The Residents — The Commercial Album (Preserved Edition)
The Commercial Album was the 7th full-length album from the collective, and it appearing in October 1980. The original release offered up forty-one-minute tracks, which highlighting of the collectives often playful relationship with pop music, and their general fascination with the creating of different music genres & how to skewing them. The album saw the project creating their own crazed Top 40, or strange collection of one-minute jingle- the music for commercials from another world. The releases forty tracks darted between quirky avant pop, new wave oddness, strange theatrical numbers, off-kilter synth pop miniatures, and bizarre mood pieces- all to create an album quite unlike anything they’d released before or since.
For the creation of The Commercial Album the collective brought in a few collaborators- taking in the likes of Chris Cutler( Henry Cow & Art Bears) Fred Frith( Naked City, Henry Cow, and Masscure) Lene Lovich, & Andy Partridge( XTC). Along with long term collaborator Snakefinger. These additions add to the wider & shifting canvas of the albums unfold, yet never dilute the whole distinctive Resident quality of the release. Yes, due to the one-minute playtime of each track & their often traditional harmonic themes/ structure- much of the album's runtime is decidedly approachable/ commercial by the band's output, but though-out keeping a keen weave of oddness & off-kilter-ness present.
For this new double CD release of the album- we get a most effective new remix/ remastering from Scott Colburn- who has really managed to bring out subtle instrumental detail, quirky layers of production, and an overall more balanced sound.
On the first disc the albums original forty tracks, these are added to by another twelve unreleased tracks- these take in a selection of eight more one tracks, that I’m presuming where left over from the album, and or slightly different takes- these move from the snapping & darting nursey rhyme jaunting electronica of "Kraftwerk", onto electro wonky big-band meets strange ethic chanting of "Pretty Baby", through to manic swarming electro vibe swim of "Unused". The other four tracks are either B sides, longer variations of album tracks, or radio ads.
On the second disc, we get twenty-four tracks and a total playtime of forty-four-minutes- these are largely made up of live versions of album tracks from 1986, later versions from the bands Icky Flix project, and more recent live playings of the album. But we do also get four rehearsal tracks- which are really the treasure of this second disc- as it shows the collective wonderful twisting & trying out different things with in the album tracks. As any Resident fan knows when the collective do cover/ re-do their own work it’s often drastically different from what it was before, and that’s the same with the live tracks here- so as a whole the second disc is a worthy & varied ride all on its own.
As with all of the releases in Preserved series the two CD’s come in a mini six-panel gatefold- which feature a twenty-one-page colour inlay booklet, this takes in a new five-page write-up about the album from Jim Knipfel. A host of pictures, press clipping, etc, along with a write-up about the unreleased & live versions of album tracks we have here.
The Commercial Album has always stood as one of the easier in- routes into the highly distinctive & often challenging back catalogue of The Residents- and this new edition really does the album proud offering up a most effective new mix, a great selection of rare stuff, and an interesting/ informative booklet- all meaning that this is a must buy item for both newbies’s to the project, and long term followers alike.