Artist: Album (label, release date) 1-5 stars
The Residents: The Third Reich 'n' Roll (Mute U.S., October 4, 2005) ****
Zero 7: AnotherLateNight (AnotherLateNight, October 4, 2005) ****
Pentangle: Sweet Child (Castle Magic UK, October 4, 2005) ****
Tyrannosaurus Rex: My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows (Universal International, October 4, 2005) ****
The Residents: The Third Reich 'n' Roll
This is a title that one may draw instant conclusions from, especially when coupled at first listen to the cacophony of demolition going on as well as the album art. Also uninviting is the fact that the album is comprised of two side-long songs with the titles "Swastikas on Parade" and "Hitler Was A Vegetarian". But no, this isn't xenophobic punk rock run amok; far from it. Who are the Residents? Nobody knows for sure; the band, now in its 4th decade, has never revealed their identities beyond the inner sanctum of the Cryptic Connection, the band's representational wing. They are a San Francisco based group of avant-garde dadaist mixed media performance artists who have released mountains of strange, experimental, anonymous music since 1974. Third Reich and Roll, their third album, appeared in 1976 and was accompanied by a single performance, in Berkeley, where the band performed behind a screen wrapped like mummies. As for the concept at work here, we have literally dozens of pop classics strung together and overlapped, being deconstructed and destroyed in an abrasive, fascist orgy of frightening vocals and instrumentation that sounds like Martin Denny, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Sun Ra, and John Cage tripping out together. It's a tough and challenging listen by any standards, and the unease one feels as the parade of warped, twisted pop ditties march by grows more discomfiting as each old tune, all of which had once been friends, reveals itself in a new ugly light. But it is an interesting and even fun listen nonetheless; and picking out the song fragments can take up a bizarro afternoon. When the expereince is over, you'll never hear music quite the same way again, and you might feel a little self-conscious the next time you sing along with a meaningless ditty on the car stereo. What did the Residents intend by this epic? You'll have to ask them.
Article comments
1 - The Theory
"The Third Reich N Roll" is not my favorite Residents album... mainly because I am young and am unfamiliar with many of the songs they deconstructed. They should release a "Third Rock N Roll" compilation as a companion that has all of the songs in their original form. That would be awesome.