The Residents Commer-POLL Album

You forgot “End of Home”!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, voting “The Act of Being Polite”

"End of Home" is one of my favourites! I love this album and it's extremely hard to choose one track.

You forgot “End of Home”!!!!!!!!!

Guess I won't be getting that job!

My usual answer to this is "Act of Being Polite" but, just to be different, voted "Give It To Someone Else".

Leaning toward "Amber."

Went for "The Nameless Souls." Cool bass groove, and I like how the lyrics follow the notes, rather than the nursery rhyme cadence of many Residents tracks.

“Shut up, shut up” and “And I was alone” were extra tracks on the 7”

“We’re a happy family/Bali Hai” was their contribution to the “Miniatures” collection of one minute tracks, which gave them the idea of doing this.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

oh my god how did I miss this

my favorite Residents album by some margin, impossible

the closing tracks on each side are unimpeachably perfect

OK I voted

Listening to this again before the end-of-poll (sorry, fans) I was reminded of the Cage/Tudor Indeterminacy album: Cage's stories, like these songs, have to take up a minute each, so he speaks slowly or quickly as the timeframe requires. Accepting the one-minute discipline yields a lot of tracks caught in indecision or epiphany, touching on intimacies failed, fleeting, caught, dreaded, desired. At times, the lyrics sound like they were written independently of the music, the sentiments by turns more or less complete than the music. A saw hacks through the doomsaying vocal of "Love Is..." while the dance-if-you-want-to tune that frames it says so what do you make of THAT? Or that's what I hear, anyway: the Residents open up a cavern between quirk and despair, and what you see there is what you project, what you see in their eyes.

Although I'm approaching nice-old-man (DISSONANT HORROR CHORD DELIVERED TOO MUCH ON THE BEAT NOT TO REGISTER AS BRECHTIAN ENTFREMDUNGSEFFEKT) status, I retain vestiges of awkward teenage boydom, and these vote for beguiling pop hit "Moisture."

I've got Meet the Residents, Duck Stab and Eskimo; is this the only other "essential" for someone who enjoys but doesn't adore their music?

Not Available, probably The Third Reich 'n' Roll -- at least, I'd say you should hear them. (Third Reich 'n' Roll is a bit, um, heavy-handed? It hadn't aged that well the last time I listened to it. Or perhaps it's me aging, I dunno.)

I need to try again with Eskimo, actually.

My experience with Eskimo was "needing to try" with it over and over again, until I realized I'd memorized the whole thing.

Not Available is a must.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Dammit, forgot to vote and at least put “The Nameless Souls” on the scoreboard.

I voted for Simple Song, shoutout to whoever else did, guess I shoulda gone with "When We Were Young"

Many xps

You should prob check out God in Three Persons too.

The person who recommended Eskimo to mr was clearly thinking of Diskomo and I was kinda disappointed with it. The last track on it was the one that eventually drew me in, I listened to it every day at one time.

By the time I found out that Diskomo is actually a thing, I was pretty happy with Eskimo and now I need to try again with Diskomo.

I had the impression that God in Three Persons was "the big self-indulgent project that nobody liked"... which, admittedly, might put it in my wheelhouse.

That's the spirit!

"Kaw Liga" surprised me, basically its a Michael Jackson remix..

So, the "American Composers" series, yes.

Re: essential listening. Duck Stab/Buster & Glen, Eskimo, and Third Reich would be the top tier, for me. The Commercial Album and Mark of the Mole would be right behind them. Their discography is storied and complicated so a newcomer would do well to find a proper history of the group to see how the pieces fit together. The relationship between Mark of the Mole, Tunes of Two Cities, and The Big Bubble needs unpacking, for example.