Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Commercial Album

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Released
  
October 1980

Producer
  
The Residents

Release date
  
October 1980

Length
  
42:12

Artist
  
The Residents

Label
  
Ralph Records

Commercial Album cdnpitchforkcomalbums6663d2637614jpg

Recorded
  
September 1979-October 1980

Commercial Album (1980)
  
Mark of the Mole (1981)

Genres
  
Rock music, Avant-garde, Experimental rock, Noise rock

Similar
  
The Residents albums, Avant-garde albums, Other albums

The residents commercial album 1980 full album


Commercial Album is an album released by The Residents in 1980. It is commonly considered a follow-up of Duck Stab/Buster & Glen. The album pares down the concept and structure of the average commercial pop song and reduces it to a one-minute redux. It contains a compilation of 40 such sixty-second vignettes. The album used several session musicians, including Chris Cutler, Snakefinger (who sings lead on many tracks) and Fred Frith as well as two anonymous guest vocalists, Lene Lovich ("Picnic Boy") and Andy Partridge ("Margaret Freeman").

Contents

The faces on the album cover are John Travolta and Barbra Streisand. The backside of the original LP labels listed the length as "1:00" after each of the 40 song titles. The first edition sleeve listed the tracks in the wrong order.

The liner notes state that songs should be repeated three times in a row to form a "pop song". The Residents purchased 40 one-minute advertising slots on San Francisco's most popular Top-40 radio station at the time, KFRC, such that the station played each track of their album over three days. This prompted an editorial in Billboard magazine questioning whether the act was art or advertising.

Track listing

All tracks written by The Residents except where noted

  1. "Easter Woman" – 1:03
  2. "Perfect Love" – 1:03
  3. "Picnic Boy" – 1:01
  4. "End of Home" – 1:04
  5. "Amber" – 1:02
  6. "Japanese Watercolor" – 1:02
  7. "Secrets" – 1:03
  8. "Die in Terror" – 1:03
  9. "Red Rider" – 1:02
  10. "My Second Wife" – 1:02
  11. "Floyd" – 1:03
  12. "Suburban Bathers" – 1:04
  13. "Dimples and Toes" – 1:03
  14. "The Nameless Souls" – 1:04
  15. "Love Leaks Out" – 1:04
  16. "Act of Being Polite" – 1:03
  17. "Medicine Man" – 1:04
  18. "Tragic Bells" – 1:03
  19. "Loss of Innocence" – 1:04
  20. "The Simple Song" – 1:02
  21. "Ups and Downs" – 1:04
  22. "Possessions" – 1:03
  23. "Give It to Someone Else" – 1:03
  24. "Phantom" – 1:04
  25. "Less Not More" – 1:03
  26. "My Work Is So Behind" – 1:04
  27. "Birds in the Trees" – 1:04
  28. "Handful of Desire" – 1:04
  29. "Moisture" – 1:04
  30. "Love Is..." – 1:03
  31. "Troubled Man" – 1:04
  32. "La La" – 1:04
  33. "Loneliness" – 1:04
  34. "Nice Old Man" – 1:04
  35. "The Talk of Creatures" – 1:04
  36. "Fingertips" – 1:04
  37. "In Between Dreams" – 1:03
  38. "Margaret Freeman" – 1:03
  39. "The Coming of the Crow" – 1:04
  40. "When We Were Young" – 1:02
  • Bonus Tracks (1988 CD release only)
    1. "Shut Up Shut Up"
    2. "And I Was Alone"
    3. "Theme for an American TV Show"
    4. "We're a Happy Family/Bali Ha'i" (The Ramones)
    5. "The Sleeper"
    6. "Boy in Love"
    7. "Diskomo (Remix)"
    8. "Jailhouse Rock" (Leiber/Stoller)
    9. "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (James Brown, Betty Jean Newsome)
    10. "Hit the Road Jack" (Percy Mayfield)

    Personnel

  • Chris Cutler – Drums
  • Fred Frith – Bass, Guitar
  • Phil "Snakefinger" Lithman – Guitar, Violin, Vocals (lead on tracks 12, 21, 27, 33, 35 and 36)
  • Lene Lovich - Vocals on "Picnic Boy"
  • Don Preston – Synthesizer
  • The Residents – Arrangers, Composers, Producers, Writers
  • Andy Partridge - Vocals, Guitar on "Margaret Freeman" (as Sandy Sandwich)

    • Songs

    1Easter Woman1:04
    2Perfect Love1:03
    3Picnic Boy1:01

    References

    Commercial Album Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA