(thing) by SansPoint Sat Jan 03 2004 at 2:46:21

The Residents, while working on Eskimo, had built up a bunch of ideas for songs. However, the pressing need to finish the current project, with which NONE of these ideas related forced them to be shelved until its completion. Therefore, after Eskimo's release, The Residents had a healthy dose of stuff to use for their next project.

The songs on The Commercial Album are all one minute in length. The concept is that pop music is mostly redundant. You can trim the three minute pop song down to one minute and still retain its meaning. Also, commercial jingles are one minute long. Commercials are the music of America, hence The Commercial Album, fourty one-minute pop songs.

The songs were actually recorded without regard to the time limit, and then edited down. Some of the tracks are quite impressive within the limit, especially Japanese Watercolor, Perfect Love, Loss Of Innocence, Moisture, and My Second Wife. Others could stand to be longer, but sacrifices must be made for concept.

In addition to the fourty songs on the album, the Residents recorded two more songs, And I Was Alone, and Shut Up, Shut Up!. These songs were cut from the album for being too mainstream, but were released on The Commercial Single, and were bonus tracks on the original East Side Digital CD Release.

The Residents made a series of videos for Moisture, Perfect Love, The Act Of Being Polite, and Simple Song called One Minute Movies. These videos, like all of The Residents video work, is part of the permanent collection at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City.

Of all of The Residents early work, The Commercial Album is possibly the most accessable. It serves as a good starting point for anyone curious as to The Residents style and sound.

Tracklist:

  1. Easter Woman
  2. Perfect Love
  3. Picnic Boy
  4. End Of Home
  5. Amber
  6. Japanese Watercolor
  7. Secrets
  8. Die In Terror
  9. Red Rider
  10. My Second Wife
  11. Floyd
  12. Suburban Bathers
  13. Dimples And Toes
  14. The Nameless Souls
  15. Love Leaks Out
  16. The Act Of Being Polite
  17. Medicine Man
  18. Tragic Bells
  19. Loss of Innocence
  20. Simple Song
  21. Ups and Downs
  22. Possessions
  23. Give It to Someone Else
  24. Phantom
  25. Less Not More
  26. My Work is So Behind
  27. Birds In The Trees
  28. Handful of Desire
  29. Moisture
  30. Love Is...
  31. Troubled Man
  32. La La
  33. Loneliness
  34. Nice Old Man
  35. The Talk of Creatures
  36. Fingertips
  37. In Between Dreams
  38. Margaret Freeman
  39. The Coming of the Crow
  40. When We Were Young

I like it!