The Residents — Doctor Dark

Doctor Dark is one of the most sonically contrasting / at points jarring records of The Residents fifty year career. It blends sad and swooning strings/piano keys, with blunt 'n' crude heavy metal, and a side order of electro beats, off-Broadway theatricality, mocked-up news reports, and twittering bird field recordings/uneasy ambience. Lyrical/theme-wise, the album blends 80’s heavy metal influenced shotgun suicide, and a creepy doctor involved in euthanasia. 

The album is the project's forty-seventh studio album- appearing five years after their last effort, Metal, Meat & Bone, which had a decidedly blues-influenced feel, though it was fed through with churning industrial elements, and off-kilter blends of electronics n’ guitars.

I’d say sonically, the closest comparison to Doctor Dark is the project’s 1998 album Wormwood- due to the fairly pronounced off-kilter musical/  theatrical feel, but then of course we have deeply contrasted moments of strings and guitars- so really this is another very distinctive/one-off album from a project who has a career full of them.

As with all of the projects' studio albums in recent years, the release appears as a joint release on Cherry Red, MVD Audio, and The Cryptic Corporation. It’s available as either a CD or a double vinyl release. I’m reviewing the latter of these- the CD comes presented in a mini gatefold, on its front we have a troubling painting of a shotgun firing, and the resulting damage on a human face- nose bridge flattened & open, few teeth mouth hole. Inside one side of the gatefold, we get pictures of the three key characters, and on the other side, six supporting characters. There’s a twenty-page black and white text-only booklet, which details the story of the album, as well as lyrics.   I must say I was a little underwhelmed by the packaging for this release, as the last few Residents albums have been released in a mini hardback form, with colour throughout, and I really feel that with this album's detailed & interweaving plot, this should have had similar treatment.

For the album, we have real strings, brass, and choir by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. This is blended with the project's normal mix of guitar, electronic elements, and varied vocal elements, though the highly distinctive vocals of the singing Resident are less present/ more modified.

The album, just like a play/theatrical production, is broken up into three acts, with repeated musical elements revisited throughout. Some of the sixteen tracks do( semi) stand on their own, but really and truly, you have to play it as one piece.

Instead of doing a lengthy act-by-act breakdown, I’ll mention some of my favourite moments over the albums.  The album opens with “Prelude/ Metal Madness” It begins with a blend of tranquil birdsong, rushing water, and a slow, swooning string melody. this starts to become darker/ droning before blunt’ n’ churning guitar tone comes in- this rather reminded me of the more metallic/ crude side of Naked Cities work- over this we have a male voice yelling over and over “I hate Them! They Hate Me!, I hate you too”. Before ending on a sudden grand string rise, a more subdued replay of the guitar riff, and a brief off-Broadway singing of the track's lyrics. 

Moving into the second act, we have “Remembering Mother”  which is largely set around lulling string swoon, gentle pluck and pick string topped with slowed/ slurred male sing-song vocals, though we do get sudden dense operatic-like rises. 
 

In act three, we have the most tracks- eight- these move from the building  “Survived” which starts off with creepy music box-like vibe tones moving on climbing orchestrion, layered vocal dramatic, all finished off with a moody performance from the singing Resident. With “The Gift We Keep Giving” we find a blend of jittering bird song, subtle electro beats/ambience, dramatic brass darts, layered choral vocals, and that eerier slowed male vocal singing. With the album playing out with “Take Me To The River” which is all slow march martial percussion, moody string & brass rises,  &layered/ dramatic choral vocals.

In finishing, I’d say you're going to have to enjoy the theatrical/soundtrack-like side of The Residents' output to fully enjoy what Doctor Dark has to offer us as an album. Yes, there are the crude guitar elements & more off-kilter musical elements you're used to, but they are not the key central focus here.