The Residents include: Don Jackovich, Sandy Sandwich, Mud's Sis, Laurie Amat, Jeanette Sartain, Olan Jones.
Includes 10 bonus tracks.
The conceptual framework for THE COMMERCIAL ALBUM is very straightforward. There are 40 songs, each one-minute long. The Residents have pointed out that, with the "fat" removed, most pop songs are only one minute long--identical in length to most commercial jingles. They have concluded that "jingles are the music of America" and have facetiously suggested that one need only program each of COMMERCIAL ALBUM's selections to repeat three times in order to convert these jingles into pop songs.
THE COMMERCIAL ALBUM's songs draw on The Residents' familiar arsenal of sing-songish melodies and synthesized backdrop landscapes. The vocals have been treated to lend them a disembodied presence. Guest vocalists include XTC's Andy Partridge (singing "Margaret Freeman") and Lene Lovich (singing "Picnic Boy"). The brevity of the pieces is not a distraction. Rather, the whole work plays like an alternate-universe version of a Top 40 Hit Parade.
Professional Reviews
Uncut (p.135) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[A] roiling, collective dystopian subconscious in which the conventional is suddenly uglified and life's traumatic eeriness is revealed."
