"Mothers No More," the tenth track, gets things back on beat, with a hypnotic duet midway through the song. It utilizes an almost religious-like chanting. The slower, meditative music lazily meanders through the instrumental "Dreaming of an Anthill (Teeming.)"
"Elmer's Song" is one of the most innovative tracks featured on "Animal Lover." It starts off sounding like a slavery gospel song that might be sung in the fields with a hot sun beating on your neck. The solo is by a very Residents-esque character, with simply a bass and simple plucked guitar accompanying. See the hoes rise and fall in rhythm...
"Burn My Bones," track 15, wraps the album up with funky vocals, a long instrumental section, and a cool acoustic guitar duet reminiscent of Gastr Del Sol (a Jim O'Rourke project,) without quite reaching the frantic, abstract frenzy that I love about Gastr Del Sol.
The album's theme is sex, as observed by animals. The little blurb that came with the advance copy of the cd reads:
Animal Lover... relates directly to "animal love." The result is an imaginative CD whose rhythm tracks are based entirely on animal noise mating patterns generated primarily by cicadas and frogs. Also, the actual sounds of mating whales and humans were used for longer tonal passages. (They weren't making with each other, by the way.)
From listening to the album I couldn't tell. I never heard any sex, and the lyrics weren't distinguishable without a lyric sheet. The full release should have the lyrics with it (in addition to other goodies!) so you can follow along. I definitely recommend this CD for all Residents fans, especially the ones who gave up after the fourth installment of the Mole Trilogy.
*"Residue" was originally released in 1982, however, the version I have is "Residue Duex" which is all of "Residue" with the addition of 11 tracks. This was released in 1998. Being a Residents fan, I didn't want the discrepancy to go unmentioned.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mark Saleski
cool stuff theory.
i've only got one Residents cd (Cube-E Live, i think) and have always wanted to fill in some holes.
recommendations?
2 - Eric Olsen
huge fan of their seemingly endless stream of weirdness - check out our interview with spokesman Homer here
3 - The Theory
Mark... if you can pick up Fingerprince or Duck Stab at a good price (either Amazon's used option or ebay) either one of them would be, I think, a good place to start.
eric- sorry I didn't post the Amazon ASINs... but i was doing this at, like, 2:30am and forgot with the innitial posting. Then when I checked the article on the site I noticed that I forgot them... but my computer crashed and I said "to heck with it" and went to bed. I was going to fix that today.
4 - The Theory
oh, Mark, and Commerical Album is readily available these days thanks to the 25th Anniversary edition... that's also a good one.
5 - ClubhouseCancer
Theory's recommendations are great places to start.
I also think you could get a cool viewpoint of these guys by buying the new one first and then going back to the ones the theoretical one theorizes are best.
I looove Animal Lover. The first four songs are, like Theory says, a kind of Residents demi-glace, like a sort of summation of a lot of what they do condensed into just a little portion. Theory, do you hear a sort of "summing up" quality to this album, like a purposeful looking backward?
I sort of do, but I doubt myself, because this idea seems so antithetical to their aesthetic.
Great job on the review, too.
6 - ClubhouseCancer
PS: If we're taking a survey, my favorites are Eskimo and Meet the Rs.
7 - Eric Olsen
very early on, those - I love the queasiness of FReak Show
8 - ClubhouseCancer
Me too. I'm higher on Mark of the Mole than Theory, I think, also.
9 - Mark Saleski
if you guys don't cut it out i'm gonna haveta buy every danged record they ever put out!
10 - ClubhouseCancer
Or you can steal them!
Wait, that's another thread....
You'll like these guys, Mark, I'll predict.
11 - Mark Saleski
yep, we'll see...
12 - Eric Olsen
there's a 25 anniversary collection out too, maybe start there?
13 - Mark Saleski
i dunno, i'm not too fond of collections.
i like to hear stuff in it's original context.
14 - ClubhouseCancer
I'll save you the keystrokes, EO.
"I love greatest hits albums!
Sincerely,
Eric"
15 - Eric Olsen
some I do, some I don't - context can be everything or nothing - snatch the pebble glasshopper
16 - Mark Saleski
it's everything, dammit.
17 - Eric Olsen
I don't want to listen to five albums by some group that have one or two good songs on each when I can listen to a hits collection that collects them all - hence the name
18 - Mark Saleski
sure, but how do you know that the other songs aren't 'good'?
one of the few collections i have is Tom Waits' "Used Songs", and the only reason i got that was because i unpacked my stuff after arriving on vacation and realized i'd neglected to pack any Waits cds.
two weeks with no Tom Waits? i don' think so.
19 - Eric Olsen
the hits collections almost always come out after the original albums the songs were on
20 - The Theory
Wow, quite the convo sprang up since I was last on. Letssee...
Re: CC's comment on #5... I think that rather than calling Animal Lover a look back, or a summing up, I think it manages to masterfully cull (a seperation of the wheat from the chaff) what The Residents do best and make it into a cohesive album. If they were trying to look back I suspect that it would sound very forced and end up as ultimately disappointing as Demons Dance Alone.
re: EO's comment #7... Freak Show was the first one (along with Duck Stab and Cube E) I bought... it was used and I was intrigued. Definately ranks up there. I'm also fond of the often ignored (but simular) Gingerbread Man. I love how haunting that melody can be... especially when twisted and repeated to almost a Philip Glass-ian extent.
re: MS's comment #9... doubtful you could do that, even if you wanted to. I've been working on it... and I'm still nine (more or less...) shy of the regular releases... and that's ignoring the undistributed, website/fan club releases.
The one I really want is High Horses, an EP released a number of years back through the website. Only 15 minutes long, it's carosel music, Rez style. Apperantly it has a very 3D effect. The only copy I saw on ebay went for $100+... not something I can spend on 15 minutes of music. haha.
21 - Temple Stark
TT,
I moved this up and over to Advance.net, which includes these places.
Potentially read by hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Thank you for the post. - Temple Stark
22 - Deanna Szuter
I have 99% of all thier releases. All the regular releases. Only shy the first single release and a couple others. I've been a fan for 22 years, and love ALL the releases!!! I can only pray to see them live one more time in my life. You've not seen anything until you have seen them live.
23 - The Theory
well then I officially hate you... just like I hate everyone who has seen them live.
24 - The Theory
;-)
(yeah!)
25 - Malai
Well, I do not think that "My Window" is a bad track. For more sensitive listeners it is a gorgeous track. I don't need too much experimenting any more since I went through a lot of it in the past. Slow, deep, sensitive is not equal to boring, but many people think so, especially those who are in a hurry all the time and need fast, mellow music. Try to listen to e.g. Kancheli's works if you will be able to concentrate in for such a long time. Then you will probably change your attitude to slower tracks by The Residents. All the best! M.