| Track by Track Review
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1
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DEMONS DANCE ALONE
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Tongue I
Trippy, space, effects laden sounds are on the menu to get us started. A spoken section comes over the top of this ambient tapestry. |
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Mr. Wonderful
This comes in with a real jazzy vibe and groove. I like the nearly mainstream vocal arrangement on this. The whole track has a lot more of a "normal" vibe than a lot of Residents music does .Of course, it still has enough of their odd vibes to keep it interesting. I love this song. |
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The Weatherman
There is a playful vibe and groove to this tune. It's another that is more mainstream in nature. It does have some jazz, and it has enough weirdness to make it recognizable as The Residents. |
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Ghost Child
Understated and a little suitably spooky, this oozes weird cool. There are some oddly processed voices to convey the paranormal along with some more standard Residents vocals. |
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Caring
A bouncy tune with more of an electronic pop sound gets this going. Of course, it's The Residents, so you know it has some weirdness at play. Some harder rocking things show up as it continues to work forward. |
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Honey Bear
I like the energy and musical textures on this. It has pop rock in the mix along with prog and some definite Residents leanings. |
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The Car Thief
A mellower, more mainstream sound is at play here. If you pay attention to the lyrics, though, that's where the weirdness on this comes in. Those lyrics contrast with the music in a great way. |
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Neediness
There is a playful vibe to this. It's a fun piece that still has plenty of strangeness at its core. It's perhaps not quite as mainstream as some of the rest here. It is every bit as compelling. |
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Tongue II
There is a bit of an unusual musical opening here. Then we get into weird sound effects with spoken vocals over the top. |
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Thundering Skies
Playful and melodic keyboard elements get this underway with hints of world music. The track works out to more stranger stuff as it continues, but it's still a lot of fun. This instrumental is also intriguing. |
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Mickey Macaroni
A little on the noisier side, this is stranger, but still oddly accessible. It's has a cool groove. |
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Betty's Body
This is much more of a rocking tune. It's also trademark Residents. This is more dynamic and stranger that the stuff we've heard to this point. It gets pretty insane.
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My Brother Paul
This has a playful groove to it. The lyrics are weird, and there are plenty of Residents oddities built into the track. |
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Baja
I love the bass work on this tune. It's the main thing here, some of the time, though. There are hints of Frank Zappa music on this. This has some intriguing shifts and changes, but they are largely over the top. It even turns a little metallic at times. This instrumental is cool stuff. |
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Tongue III
With something that sounds like it happens in a club at the start, this drops to weird spacey effects for the entrance of the spoken vocals on this part. |
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The Beekeeper's Daughter
Bass is prominent as this gets going. The groove at the heart of this has electronic music and more Zappa in the mix. |
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Wolverines
I dig the bouncy Residents groove on this tune. This is tastefully strange and also so cool. |
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Make Me Moo
Suitably we get mooing at the beginning of this. The track works out to bouncy electronic stuff with vocals that sound like a child. |
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Tongue IV
More trippy effects-laden stuff is in the background for the vocal part. This is much like the other parts of "Tongue." |
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Demons Dance Alone
Another that manages to balance more mainstream music with cool Residents styled weirdness. I like this track a lot. |
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BONUS TRACKS
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Sleepwalker
There is a cool, jazz meets prog meets electronic groove at the heart of this piece. |
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Hidden Hand
This is weird in a fun and bouncy way. It's also trademark Residents. |
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Vampire
Tastefully freaky and dynamic, this track is so cool. |
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Tortured
Dramatic weirdness with symphonic and electronic vibes, this is the definition of art music. |
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The Golden Goat
I love the cool proggy sound that gets us underway here. This has some pretty freaky moments and some killer guitar work later. |
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2
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DEMOS DANCE ALONE
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DRIve (Honey)
I like this Residents groove a lot. |
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KLEnex
Bouncy and fun, there are some cool classical things at play in some ways along with plenty of electronic sound. |
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COLlera
This has a fun groove to it. It's another entertaining Residents instrumental. |
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JASmine (Paul)
I love the bass sound on this thing. The track has some great melodies and energy, too. |
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A Miracle (Betty)
This rocking tune works really well. |
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Tortured ENK84
Bouncy and playful sounds are on the menu here. This is keyboard based and intriguing. |
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Mr. Wonderful (Demo)
Here we get more Residents magic. |
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Ghost Child (Demo)
This is less spooky than the version on the main album, but it's no less effective. |
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Caring (Demo)
I really like this tune a lot. It's more mainstream and has a lot of jazz in the mix. |
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Honey Bear (Demo)
This has an intriguing slow groove to it. It's trademark Residents, artsy, weird and so cool. |
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The Car Thief (Demo)
Very different from the version on the main album, this has a lot of cool Residents style and charm within. I definitely prefer the other version, but this one is cool, too. |
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Neediness (Demo)
Slow moving weirdness is on the menu here. It turns faster and more insistent further down the road. |
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Mickey Macaroni (Demo)
Driving, freaky Residents weirdness is on the menu here. This is fun. |
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Betty's Body (Demo)
This is dynamic, tastefully weird and very cool. It's trademark Residents. I love the jazzy groove later. |
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The Beekeeper's Daughter (Demo)
I really love the keyboard sounds on this. The track has so much magic. I might even like this more than the other version. |
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Wolverines (Demo)
The keyboards on this are great. So are the jazzy textures. |
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Demons Dance Alone (Demo)
With a parental advisory, this is bouncy, weird and artsy. |
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Sleepwalker (Demo)
The keyboards on this are great. The tune has a cool groove and some weirdness at play. |
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Love Song Of A Vampire (Demo)
I like the playful vibe on this a lot. It's another winner. It has some great weirdness at play. |
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Tortured In The Orchard (Demo)
More rhythm centric, there are some elements that call to mind symphonic music. This is suitably strange. It does get more symphonic further down the road. |
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The Golden Goat (Remix)
This is so weird sounding. It has some dance elements, but also weird pitch warping. |
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Vampire (Alternate)
I really like this version a lot. It's trademark Residents. It's also very strong. In fact, I might prefer this version. |
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The Weatherman (Radio Thoreau)
I think I prefer this version of this track. It has this cool old-school music interlude and plenty of other magic in the mix. |
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Wolverines (Radio Thoreau)
Again, I think I like this version better. It feels a little more organic, but there is some electronic jazzy textured stuff, too. It just feels even more Residents like to me. |
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3
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DEMONS DANCE ALIVE
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Pickle
Pounding in percussive, this works out to some seriously strange stuff. This is definitely art music. It has a lot of jazz in the mix, but there are plenty of other things here, too. It turns electronic for a time, but then some killer guitar that makes me think of modern King Crimson screams out. The track keeps shifting and evolving. It is built around a lot of weirdness. |
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Betty's Body (Demons Live)
I really love the tentative rocking sound as this gets going. It builds out to a filled out arrangement. This is trademark Residents. It gets pretty intense before it's over. |
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Caring (Demons Live)
This features a duet. It has a somewhat more stripped back instrumental arrangement. It also features some killer guitar soloing, though. This piece is definitely Residents, but it's a little bit of a change from the previous tunes. I like this so much. |
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My Brother Paul (Demons Live)
I like the sort of swaying energy on this song a lot. It's another that's a little more stripped back. It's decidedly Residents craziness, though. It also includes some great bass and guitar sounds. |
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The Car Thief (Demons Live)
Bass guitar and world music create the instrumental tapestry to this track. The vocals female The track gets more driving later. This live version of the number works pretty well. It feels a little more mainstream than anything else we've heard so far on this third disc. |
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Honey Bear (Demons Live)
More driving and intense, this still has all the magic you expect from this group of artists. |
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Neediness (Demons Live)
This starts with a balladic mode that still manages to be odd. It grows out to more intense stuff, but takes a turn toward jazzy territory at one point. |
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Wonderful Betty (WWW Rehearsal)
Jazzy and freaky sounds merge on this classy cut. Of course, at nearly ten-minutes long this is an epic, so it does grow and evolve from its origins. It turns percussive and trippy further down the road. Then it gets hard-edged with some killer slow rock at its heart. The song continues to change, getting seriously crazy and bizarre as it works onward. |
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Demons Dance Alone (Talking Light Rehearsal)
The tuned percussion on this and heavy weirdness work really well. This is freaky cool. |
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Honey Bear (Talking Light WIP)
Percussive and weirdly cool early, this is a tasty piece of music. It has some mellower modes at times. It's electronic a lot of the time, but also has some jazzy and space music based moments. |
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Sleepwalker (Teenager)
This is more energetic and rocking. It has some space rock vibes at play, though. This also has some decidedly proggy things at play. |
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My Brother Paul (WOW Studio)
Largely percussive, this is very cool in a trippy kind of Residents way. |
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Honey Bear (WOW London)
Tasty guitar brings this in. The cut works out with some freaky weirdness as it continues. This is slow moving and so psychotic. It's another classy piece of music. |
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Betty's Body (Shadowland Studio)
More driving and blatantly proggy, this works well. It's perhaps a little more mainstream that some of the others are. |
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Caring (Shadowland Studio)
There is almost a jazzy groove to this. The lyrics are freaky, but the music is on the oddly cheery side. |
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Make Me Moo (Shadow Sketch)
This is seriously strange. The lead vocals are very spoofy, while the music is driving and tasty. The track is one of the strangest things here, and that says a lot. |
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Mickey Macaroni (Shadowland)
More cool, edgy rocking art music is on the menu here. It's tastefully strange and trademark Residents.
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