere-whatever it may be called. I like how they've kept their anonimity with their eyeball heads/masks(on their later albums) and top hat and tails attire.