The Residents - Commercial Album (1980) | Zero G Sounds

The Residents - Commercial Album (1980)

Commercial Album is the seventh studio album released by art rock group the Residents in 1980. It is commonly considered a follow-up to their 1978 album Duck Stab/Buster & Glen, in that it retains the former album's pop-oriented song structures. The album contains 40 songs, each lasting exactly one minute - a deliberate allusion to Top 40 mainstream radio. The album's liner notes state that, to form a complete pop song, tracks from the album should be played three times in a row.

"Here's the concept: The structure of most pop songs consists of only two parts, the verse and the chorus. Since the verse and chorus usually repeat three times in a three-minute song, a pop tune really only consists of one minute of music. Cut out the repetition and you can, therefore, fit 40 pop songs onto a 40-minute record. And that's exactly what the Residents have done on The Commercial Album, the title of which comes from the band's deduction that since pop songs only consist of one minute of music and most advertisements are about a minute long also, ad jingles are "therefore the music of America." Got it? Whatever the concept behind it, this album is not only weird in that special way that only Residents albums are, but it's also surprisingly musically satisfying. A few of its 40 tracks ("Secrets" and "The Simple Song," for example) feel like throwaways, but most of them are surprisingly well organized and complete. The instrumental "Japanese Watercolor" is particularly impressive, as are the songs "Picnic Boy" and "Troubled Man." This album would make a great introduction to the Residents for anyone who hasn't yet been exposed to the band's unique brand of whimsy." - allmusic.com

Tracklist:

Easter Woman 1:00
Perfect Love 1:00
Picnic Boy 1:00
End Of Home 1:00
Amber 1:00
Japanese Watercolor 1:00
Secrets 1:00
Die In Terror 1:00
Red Rider 1:00
My Second Wife 1:00
Floyd 1:00
Suburban Bathers 1:00
Dimples And Toes 1:00
The Nameless Souls 1:00
Love Leaks Out 1:00
Act Of Being Polite 1:00
Medicine Man 1:00
Tragic Bells 1:00
Loss Of Innocence 1:00
The Simple Song 1:00
Ups And Downs 1:00
Possessions 1:00
Give It To Someone Else 1:00
Phantom 1:00
Less Not More 1:00
My Work Is So Behind 1:00
Birds In The Trees 1:00
Handfull Of Desire 1:00
Moisture 1:00
Love Is... 1:00
Troubled Man 1:00
La La 1:00
Loneliness 1:00
Nice Old Man 1:00
The Talk Of Creatures 1:00
Fingertips 1:00
In Between Dreams 1:00
Margaret Freeman 1:00
The Coming Of The Crow 1:00
When We Were Young 1:00

(plus bonus tracks)

I used to love these guys!